Damon Hill Interview | Beyond The Grid | Official F1 Podcast 

Impersonations: 25:10 - Frank Williams, 28:38 - Alain Prost, 51:54 - Eddie Jordan.

My favourite F1 driver! He achieved great success against all odds. A man I can truly look up to.

Damon Hill is the epitome of a sportsman and gentleman. One of my favorite F1 drivers not only for his driving but his attitude, honesty and down to earth personality. Both Adrian Newey and Alain Prost talk about how under rated Hill is as a driver.

Damon is a really good interview. He really seems to listen to the questions and give thoughtful and honest answers. Really refreshing.

The Frank Williams imitation was fantastic! 😂😂

Tom Clarkson is contractually obligated to set alarms for 2 and 4am, and scream BOSE!!! out of his bedroom window

As an American who grew up seeing both Graham and Damon race (via limited coverage) it was a treat to hear a truly human side to F1. Damon is a true gentleman and sportsman. I look forward to seeing/hearing him on Sky. And thanks for such great probing and honest questions.

Such a humble dude

Hill got all my Respects (not that he needs them) for not being bitter about Schumacher. Heck, he even lightly comments on "crashing into Schumacher for the umpteenth time" when talking about 1995 ...

When you see it's Damon Hill and your first reaction is f#ck yes!!! Coming from a schumi fan!!!

25 years after Senna's crash, today we have his last teammate on beyond the grid, thanks F1 :D

Remarkably nice fellow is Hill, and his Williams impersonation... a real sense of humour. The World Champion least likely. Thank you for this interview! A shame that we’ll unlikely ever hear your interview with Schumi.

He almost won a GP with that piece of crap named Arrows-Yamaha

Great to hear from Damon. Always had a soft spot for him. Not the greatest driver but did the best he could with the opportunities he had. Always admired him how he led the team after Senna's death much like his dad after Jim Clark's.

I first saw Damon at Brands racing bikes. Allways a perfect gent, took the time to speak to us and put up with our stupid questions and wisecracks. After that he could do no wrong for us. Anyone who has doubts about his ability should remember who he had as teammates and compare with Schumi's motley collection of tailgunners. Thank you so much for this upload.

Damon Hill was my first ever hero. The first race I ever watched was the San Marino GP in 1994. I was 10 and remember asking my dad why he was worried when Senna crashed. I remember later in the evening watching ITV evening news when the announcement was made. It was the first time I ever saw my father cry. The only other time I saw him cry was when his mother passed away. I watched F1 until Hill retired, and started watching again in 2007 when Hamilton started.

One of my favourite drivers of all time, live long sir Damon!

HE SPUN! HE SPUN HIS PIZZA!

Damon, you have been giving back to the sport while you were racing, all the time as you pointed out racing against teams with a not so competitively strong team, you have also been giving back as an f1 expert for Sky. Keep doing that because you do it well. Also on another note, you are sometimes too humble. Not a trait often seen in F1 championship winners. That makes you a legend in the sporting eyes of people who still value the most important ingredient of sports. NEVER forget that.

I first started watching F1 in 1995 as a eight-year old boy and Damon Hill was my favourite driver!

Great great interview, I never understood why I was such a Hill fan for the last few decades, and now after listening to this I realized why, he is just plainly a great person. Cheers, Ron from Indianapolis

One of the nicest guys in F1. Quite rare these days.

I've a lot of respect for Damon, first off that drive in Hungary with Arrows and then the chaos of Spa. He always seems to be a thoughtful person even if some of the stuff Sky have him do is cringeworthy. Top man!

I've got a lump in my throat! Its Damon Hill!

Nice guy ...very underrated..very good test driver who took what he had and made the best of it ...fair play to him

Beyond the grid with Ron Denis would be facinating

Damon is a true honest guy. He did a great job taking into consideration his late arrival to F1. What he did not have in natural talent, he compensated with inteligence. Great person.

For some reason I haven’t seen this podcast before? Damon Hill is a legend and is always great to listen to. Excellent interview!

Damon Hill is a great person. His understatement and honesty is just something you have to give maximum respect! The honesty about Adelaide 94, where he once said he maybe would have done the same Schumacher did(if it was done by Schumacher in purpose to shoot Hill off)- maximum respect! He was a pretty good driver, underrated! Not as good as the Big Ones like Fangio, Senna or Schumacher but definetely one of the Drivers in the Top League like a Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Mansell etc. He always knows what he is able to, never exaggerates, is always honest! A really Big Human Being! Maximum respect!

