DAMON HILL: ALAIN PROST, AYRTON SENNA, NIGEL MANSELL – I WANTED TO BE TESTED AGAINST THE VERY BEST
Motorsport News found Damon Hill in a philosophical mood. The 1996 world beater and now Sky F1 pundit has had plenty of time to reflect during lockdown, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t chomping at the bit for the season to get going.
While we are all on hiatus, the former Brabham, Williams, Arrows and Jordan racer tackled a series of questions from Motorsport News readers and took his time to give the fullest answers he could, for which we are grateful.
Tackling tricky situations is something that he had become used to through his motorsport career. Nothing came easily for the son of two-time champion Graham. That was evident from his earliest days in motorsport and was crowned by his battle to overcome Michael Schumacher, which was one of the narratives of Formula 1 in the 1990s.
He did prevail, but then walked away from the cockpit for good in 1999. For Damon, there was no sojourn at Le Mans or in any other series, Once the famous London Rowing Club colours on his crash helmet had been hung up, that was it. That was a bold decision and one that hasn’t been possible for a lot of Hill’s contemporaries, but it goes to show the clear decision-making and bigger view of the world that the former British Racing Drivers’ Club president has made his hallmark.
Here, he gets to grips with his latest challenge: a grilling from MN readers.
Question: “Eric van der Poele, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, David Coulthard, Nigel Mansell, Jacques Villeneuve, Pedro Diniz, Ralf Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Who was the fastest team-mate? Who was the most underrated? Who was the most fun? Who would you choose as your team-mate if you raced again?
“Fastest has to beAyrton Senna. Every time he got in the car, he was terrifyingly quick and he simply didn’t know the meaning of ‘slightly slower’.” When you heard Senna was coming to Williams did you roll your eyes? You’d just got rid ofAlain Prost, and then you had coming in… “I took the view that I knew I was very lucky to
