1994

Alain Prost had announced his retirement from Formula 1 after winning his fourth World Championship because he - like Mansell the year before - had objected to Frank Williams' choice of team-mate for the following season. Prost and Senna had been partnered at McLaren for the 1988 and 1989 seasons, and despite having a contract with Williams for 1994, Prost chose to retire from Formula 1, leaving Damon Hill to partner the great Brazilian.
Damon saw this as a challenge - he had fared well against Prost and was determined not to be intimidated by the man who some considered as the best driver ever.

The technical regulations governing the sport had changed dramatically for the start of the new season. Amongst other things, "driver aids" such as traction control, anti-lock brakes and active suspension had been banned.
The official line regarding these changes was that the computer-controlled devices although fine for road cars took the skill out of racing, and were also incredibly expensive to develop. Insiders at Williams however held a different view - they had simply become too successful, and were now being punished for it.

Brazil kicked off the 1994 calendar, and despite technical problems and ill-health, Damon qualified third behind Senna and Schumacher. Refuelling during the race was now permitted to further spice up the event and allow the cars to run more consistently until the chequered flag. Damon had gambled on stopping only once compared to the more logical two stops, but this meant a heavier car to begin with and so he found himself in fourth as Jean Alesi who had qualified behind him made a better start.
Damon's pit strategy worked in so far as it took him less time to stop just once compared to Alesi's two, and so he ended up ahead of the Frenchman despite the fact that he had lost time at the beginning of the race. Senna who was battling with Schumacher was finally caught out by the terrible handling of the FW16 with 5 laps to go. Damon too nearly spun but managed to recover and nurse his car home to second place.
It was clear that this season was going to be far from easy for the Williams team and that Benetton (and Schumacher) were the ones to watch.

Senna was on Pole once again at the Pacific Grand Prix in Japan. Damon made an appalling start but benefited from the chaos that ensued after Mika Hakkinen had tapped the back of Senna's car (sending him into retirement), and resumed the race third behind Schumacher and the Finn.
An unsuccessful overtaking manoeuvre on the McLaren driver saw Damon spin, but he fought his way back up the field to second twice (due to pit-stops), and was therefore rather disappointed to succumb to a mechanical failure in the transmission at just over half-distance. Another race victory went to Schumacher.

The weekend of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola will be remembered for years to come. Rubens Barrichello lost control of his Jordan at around 140 mph going into the last chicane in opening qualifying. His car was launched up by the kerb, barrel-rolling him along the tyre-barrier. The car landed upside-down on its side, and was then tipped over very carelessly by the marshals. Rubens escaped with a cut lip and a broken nose.
Having only managed seventh place, Damon was up to fourth the next day and was on his way in to the pits when he came across the wreckage of Roland Ratzenberger's Simtek at the end of the 200 mph straight. It was Formula 1's first fatality since 1986, and although the session was restarted later both Williams and Benetton chose not to go out.
Senna had his third Pole in as many races and had been quickest during the warm-up. Clearly he wanted to do something about Schumacher's 20 point lead in the Championship. The Brazilian made a good start, but was forced to slow down behind the safety car after Pedro Lamy had crashed into the stalled car of J.J. Lehto at the start.
The field continued at its snail's pace for five laps before the wreckage had been cleared, and the re-start saw Senna and Schumacher streak off, with Damon fourth behind Gerhard Berger. Two laps later however Damon saw the Brazilian slide off the track, but was too preoccupied with dodging the debris to take much of it in.
The race was stopped and restarted again amid speculation and rumours as to the seriousness of Senna's crash. It wasn't until after the race that the truth was announced that he had died. Schumacher had won and Damon had salvaging a point for the team in sixth (having had to replace a damaged nose-cone), but the race would not be remembered for the result.

The fact that the next Grand Prix at Monaco was the one which Senna had won for the past five years did not help to alleviate the situation. To make matters worse, there was another accident, this time involving Sauber driver Karl Wendlinger. He would be in a coma for a month.
Damon was Williams' only driver to race come Sunday, and after a terrific start was forced into retirement after Hakkinen had hit him. It was the end of another bad weekend for both him and the team.

Hill had been under intense pressure over the past few races and had begun to realise how great the additional burden of being the 'number one' driver was. And so it was with immense satisfaction that he won the Spanish Grand Prix, giving both him and the team the boost they needed. But the worry didn't end there - although test driver David Coulthard had stepped into the second Williams for the race, there were strong rumours that Nigel Mansell would be coming back to the team, and Damon would clearly be compared to his fellow Englishman.

The set-up and handling of the FW16 car continued to be troublesome, and Damon could only manage to qualify in fourth place for the Canadian Grand Prix, with team-mate Coulthard in 5th. The places were to be reversed by the first corner, but as the leaders were pulling away and Coulthard wasn't making any progress (and indeed was blocking Damon from overtaking), the team ordered Coulthard to let Damon through. He immediately made progress, managing to pass one Ferrari and then gain enough time on the second to lead him after the pit-stops. Schumacher was another matter however, and Damon did well to finish second after nearly being strangled (by what he never found out) and then nearly running out of fuel.

The French Grand Prix saw Mansell's return, and Nigel gave exactly the same criticisms about the car that Hill had aired, which showed Damon had been right all along and added weight to his cause. Problems with his gearbox saw Damon with only 20 minutes to qualify for the race in, by which point Mansell had become acclimatised with the car enough to have it on Pole. The two of them traded times but with a superb final effort Damon took his first Pole of the season, despite his engine being slightly damaged by the gearbox problems.
With the two Williams holding the front row on Renault's home soil, it was with some surprise that Michael Schumacher blasted to the front in an almost super-human start. This further fuelled rumours that Benetton were still using some of the out-lawed technology, but nothing was ever proven. Damon and Michael came in for their pit-stop at the same time, but with a slightly longer stop and with tyres that weren't quite balanced correctly it was all Damon could do to hold on to second place. But he had held his own against Mansell, and was therefore somewhat hurt when it was suggested Nigel would be driving for the team next year in the place of either him or Coulthard. Although David had looked promising, Damon's experience both as a racer and with the team was clearly greater than the Scots'.

