Damon Hill recalls bizarre British GP telling off

Hill at the 1994 British GP — Photo: © LAT Images

British Grand Prix

Hill recalls bizarre British GP telling off

Hill won the 1994 race at Silverstone but has revealed to almost being penalised post-race

Sam Hall

Sunday 11 July 2021 16:45

Damon Hill revealed how receiving a Union Flag after winning the 1994 British Grand Prix almost caused him to fall foul of the stewards.

Hill achieved his only success in the British Grand Prix in 1994 with Williams but the 1996 F1 world champion was almost cost victory under the strangest of circumstances.

At the end of the race, Hill was handed the flag and whilst the interaction was a far cry from the track invasion for Nigel Mansell a couple of years previous, it almost caused scrutineering issues for hill and Williams.

Article continues under video

Talking on the Silverstone podcast, he said: "I'd seen how Nigel had done it and how the track was invaded by fans.

"They didn't quite invade on my account, I think they had been banned from invading by then, but a marshall came out with a huge flag that on a length of 12 foot two by four and plopped it in my car.

"When I got back, I obviously had to get rid of it, but the FIA later tried to penalise us for picking up weight on the way to the scrutineering bay because you're not supposed to pick up weight.

"So they counted the flag as weight but of course, it was hardly secreted away in the car. Everyone could see what it was so it was a bit of a stupid penalty really. But we got away with that!"

Schumacher pre-race mind games

Like almost any F1 champion, Michael Schumacher was known to try and play mind games on his rivals and the British Grand Prix of 1994 was no exception.

Schumacher had entered the race with a comfortable margin over Hill in the standings, although the season would come to a dramatic close in Adelaide with the Silverstone event marking the changing of the tide.

Hill explained: "It was very odd because we went off on the parade lap, the first one, and Michael sped off into the lead and you're not supposed to do that, you're supposed to not pass the guy on pole position.

"But he went off at a bit of a lick and then I thought 'that's a bit odd' so I ignored it and lined up on the grid. Then I think it was Martin Brundle's engine that blew up so we had to do another parade lap and he did the same thing.

"So I got on the radio just to let the team know there's something a bit funny about that. We ignored that again and I guess the stewards took another view to it as well so I think at some point he got a penalty for doing something, it might have been that actually.

"But he ignored the black flag in the race and went on to the end and ignored so it so got himself into more trouble.

"I think he finished the race in the pit lane, taking his penalty in the pit lane I believe which is one of Ross Brawn's clever little ploys to reduce the penalty."