Damon Hill speaker

Damon Hill

1996 Formula One World Champion

Damon Hill, the 1996 FIA Formula 1 World Drivers’ Champion, is celebrated for his thrilling battles with Michael Schumacher and his partnership with Ayrton Senna at Williams. After retiring in 1999, Hill transitioned to business, became President of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, and joined the Sky Sports F1 broadcasting team in 2012.

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Damon Hill's 2025 biography

About Damon Hill

The 1996 FIA Formula 1 World Drivers’ Champion Damon Hill is one of the sport’s most respected personalities, remembered by many fans for his titanic battles with Germany’s Michael Schumacher and for partnering the late Ayrton Senna at Williams in 1994.

The son of double Formula 1 World Champion Graham Hill, Damon began his racing career relatively late. Working as a dispatch rider to fund his racing, he began competing on motorcycles, winning every race in which he competed in 1984. Damon progressed from Formula Ford to Formula 3 and onwards to Formula 3000, but his journey to Formula 1 was not easy. Determined to gain interest from teams and sponsors, Damon sought opportunities in the Saab Championship, which he won, the British Touring Car Championship and Le Mans 24 Hours sport car race.

His dedication inspired Williams to hire him as test driver in 1991 before promoting him to reserve driver in 1992. It was in this same year that Damon made his F1 debut for Brabham at the British Grand Prix.

The following year, Damon signed with Williams for his first full F1 season in which he accomplished three wins, 10 podiums and third in the Drivers ’Championship. This success was surpassed in 1994 when he won six races, including his home Grand Prix at Silverstone. These performances helped the team recover from the tragic loss of his team mate Ayrton Senna in that year’s San Marino Grand Prix.

At the end of an impressive season, Damon missed winning Drivers ’Championship title by just one point following a controversial collision with Michael Schumacher at the Australian Grand Prix. In 1995, after achieving four wins, seven pole positions and nine podiums, Damon once again finished second in the World Championship for Drivers. By then he was well established as one of Formula 1’s leading stars.

The 1996 season marks the highlight of Damon’s career with eight victories from 16 races, nine pole positions, five fastest laps and 10 podium finishes. At the Japanese Grand Prix, he took his final win of the season and secured the Drivers’ Championship.

After racing for the Arrows team in 1997, Damon moved to Jordan Grand Prix. At the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix he scored the team’s first ever Formula 1 victory, leading home a record- breaking 1-2 finish with teammate Ralf Schumacher.

Damon’s 22 race wins have earned him a place among the top 15 winning drivers in Formula 1. He is one of only four people to have won BBC Sports Personality of the Year twice and he was awarded an OBE in the 1997 New Years Honours List.

After bringing his Formula 1 racing career to a close in 1999, Damon pursued business ventures and succeeded Jackie Stewart as President of the British Racing Drivers’ Club. Between 2012 and 2024 he was a member of the Sky Sports F1 broadcasting team and in 2025 will continue working as a broadcaster including with Australia’s Network 10.

Damon Hill's 2025 talks & topics

Leadership

The requirements of Formula One’s team leaders have changed significantly in recently years as teams have become larger, more complex, and the business model to which the sport operates has been transformed.  The leaders in F1 today are responsible for leading up to 1800 full time employees, creating a high-performance organisation which is fully aligned behind a strategy aimed at achieving a set of well defined, ambitious goals.

Competitive team leaders create a culture in which team personnel take responsibility and are happy to be held accountable for their performance.  Developing a high degree of psychological safety is key, requiring staff to speak up and speak out, with strong cross functional communications.  A relentless focus on continuous improvement is part of the F1 leaders mindset, and teams take a data-driven approach to measuring performance, highlighting issues and analysing developments. But whilst F1 is a technocentric sport, the successful leaders recognise that it is the people who make a difference. This is why so much effort is deployed to create an environment within which employees thrive, using their combined talents to problem solve and create highly innovative solutions in order to drive competitive advantage.

Teamwork/Collaboration

Competitive Formula One teams comprise 1800 staff, less than 10% of whom attend the race events, so teamwork requires complete alignment, shared purpose and close collaboration across the business.  The world championship includes 24 Grands Prix and these represent a series of non-negotiable deadlines which the entire organisation has to meet in terms of car development, hardware and software upgrades.  The ultimate, public example of high-performance teamwork comes in the form of the mandatory pit stops which have to be performed during a race – the record now stands at 1.8 seconds during which 22 staff carry out 36 tasks under extreme pressure. Alignment behind the team’s strategies and ambitious goals is vital, so too having the agility to flex the strategy in the face of constant changes in technology and the performance of competitors.

Data-driven performance & Innovation

More than any other sport, Formula One has embraced a data-driven business culture, particularly with its near obsession with marginal gains and continuous improvement. F1 teams use data to enable drivers, engineers and HQ staff to determine precisely how the car and driver is behaving, diagnose issues, resolve problems and speed up decision making. As information flows seamlessly around the globe, linking car, team and factory, tech security is essential and robust systems ensure protection from multiple threats.

The use of simulators has transformed driver training, enabling systems to be learned, tested and developed in a virtual environment prior to real-world deployment. And with the advent of additive manufacturing, machine learning, AI and GenAI across F1, the sport’s use of technology to innovate and transform all aspects of its operations is set to accelerate further.

Safety & Risk Management

Safety is a first order priority in Formula One and the last 30 years have seen a profound change to the way in which the sport manages risk. Between 1950 and 1994, there were over 40 driver fatalities at races; there has been one since. This has been made possible by creating clear priorities as regards safety. Compliance is non-negotiable. Safety is not an area of competitive advantage. Safety systems, processes and technologies are shared so that F1 doesn’t have islands of excellence in oceans of mediocrity.

However, the risk averse teams never win in F1 – the teams which embrace and manage risk are more likely to try new things, innovate in ways both small and large, and ultimately drive competitive advantage. It’s the difference between participating and competing. The other factor is ‘fear of failure’. Teams that have a blame culture create such a degree of fear that everyone minimises their contribution and hides their mistakes, whereas those which thrive on creating a learning environment of continuous improvement have a degree of openness, honesty and transparency which promotes creativity and innovation, and taking risks, in a controlled way.

Change & Transformation

Every industry is witnessing change and Formula One is no different. One of the challenges facing F1 teams is that the sector is ever-changing – so change management and leading teams through periods of transformation is an essential part of the job.  Change comes in many forms; technology, compliance, competition, customer demands, environmental and social issues.  F1 has had to reinvent its business model, embrace digitalisations, adapt to a changing media and social landscape. Above all, F1’s leadership teams have had to communicate, manage and implement transformation strategies, bringing their teams with them and ensuring that they make the most from embracing change.