Graham Hill

Graham Hill (born the February 17th 1929 with London - died the November 29th 1975 with Arkley in an air crash) was a pilot automobile English.

Emblematic figure of the Formula 1 of the years 1960, it disputed 176 Grand Prix, gained 14 victories and took down twice the championship of the world of the pilots (in 1962 and 1968). Also victorious of tests as prestigious as the 500 Miles of Indianapolis (in 1966) and the 24 Hours of Mans (in 1972 on Matra Simca with Henri Pescarolo), he is the only pilot of the history holder of the triple crown

His/her son Damon Hill is him also become world champion of the pilots in Formule 1.

Biography

The beginnings (1953-1957)

Resulting from a modest family, Graham Hill is very far from being intended for the automobile sport. To 24 years, an age to which some pilot start to shine on the circuits of Formule 1, it did not pass its driving license yet besides. Especially impassioned by the oar (it directs the eight barred of London Rowing Club), it exerts at the city the peaceful trade of engineer-mechanic at Smiths Instruments , a clock industry. To the end of the year 1953, knowing that Graham finally has just passed its license, a colleague invites it to test Cooper of Formule 3 that a flying school proposes to rent with the pilot apprentices, realizing five shillings the turn. The experiment is a revelation for Graham which immediately, decides all to give up to become pilot professional.

Without money, and not knowing any other means of approaching the automobile sport, Graham proposes to carry out small work for the account of a flying school. He also attends the " Steering Wheel Club" in London, a club reserved to the pilots. Of needle and thread, it becomes acquainted with Colin Chapman with which it sympathizes and which proposes to him to work for him within Lotus that it has just founded. Recruited as a mechanic, Graham punctually obtains the right to take the wheel in minor tests (primarily of the races of tourism), and shown an unquestionable talent. In 1957, estimating that Chapman does not give him sufficiently its chance, it leaves Lotus for the official stable Cooper in Formule 2, where it confirms its potential incipient, so much so that Chapman proposes to him to return to the fold, but this time within the framework from the championship of the world of Formula 1.

The training of F1 (1958-1961)

Graham Hill carries out her beginnings in championship of the world at the time of the Grand Prix of Monaco 1958. The Lotus stable, which also begins with the more high level, is then far from being the machine to be innovated and gain that it will be throughout the years 1960 and 1970, and Hill must be satisfied with a modest single-seater (Lotus 12) with which it only manages to register one point, at the time of the GP of Italy.

Always at Lotus in 1959, Hill touches this time a little more powerful (Lotus 16, strongly inspired by the Vanwall world champion, whose creator was not other than Chapman itself), even if it were not engulfed in the inevitable way of the back engine initiated by Cooper. But these performances with the rise are wasted by a reliability more than random, so much so that at the evening of the GP of Italy, marked by one énième abandonment and a hopelessly virgin meter of point, it snap the door of Lotus.

In spite of a lawsuit brought by Chapman, Hill joined BRM with orée of the season 1960. Equipped with a new brake (a single back brake), the BRM is far from being a mauvaive car, and the English benefits from it at the head to carry out some great hits of glare of group. But a succession of troubles (pilot errors, mechanical breakages) prevents it from concretizing its performances, except for the GP of the Netherlands, where it goes up on the third walk of the podium.

The season 1961 is definitely less good for Hill, who undergoes the lack of preparation of BRM to the new regulation limiting the cubic capacity of the engines to 1 500 cm. It marks only three small points.

First world title (1962)

After many seasons of galère, 1962 is finally the year of takeoff for Hill and BRM. The BRM Type 56 is a true success, which Hill hastens to confirm by asserting out-championship on Glover Trophy de Goodwood (the race which marked the end of a career of Stirling Moss) and on BRDC International Trophy of Silverstone. When the championship begins from the world, its domination is blocked by the monocoque revolutionist Lotus 25 of Jim Clark, but benefitting from a greater reliability which until had been lacking there to him, it is essential on the GP of opening to Zandvoort. Unhappy in Monaco (abandonment), it is inclined vis-a-vis Clark in Belgium, but consolidates nevertheless its position of leader with the championship. A new heavy defeat with Aintree seems to mark revolving championship while Clark and its Lotus appears more irresistible than ever, but Hill reverses the vapor with plume at the time of the GP of Germany to the Nurburgring, where under the rain, it leaves victorious a brawl baited with daN Gurney and John Surtees. It inserts the nail with a third victory with Monza, which enables him to widen a gap of 16 points on Jim Clark, moreover itself preceded by the very regular Bruce McLaren. The advance of Hill is however to relativize because it already marked points with six recoveries (whereas only the five best results count), and must thus start to withdraw its less good performances. Victorious in Watkins Glen, Clark approaches the finale of the championship with a delay of 9 points on Hill, and a real chance to blow the title with the English since it is enough for him to gain to join it championship and to be titrated for the benefit of greatest number of victories (always because of the payment which makes it possible to capitalize only its 5 better results, even a second place of Hill would be equivalent indeed to a virgin score!). Author of the pole-position, Clark takes the race in hand from the beginning, and with twenty turns of the arrival, is thus the virtual world champion. But a driving break-in on the Lotus of the Scottish pilot offers the victory and its first world title to Graham Hill.