He's a really likable guy, I've always thought highly of him.

Damon Hill was my hero. Loved this episode.

I am german and was always a Hill Fan and not a Schumacher Fan. I felt he was more down to the ground and friendly and honest. Such a nice guy.

Thank you Damon, you’re the reason (along with Mansell) that I fell in love with F1. He took the loss in 94 with such grace and when he won it 96 it was amazing. And I have to stop now because I’ve got a lump in my throat.

Would it be fair to say that Williams’ downfall ultimately began by the sacking of Damon? After all, that caused Adrian Newey to leave the team in disgust and we all know what he went on to do...

Should have been a 2x WDC. 😢

Damon Hill is my hero/idol. he is me. Father died. Lost in life. No one to tell u what to do to get on the right track to be something great. Plus I'm also 23 and I have an absolute passion for everything that races with tires on it and dream of driving in British f3 much less f1 and have never even been close to any kind of racing car. Live in South Georgia and I've only ever had a toyota truck. I will be a professional racing driver.! At least someone who works with the cars or anything in motor sports truthfully

Absolute lovely to have Damon Hill

“An Ordinary Man doing Extraordinary things”.

This was great, Damon was a childhood hero, thanks

Such a legend.

Great podcasts. Get Nelson Piquet, Steve Hallam, osamu goto, ascanelli, marmorini, Mário illien, James Allison, alister Caldwell and many names!!! Not only drivers but the guys who are really beyond the grid!!!

As strenuous and exhausting as '94 must have been for Damon and Williams, as a fan observing the competitive side 1995 was absolutely brutal. I remember Schumacher in the B195 looking beatable right until Barcelona, where Benetton found a step in performance and suddenly Schuey just looked absolutely crushing. What followed was akin to a capitulation and I was so pleased everything came together in '96. Damon is a class act, and I really wish he went to Stewart! What could have been...

I miss him😪😭

I've only just begun to listen to "Beyond The Grid" podcasts. Having only heard the ones with Ralph, Kimi, Mark, Christian, Nico, and only half of Lewis, Toto and Eddie... And this one by far has been my favorite of all the ones I've finished... Great interview! Felt like you could gone on for another hour and would have kept my captivated throughout... Didn't know a whole lot about Hill. Just the basics. That his dad Graham was 2 times World Champ and died when he was a kid, and that he was World Champ himself... Thank you both! T.C. For your hardwork time and effort putting this series together. And of course, much thanks to Damon for sharing yourself with us. Captivating stuff.

How about beyond the grid with Jenson Button?

Enjoyed that Damon

Great guy looking forward to this

i was delighted from the word go :) THANK YOU!!

Still my favourite driver next to Lewis, Why?his honesty and human touch!!!!Always just loved this man as he wasn't robotic and had his own style and charm even if it is a required taste!!!Mr Hill a real Officer and Gentleman, thanks you for being you!!!!! .God Bless.

What a refreshing account of his driving career. They don’t make them like that any more.

Enjoyed that a lot, Damon is such a nice and decent person, a joy to hear him talk.

I love you Damon, my favourite driver of all time.

Damon was my hero as an 8-9 year old kid. The smaller number of races and the unpredictable reliability of the cars at the time meant every single incident on a GP weekend felt massive for the title race. Thanks for the memories Damon. I'm going to have to stop now, because I've got a lump in my throat.

The guy did a lot helping to develop the cars for williams and they just fired him in the middle of a season he was fighting for the championship. He deserved a lot more of respect

Awesome interview, Damon is a top guy 👍

Legend.

58:15 That statement is so true. I have gotten hooked into F1 in the offseason between 2021 and 2022, and since then my interest grew into fandom, but before then I was introduced to F1 by the 2013 movie Rush and that's how my hobby of following motorsport has grown as an American race fan who got introduced by NASCAR and IndyCar

Damon was always such a class act. When Williams gave him the boot he simply moved on. And before the 99 season many people believed that it could be a problem to have him race with the driver that replaced him at Williams but Damon never said anything bad about HHF. I remember Damon as guy who didn't have the usual big ego of an F1 driver. A very down to earth guy that was underappreciated. At first people said that he is in F1 only because of his name and when he actually won people said that it's only because of the car.