Despite being as fired up as could be, Damon would only manage to qualify fourth on the Friday at the British Grand Prix, again due to mechanical problems restricting his time on the track. But final qualifying saw him on Pole as he once again pulled off a truly impressive lap.
Damon was in confident mood for the race but was somewhat startled when Schumacher over-took him on the warm-up lap, something which is forbidden. He would later be black-flagged during a tight battle between the two of them, and so it was that Damon Hill won the British Grand Prix, a feat which his father hadn't managed despite 17 attempts.

Schumacher went to Germany stripped of his second-place at Silverstone and with a two-race ban to suffer which his team had appealed against, allowing him to race at his home Grand Prix. This may seem harsh but ignoring to come in after being black-flagged is equivalent to not stopping for the Police in a road car. It was to be the Ferraris that were the class of the field, and although Damon would finish eighth due to an early clash with Ukyo Katayama, the weekend would be remembered for the fire during refuelling which saw Benetton driver Jos Verstappen and several of his mechanics suffer from facial burns.

Pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix was to be a two-horse battle, but in the end it went to Schumacher with Damon close behind and the others over a second adrift. Despite a gut-feeling that three stops would be better than two, Damon went along with the team's decision. Schumacher did three stops and won the race, and although Damon got the six points for second the gap in the Championship had now been stretched to 31.

Damon so nearly had pole for the Belgian Grand Prix, but was forced to back off when he came across Schumacher's spun Benetton. The weather at Spa had played its hand, and so it was that Rubens Barrichello claimed his (and Jordan's) first ever Pole Position. The race saw yet more problems for Damon as Coulthard again refused to allow him through, costing him valuable time. Damon's confidence in the team was weakening, and at first he thought it was a sick joke when after the race they told him that Schumacher had been disqualified after he had worn the plank underneath his car below the limit, and Damon's second place was now a first. But although the points deficit was now down to 21, the internal problems were still very real, and would continue at the next race.

The pressure was still as tough as ever in Italy, for although it was the start of Schumacher's two race ban, Damon still had to beat the rest of the field, and in particular, the incredibly competitive Ferraris. Add to this mechanical problems during the morning warm-up and right before the race, and you could see Damon's job was going to be far from easy. As it was Alesi retired with a gearbox problem and Damon managed to get past Berger on the pit-stops, but the fact of the matter was that Damon had been under considerable stress to win, and his life wasn't made any easier by being covered in oil from the Ferrari and having the air-flow into his visor restricted.

Qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix would see Damon where he certainly shouldn't be - upside-down! Eddie Irvine had lost control of his Jordan and had careered across the track, launching Damon air-borne. Both he and the car survived the impact virtually unharmed, and so it was with much distress that the marshals tipped the car over and then dragged it along the gravel by the suspension, writing it off.
Thankfully the race was to prove less eventful, and after suffering from maladjusted tyres on his first set, Damon closed the gap on Coulthard and pulled off a slick overtaking manoeuvre to lead home Williams' first 1-2 of the season. He had made the most of Schumacher's absence and the gap was now down to just one point.

Mansell, having finished his IndyCar season, returned for the final three races, the first of which was the European Grand Prix. Trouble in traffic for Damon gave Schumacher Pole, but the German would suffer from a poor start in the race which Damon took full advantage of. A better pit-stop strategy by Benetton and problems with Damon's refuelling rig (which saw him take on more fuel than necessary to make sure he had enough) saw the Championship gap increase to 5 points as Schumacher won and Damon came home second.

The rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix would again see Schumacher on Pole, and the opening laps were treacherous as the cars fought for grip. In due course the Safety Car was called out, which brought relief to all the drivers. The race was stopped later on and then restarted under the safety car, and so the end result would be decided by aggregate - going into the second part Schumacher had a 6.8 second lead.
The Williams pit-strategy was perfect on this occasion, and together with a superb drive from Damon (and an outstanding last lap), the Championship was now back down to a single point. Damon had won the race, but the title was far from secure.

And so the title went right down to the line. Surprisingly, it was neither Schumacher or Hill who took Pole Position at the Australian Grand Prix, but Nigel Mansell. He would fail to make a good start though, and both Michael and Damon got ahead of him, the German in the lead. The two of them pulled ahead and were nose-to-tail as they fought their way past back-markers. Both came in to the pits at the same time, but with similar stops the positions remained the same.
Schumacher opened up a bit of a gap, but then on lap 36 Damon saw the Benetton slithering across the grass back towards the track. The German swerved from side to side blocking Damon along the run to the next corner, and in a split-second judgement Damon attempted going down the inside of the Benetton as he thought there was no way Michael could turn in quick enough.
But he did turn in, and the two of them collided sending Schumacher air-borne but in the process damaging Damon's front suspension. The race was over, the Championship settled. If Damon had known that Schumacher's car had been damaged before he had come upon it he could have held back and won the race, but he hadn't, and although it was a bitter pill to swallow Damon accepted it like the true gentleman he was.
The team had nothing but praise for him, and although the Driver's Championship was lost, Williams had won the Constructors title, and this was hammered home by the fact that Nigel Mansell went on to win the race - one which had seen so much misfortune for him in the past.

In an incredibly traumatic season filled with controversy and tragedy, Damon had pulled through it all to score 91 World Championship points, 6 wins, and two Pole Positions. He had come within a whisker of winning the World Championship, and had once again compared favourably to more experienced team-mates.