F1 champion lost his seat after winning world title and says Michael Schumacher's influence played a role

1996 world champion Damon Hill says that Michael Schumacher's influence and F1's consequent pivot towards Germany played a role in him losing his seat at Williams.

Heading into the 1996 campaign, Schumacher had just become a two-time world champion at Benetton, beating Hill to the title in 1994 and 1995 and earning himself a blockbuster move to Ferrari.

However, although that move to Ferrari would eventually go on to bear fruit (namely five more world championships), Schumacher couldn't match his previous highs at Benetton in his debut season with the Scuderia, with Hill going on to finally get his hands on the title in 1996, finishing ahead of rookie teammate Jacques Villeneuve in the drivers' standings.

Shockingly, though, Williams had already decided to move Hill on by that point, with Heinz Harald Frentzen having been officially announced to drive for the team in 1997 at the Italian Grand Prix. Some reports speculate that the deal may have been done much earlier.

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Frentzen was an up-and-coming German driver at the time, and Hill believes that his nationality was crucial.

With Schumacher emerging as a star, Hill says that F1 had begun to pivot towards Germany, and that played a key role in Williams opting to replace him with a German driver.

“I think that in 1995, [Williams bosses Frank Williams and Patrick Head] probably looked at what happened and decided ‘we need to think of the future’," Hill told F1.com. "And one of the things that's come to light for me over time is there was a movement towards Germany as far as the market went in F1, because of Michael [Schumacher].

“There was a big investment in TV and Germany was becoming a thing. So having a German driver was important for the marketing of F1… and people were talking about Frentzen as being as good as Michael, at least when he was in sports cars. And so, I think they thought of Frentzen as a way to the future and potentially BMW power units as well, which eventually did happen."

BMW deal also key

Williams went on to use BMW engines from 2000 through to 2005, but Hill believes that also contributed to his exit, with the strategy to land the German manufacturer having started much earlier.

“When Frank told me that they were going to get rid of me, he said, ‘I have to think of the future of the team’. That was his answer, his excuse. And I went, ‘I'm not the future, why is that?’

"I did a bit of research years later, and I think that... the move towards BMW was a strategy, and I think a German driver was key to that.

“But basically, it didn't matter what I did in ‘96. Frank had already got two drivers signed up in ‘97. So there was no room in the inn.”

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