This is sort of on topic and I might as well write it to increase my post count so I get an avatar displayed.
My view of Damon Hill as a champion. (since he was singled out as the worst F1 champion by that person on utube.)
- I am biased, this is the first point I make. I am a Damon Hill fan. I watched F1 in 1995 and nearly cried when he lost the championship and at that time hated Schumacher for spoiling my boyhood dreams. Lol.
However since then I obviously now know Schumacher was the great driver, one of the greatest. Hill was not. Hill now I look back objectively, was a good driver who had
moments of brilliance balanced by a
fair few moments of slight ineptitude/misjudgements. The latter was in relation to his overtaking ability. He was not a great overtaker, and sometimes fumbled his moves because he was not aggressive, as a driver, he was a smooth driver who didn't like to get caught up in on-track battles.
Unfortunately he had a bad season in 1995 which the F1 fans can perhaps pay too much attention to. We have to remember that he was up against Schumacher which is a very unfortunate time to be going for the title in F1 given not many go up against the GOAT. (or A GOAT). There are several things people might not notice at first glance about this season.
- Williams must have lost minutes in the pits to benetton. If you watch the 95 season review you will nearly always see that Schumacher and Hill would go in the pits together and Hill would exist ten seconds behind, sometimes losing places.
- Hill seemed to succumb to psychological pressure from Schumacher who had said he struggled to overtake, and the previous season suggested Hill wasn't world class. This was clever because it would seem he got Hill to concentrate on his own areas of weakness.
- Most people think the williams was by far the fastest car. In fact looking at the revie of the 94 and 95 season the truth of the matter is that the benetton wasn't always lagging behind, on some tracks it seemed to have the pace over the williams, which is something people forget or discount.
Conclusion: The unfair thing is that Hill is always compared to Schumacher because he faced Schumacher. But Hill had moments of brilliance. A lot of people thought in 1996 that Villeneuve would overcome Hill once he got used to the williams but Hill pretty much had the better of him that year. That is not to discredit Villeneuve, for Villeneuve was a fast driver. There were also occasions Hill drove well in the wet but because he wasn't Schumacher, people tend to not pay attention to those occasions, but had Schumacher won in those wet races they would of course call him the rain master. Hill dominated in the wet in Brazil 1996, beat Schumacher in Suzuka 1994 on aggregate, and won spa 1998, (in a Jordan with a dry weather set up IIRC). He also almost drove an Arrows to victory in 1997, and qualified that poor car close to the front of the grid on several occasions. He also was a charger at times. Nurburgring 1995 was a great charge from Hill but later he unfortunately botched his race up. He also charged down berger in Germany 1996. He also charged fairly well in Spa 1995 and finished 2nd from 8th on the grid but his own performance was not acknowledged because Schumacher came 1st from 16th on the grid.