Tom, please interview underrated heroes that struggled in the minor teams in late 80´s / early 90´s. Like Roberto Moreno, Gabriele Tarquini or what about Perry McCarthy. They must have loads of interesting stories from the haydays of pre-qualifying :)

What an absolute gentleman Damon is, the sport is lucky to have him.

I always thought Damon was a hugely under rated driver. Very good at car setup and won with Jordan and nearly with Arrows. Nice guy too.

Fantastic, but please when will you give us Jean Alesi!

He is able to extract the best stories from the most iconic F1 legends. I am taking of course, about Tom Clarkson.

Cheers damon

LEGEND

You do not even realise how much I would've wanted Senna to be on Beyond The Grid, you do not even realise...

Great to hear from Damon from his biking days up till his retirement, shame the interviewer didnt ask about his brief time at Brabham and his team mate Villenueve unless I missed that bit? other than that a great interview. Great insight into his battle with that dirty German Schumacher.

Excellent interview!

Such an honest bloke whether it’s good or bad. He was my first F1 hero and I hated Williams when they sacked him and as soon as he won the world championship. It seemed utter bloody madness and I thought Frank Williams was a weird miserable old nutcase. Now of course we all feel sad for Williams but maybe it’s what’s called payback.

This is a driver which, in his Williams years, I thought was very crappy and after leaving that team gained a lot of respect from me (that Arrows season was Damon's best - truly fantastic). I was very wrong in my initial judgment!

This guy was child hero in Portugues boy. Sad was imposible to meet him in Portugal 96. :) Let's hope another Hill in future sports car. :D

Smashing!

Damon sure is a jack of all trades. Racing driver, musician, radio host,...

Hill is my favorite world champion. His dad was awesome too. Also Damon has always been a nice guy and isn't full of himself unlike a couple of another British champions that comes to mind..

Now this is much more like it!!!

Damon was an all around class act.

Check out Damon’s Book. Amounts other things he talks at great length about his motor cycle career, that’s almost a book in itself.

Probably the most underrated, supremely talented World Champion, and a brilliant human being

thank you

I miss Damon.

please do an episode with Jacky Ickx a man with a million stories

Should have been a three time champion.

Damon comes across really well here. On TV I'm not always that keen. He always seems a bit disinterested to me.

I liked this interview and it was neat to hear the F1 cars in the background.

Replaced by Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Well done Williams.

Haha legendary always. His 98 win will be the best last win ever.

Does anyone else remember Graham Hill and Jimmy Hill doing a bit of a song and dance on a variety show? They wore matching outfits of shirts with huge collars, tank tops and flares. It must have been in the 60s because they both had long hair, it was a micky take and really funny. Why does random stuff like this jump into my mind?

How about beyond the grid with Felipe Massa?

A great chap Damon Hill. So humble and modest. Full of humour, humility with little sense of any bitterness towards anyone or resentment. As great a team as Williams were they didn’t have a great reputation in driver management. I guess they also bought into the “Frentzen is quicker than Schumacher” mantra that was doing the rounds at that time. It certainly didn’t prove to be the case and Williams would’ve been better off just sticking with Hill and Villeneuve for 97 imo.

Thought it was Tom talking at the start 😅 they sound similar

Best forename ever!!!!!!

The best yet guys.

These Interviews are that great! I would like to hear another Ross Brawn interview just about his work at Benetton and Ferrari! Or a Interview with RORY BYRNE! Rory Byrne would be great! He definetely has a lot of Great stuff to tell about Ferrari, Benetton, Michael Schumacher, Ross Brawn or people like Aldo Costa who learned from him and is one of the best today...

I used to like damon but my nephew met him when he was living in Ireland and he asked him for a photo he was very fude to him I could not believe it when he told me

Ooh. This should be tasty.

another great podcast !! 1000 times more interesting then do my lesson plans !!!

Damon would be a great commentator.

He is my favourite f1 driver ever. When he left the F1 Championship, I stopped caring about F1. Thankfully, Formula E has rekindled my interest.

Working for Sky seems to have made him a much more confident public speaker, he's more like Graham than his relatively shy prime persona suggested. A match for anyone when focused, confident and motivated. Yes, including Schumacher. Watch Hungary '97 for proof that he wasn't merely lucky to be in those Williams.

My favorite driver.