It cannot be easy being a modern racing driver called Hill. Every Formula 1 driver who has had that name surname has been a World Champion: and there have been three of them: Phil Hill won the World Championship in 1961. Graham Hill won in 1962 and 1968, and Damon Hill won in 1996. Phil was no relation to the other two, but Graham was Damon’s father. Now, 17 years later, Damon’s son (Graham’s grandson) Josh Hill is moving up the racing ladder. This year he will contest the Formula 3 European Championship, and there is a chance that he might even win a Ferrari F1 test if he becomes the champion. That may not be very likely for a rookie but Hill will be racing alongside Puerto Rican Felix Serralles, Brazilian Luis Felipe Derani and Russian Dmitry Suranovich in the Fortec Motorsport team.
Well at least the international language of Motorsport is English…..Good luck to him….
I thought the ‘official’ language of motorsport was French (hence Grand Prix, Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile etc.)
That has not been the case for many years
If there’s one thing I learned here it’s that the international language of motorsport is money.
LOL, and there was I thinking the lingua franca is . . BS . . . does it not say, “I promise . . ” on the stuff?
Hope he does well, he seems like a good lad and the name Hill belongs in F1. Who knows, in a couple of years we might have a new Hill, Schumacher and Verstappen on the grid. I’m not sure about other names, but it would be funny to go have those names again.
I’ve seen Josh race a few times and he has much more aggression and overtaking prowess than Damon appeared to show early in his career. It would be great to seem him climb all the way and, hopefully, be as fine a representative of motorsport as his dad and granddad.
Ditto that. I saw him at Brands Hatch in 2008 for a BTCC support race, he was in the Ginetta junior class series then. He was stood with his dad in the paddock. He looks exactly like his father, he’s definitely not the milkmans
I think I’m right in saying that to date Damon is the only champion’s son to make the grade in F1 ??
You could speculate that had Gilles been a bit luckier, Jacque would fit that bill too.
No, you’ve forgotten Michael Andretti!!!
Damon is the only son of a world champion to win a title himself. Nico Rosberg is the only other son (of Keke) to win a GP, so I suppose it depends how you define ‘making the grade’.
Michael Andretti (son of Mario) and Nelson Piquet Jr are the only sons to have scored podiums but neither could be described as ‘making the grade’ by any reasonable definition.
1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve is, of course, the son of the great Gilles Villeneuve, who should have been a world champion.
I know, I’m an anorak!
Correct – although some may argue the Villeneuve’s….. but technically, you’re right.
How can you argue the Villeneuves? Facts are facts and in any case Jacques Sr was an F1 driver who did nothing so it ruins that theory!
If you go back..Like J. Villeneuve, Alberto Ascari was champion (’52,’53) and also the son of a Grand Prix winner , maybe the winner of the first championship in 1925 (only manufacturers cup awarded)..and like Gilles, killed in a race car.
I see Martin covered this point..
Depends wha you mean by “make the grade” Keke’s boy won a race last year. But yes, Damon is the only Champion son of a Champion.
Jaques would disagree with you.
Jacques’ dad being a champion doesn’t show up on the stats. But, it’s interesting how often that comment comes up, so by popular acclaim he must be
)
Gilles was not F1 champion
Jacque Villenueve (father Gilles) was the second son to follow his father to the championship title.
And in what year did Gilles Villeneuve win the title?
My bad! I did know Gilles hadn’t won, and my response would implied he had.
The poster asked which son had made the grade, in my view Gilles was a success even though he didn’t win BUT re-reading the post he said which “Champions” son was a success so my post was therefore plain wrong and I consider my knuckles duly and justifiably rapped!
Obviously I’ve got over excited excited at finding such a great blog
Nico, son of Keke?
Did you watch F1 in 1997? Villeneuve knocking out Schumacher in 97 was nice payback for Schumachers ramming move on Hill where he stole the title from Damon. Jacques deserves more respect he did some hard wheel to wheel racing at Williams which was great watching and should not be diminished by BAR under achievements.
