I think it's because his championship-winning season was measured against Michael Schumacher's choice to go to Ferrari, having a rookie teammate, and Benetton making a car that was a bit unwieldy. And I think a lot of his title gets unfairly besmirched by Villeneuve's star fading out a few months after handing over the lead to Mika Hakkinen...
Button, maybe, but I actually think Damon Hill doesn't get enough credit.
I'll qualify what I mean by this. It's lengthy.
And in order to qualify it, you have to understand what it's like having the
British English media on your case if you're seen as the country's only hope. Anybody from our islands (Britain or Ireland) who is into soccer will know just how much pressure is put on, for example, the England national football team. The media will laud them as the greatest athletes to ever oxygenate blood on a continuous, seemingly
daily basis.... right up until they lose. Then, it's nothing but savagery about not being good enough and the reverse hubris from the newspapers for never being at fault for the pressure lumped on the team; it's never acknowledged. They like to build you up, but they
love bringing you down twice as much.
The same applies to Formula One. Younger fans might not appreciate the background I've given because Lewis Hamilton is a four-time world champion and objectively one of the best drivers of all time. It's the whole issue of being "Britain's no.1 F1 driver", like being "Britain's no.1 tennis player" and I'm sure it applies to other countries as well. After Damon Hill retired (don't worry, I'm getting to him) David Coulthard took the crown of "Britain's hope". And really, in the Schumacher era where 8-9 teams needn't have bothered turning up anyway, he only really challenged for the title once in 2001. But he
had to win, the newspapers and television said so. He's Britain's best driver so he
must win. Much like Andy Murray, Coulthard was British when he won and Scottish when he lost; I remember some distinctly harsh articles on Coulthard in the early 2000s when his no.1 status at McLaren was fading and when he wasn't magically winning every championship.
So Damon Hill.
He
debuted in Formula One aged
thirty-two and, unfortunately for him, at a time when the great British hope of Nigel Mansell was retiring and the other British drivers such as Herbert, Brundle and Blundell were midfield runners. MansellMania was over and there wasn't anything to replace it. But Hill got called up to Williams, he was their test driver after all, and became Britain's number one driver in 1993 when he was:
a) thirty-three years old
b) extremely inexperienced in Formula One
But he did well, to be fair. He was in the winning team and won three races in a row that year.
Then 1994 happened. Not only is Hill Britain's number one driver on a crest of a wave, generating the media pressure I talked about, but then Ayrton Senna dies. In a Williams. Hill suddenly finds himself an inexperienced team leader in only his second full season of Formula One at the age of 34 and not just of any team but the best British team at that point in time. He is also the son of a former World Champion, the popular Graham Hill.
England Expects.
He didn't win in 1994 and was cheated out of that title by THAT BLOODY GERMAN!!! DO THEY WANT A THIRD DEFEAT BY THE TOMMIES?
At least the press had someone to blame for him not winning.
In 1995 he was a heavy favourite for the title but Williams found it difficult to compete with Benetton in equal engines and Hill made many uncharacteristic errors leading to retirements (Britain, Germany and Italy). Pressure getting to him? Yes, it's only natural but I argue that media pressure was just as great as the natural pressure of a driver gunning for the title. Whereas he lost the 1994 championship by a point, he was 34 points behind in 1995. But two years not winning the title, he
is Britain's number one of course, at least to him being featured in an admittedly funny advert where
"Hill finishes second! Again!". They also did this advert with the "loser" of England's Euro 96 penalty shootout, Gareth Southgate.
But anyway, all this leads to 1996. Two years being under the media scrutiny, two years actually getting used to Formula One as a thirtysomething debutant, quite frankly it cannot have been easy. And then it's well known during a season where Hill has by far the most superior car that the team is actively not renewing his contract. Imagine that! You're winning races and leading the title but the team say "Yeah, we're not going to retain you." Instead the team is focusing on the new number two, the hot new thing. Damon is old news in F1 circles. Yet he keeps his cool and wins the title. And Pizza Hut made up for it with
a great second advert if only for Murray Walker outtakes;
"we knew you'd do it in the end". Charming.
Blah, blah, Arrows, blah, blah Jordan. He did what he could in those two seasons. And the press were
very kind to "Damon Nil" when he was struggling with Arrows bloody Yamaha. Rumour has it that Hill declined an offer from McLaren to partner Mika Häkkinen because as a former, and recent, world champion he didn't want to be a number two. Who knows how it might have been had he been driving
those McLarens?
But anyway, given all that I'm not surprised he became fatigued in 1999; naturally as an aging driver but equally so escaping the clutches of the gutter press and the circus that goes with it.
tl;dr
a) He debuted at thirty two
b) He was suddenly team leader of Britain's best team as Britain's best driver with little experience
c) He finished runner-up twice
d) The English press is trash
e) His own team publicly dismissed him
during his title-winning year
f) Oh, did I mention that he's also the son of a former World Champion?
Credit where credit is due. Even if he hadn't won a title, he did extremely well given the circumstances.
