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Graham Hill won the F1 world championship (twice) and both the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Indy 500. With Son Damon Hill, they are the only father and son to have to have both won the Formula One World Championship. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| He came into Formula 1 by means of initially being a mechanic for Lotus, having had an engineering background as an Artificer in the Royal Navy and then with Smiths Instruments. He only passed his driving test at the age of 24, so was a relative late starter when he took part in his first race (in a Cooper 500 F3 car) a year later. On joining Lotus Hill quickly talked his way into the cockpit and made his debut at the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix, retiring with halfshaft failure.In 1960, Hill joined BRM, and won the world championship with them in 1962. Hill was also part of the so-called ‘British invasion’ of drivers and cars in the Indianapolis 500 during the mid-1960s, triumphing there in 1966 in a Lola-Ford.Hill won his first title for BRM in 1962, and had to wait six years for his second – when, with his 40th birthday approaching, he carried the Lotus team through the dark days following the death of Clark in a Formula 2 race early in the year.But he also came close to the title in 1964, narrowly losing out to Surtees at the final race of the season after Ferrari’s Lorenzo Bandini let his English team-mate by into the second place he needed to pass Hill’s points total.In between, Hill carved a reputation as ‘Mr Monaco’, the most glamorous name in the sport appropriately making its most glamorous event his own, with five wins in seven years on the unforgiving streets of the Principality. Among those victories, only surpassed by Ayrton Senna, was the one Hill himself classed the best drive of his career – in 1965, when he recovered to win from 34 seconds behind after taking to the escape road at the chicane to avoid hitting another car.
After his second title, Hill won only once more in F1 – fittingly, in Monaco in 1969. At the end of that season he broke his legs badly in a violent crash caused by a tyre failure in the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in a Motor Racing Developments Brabham BT37. He was never the same driver again – although he did win Le Mans in 1972 in a Matra Simca MS670, co-driving with Henri Pescarolo. Hill decided to leave Brabham and start his own team, Embassy Racing with Graham Hill. Hill started operating the team with cars purchased from Shadow. After failing to qualify at the 1975 Monaco Grand Prix, a race he had won five times, Hill decided to retire from driving. On the evening of 29 November 1975 Graham Hill was piloting a Piper Aztec light aircraft from France to London. On board were 5 other members of the team. Coming in to land, the plane hit trees beside a golf course in thick fog. In the ensuing crash and explosion everyone on board was killed. As the team now only consisted of the deputy team manager and two mechanics it was impossible to continue and the team folded. Graham Hill 1929-1975 1958 – runs 4th on his debut in Monaco 1962 – wins the title for BRM, including victories in Holland, Germany, Italy and South Africa 1964 – narrowly loses out on title in Mexico after being punted out by Bandini’s Ferrari 1966 – wins Indianapolis 500 1967 – rejoins Lotus 1968 – wins title after Clark’s death 1969 – bad crash at Watkins Glen, breaks both legs 1973 – sets up own team 1975 – aeroplane crash at Elstree golf course kills him and Tony Brise
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Graham Hill
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