Sorry but that is not what happened. Schumacher tried to take Jacques off and botched the job.
I know, jacques left him spinning in the gravel. Unlike Damon unfortunately who was rammed by Michael’s mortally wounded car Jacques prevailed. The really painful thing previously was watching Schumacher cut across off track in a car that was dead in the race and take out Damon’s wishbone suspension knowing Damon only had to finish in his current position, Schumachers car was done all Damon had to do was cruise M.S should have been disqualified. People do not give Jacques respect when Michael pulled his “knock out” move the French Canadian left him spinning in the gravel – sweet payback and in full view for all the reattempted ‘unavoidable bump’ Schumacher tried backfired and the right man won this time (Damon was robbed in 95). Schumacher should have been disqualified which he was in 97 largely due to this incident.
I think Damon is the only son of a champion to become champion, as for Josh good luck to him, I saw a few pics of him and he looks a lot like a young Graham.
Does seem to have inherited his grandfather’s ‘tache!
My son Josh’s favorite driver in F1 was Damon Hill; now he has a Josh Hill to cheer on! Can’t wait to tell him.
Not too sure if Josh has a hill to climb or a mountain. Hope he succeeds, whichever.
Brabham?
David raced in F1 for Brabham and Simtek, but no terribly exciting results. Gary made as far as briefly becoming a driver for the Life team, but never actually made it into a race. Probably safe to blame that one on the car.
F1 has become an inbred Dad & Son pastime pretending to be the pinnacle of motor racing. I’m sick and tired of all these infesting, young pampered brats getting a free ride and making a mockery of this great sport.
Yes, so how many of todays’s drivers are on F1 because Dad was a driver?
Damon is on record somewhere as saying it is something of a help. The famous name will at least make people give you a second glance, which you then have to impress by getting the results. A lot of successful drivers somehow never get the second glance.
Sure, there’s a lot of scions in the sport. If you count nephews, off the top of my head I can think of Christian Fittipaldi, Piquet Jr, Damon, Jacques, several Brabhams, Bruno. But then around a quarter of medical students in the UK are the children of doctors.
It was mentioned in a Motor Sport interview a few years ago, certainly. It went a bit beyond being given a second glance, even to the extent that promoters would rush about and arrange spare parts or a completely new machine when (as he was broke, this was inevitable!) Damon’s broke. Fortunately for Hill he had the talent to be able to make headway even though he was essentially brassic, lawsuits from the plane accident having wiped out what little was left of Graham’s pot after his death.
Looking a bit further down the junior formulae you’ll see the Mansell, Palmer and Brundle names cropping up. But as you say, son following father isn’t restricted to motorsport. I’m a geologist son of a geologist father, and I’m fairly sure the family name had nothing to do with it!
Grand total of one. Out of 22. And that only if you don’t think Nico would have made it on his own talents. Definitely a serious infestation.
Josh is hardly rocketing up the motorsport ladder on the wings of his dad’s fame – he seems to be taking a particularly slow and painful route. Hope it pays off for him as it did for Damon…but I don’t think you can call it a free ride.
A few friends in new zealnd have seen him and said he is good but needs more seat time ,
Like Damon he’s started racing comparatively late in life but he’s making up for lost time and improving all the time. He raced in India a few weeks back and was on the podium 3 times in 4 starts, winning his first race.
can i throw in Kazuki and Satoru Nakajima (off of the 1980′s Camel Lotus Honda). Not world champions, but another example of dads and sons making it to F1.
What about Alberto Ascari?
A double champion, 1952-53 and son of Antonio Ascari who won many races for Alfa Romeo in the early-mid 1920′s. Antonio would almost certainly have been a champion had the WDC existed back then.
Martin
Stucks
Josh raced in the Toyota TRS series a couple of years back in NZ and showed great progress race by race good luck to him.