Damon Hill - 1996 World Champion

Wow! What a finalé to the 1996 season. The championship goes to the final race. I'm sure I'm not the only one to welcome this, and also to welcome the way Damon raced, despite only needing a single point to guarantee himself the championship. To go out from the beginning and take the lead, never relinquishing it until the chequered flag certainly took some guts. If things had gone wrong, a start-line incident could easily have robbed him of the championship.

Once in the lead Damon drove a very tactical race, keeping the gap to second place static at around 5 seconds. There was no sense in trying to pull out a big lead, only to cause a problem either due to a mistake or a failure on the car.

Am I the only one with the slightly cynical view that Jacques Villeneuve was accidentally given the wrong wheel sometime during the race? Having said that, I think it's a credit to the Williams team that both drivers were given spare cars for the meeting, in case of trouble.

So, next year the Number 1 car will be a TWR Arrows, driven by Damon Hill. What can we expect from the combination? Personally, I can't see them being all that special, but then, I thought that about the Schumacher - Ferrari partnership this season, and they have been relatively strong. Let's hope that the combination of Tom Walkinshaw and Damon Hill can turn the team round, and lead to some success, perhaps in the second half of the season.

Another nice surprise was the post race press conference. I could hardly believe my ears when Michael said, "I have to congratulate Damon, he deserves it". Certainly a change from the usual regard with which he views Damon. Another nice touch was the reported salute from the pit wall given by his team mate Jacques as he took the chequered flag. It's nice to see sportsmanship still exists within the Formula 1 world.

So, it's now the close season, and we have to wait until Melbourne for the first Grand Prix of 1997. Damon is with a new team, Schumacher's brother joins Jordan, and the coverage of Formula 1 moves to ITV. Should be an interesting season!

Congratulations Damon!

Last updated: 09 January 2001