In the shade of Jim Clark (1963)

World champion in title, Graham Hill starts his more beautiful season 1963 in the manners, with a victory in Monaco (the first of long series). He is essential according to a diagram of race already observed several times the former season, namely that the strong man of the race was Jim Clark, countered to give up on troubles of gear box whereas he had the race in hand firmly. The remainder of the season will not be at all with the image of this Grand Prix of opening: Clark will continue to dominate, but without breaking, and it is on the contrary Hill who will be overpowered by the troubles in any kind. It is only at the end of the season in Watkins Glen that it joins again with success. A sufficient performance to finish vice-champion of the world, but very far from invincible Clark.

Bitter defeat in Mexico City (1964)

Obliged to take account of the domination of Lotus, BRM gives up in 1964 its preserving technical approach and launches out in its turn in the way of the monoshell (actually, a semi-monocoque frame). This solution makes it possible BRM to partly fill its delay of performance on Lotus.
In Monaco, according to a usual scenario from now on, Clark dominates, and Hill gains. Dominated (and this time beaten) by Clark at the time of the GP of Holland, Belgium and Great Britain, Hill manages nevertheless to keep the contact with the championship thanks to its great regularity. A new second place in Nurburgring (behind Surtees) even enables him to take again the orders of general classification. With the access of the last two GP of the championship, the position of leader of Hill is however very fragile: with already six arrivals in the points, it will have to start to cut off its less good performances, and in addition to its rival eternal Clark, he is from now on under the threat of John Surtees (Ferrari), author of remarkable a second half of championship. In Watkins Glen, it takes down its second victory of the season, but with the championship, the effect almost null since is obliged to cut off a result, it takes again one point with Surtees, arrived deuxième.
The great finale of the championship takes place in Mexico City, with three pilots mathematically able to be titrated: Hill, Surtees (at 5 points), and Clark (at 9 points). With 35 turns of the arrival, Clark is at the head in front of Gurney while Hill is third right in front of Lorenzo Bandini and that Surtees is fifth. For Graham, even if it will have to cut off the points from its fourth place of Zandvoort, this position is sufficient to secure a second world title. But it is at this time that it is struck by Lorenzo Bandini (the fellow-member of Surtees at Ferrari), which followed it of too near. Obliged oberver a long stop with the stand, it sets out again far from the points. It is thus Jim Clark who becomes virtual world champion since at this stage of the race it takes again 6 points with Surtees and 9 points with Hill (with the benefit of a greater number of victories). And even if Bandini let pass its Surtees fellow-member, that would not change anything. To two turns of the arrival, Clark flies towards its second consecutive world title when an oil escape puts an end to its efforts. Gurney thus takes the head of the race in front of Bandini and Surtees, which means that Graham Hill becomes again world champion for a very small point! But while letting voluntarily pass Surtees for the arrival, Bandini offers to its coéquiper two sufficient points to blow the world title with Hill, which will be satisfied to comment on the litigious circumstances of her defeat by concise a " Bandini deserved its salaire" well well;.

BRM in lose speed (1965-1966)

Become the great classic of the championship of the world, the Clark-Hill duel begins again in 1965. But as in 1963, Clark and Lotus are quite simply untouchable, and the legendary regularity of Hill is not to him of any help. It benefits all the same from the absence of Clark (occupied disputing and gaining the 500 Miles of Indianapolis) to gain with plume its test fetish, the GP of Monaco: left to the fault at the beginning of race while wanting to avoid the Brabham immobilized Bob Anderson, it must get out of its car to give it in the direction of the race and launches out in an insane track race which it concludes by what perhaps constitutes more the great victory of its career. The continuation of the season is more delicate for Hill, who in addition to the domination of Clark, undergoes in-house the rise to power of her young fellow-member, the beginner Jackie Stewart. With a victory at the end of the season in Watkins Glen (which with Monaco, and the other circuit of the championship on which it is traditionally in success), it makes sure nevertheless of a new place of vice-champion of the world.

The beautiful series of Hill, who evolves/moves with the more high level of the championship since 1962 stops in 1966. The championship is marked by the coming into effect of a new regulation engine (the authorized maximum cubic capacity is carried to 3 000 cm ³), that BRM believes well inspired to approach with a driving new H16. True gas works made up of two V8 superimposed, H16 will prove to be a true fiasco. Quickly demobilized and more and more often dominated by Stewart, Hill arrives to glaner some places of honor, but does not obtain the least victory
Season 1966 of Hill however is saved by her success with prestigious the 500 Miles of Indianapolis, at the wheel of a Lola. It is about a success which is not stripped of a good amount of chance, the race having been to dominate by Jackie Stewart (its fellow-member, as in F1), which broke down for the arrival.

Return gaining Lotus (1967-1969)

Nearly seven years after its violent rupture with Chapman Hake, Graham Hill carries out her return to Lotus for the season 1967, thus forming a duet of shock with Jim Clark. This return of Hill at Lotus must much with the insistence of the giant Ford, new partner of Lotuses, and which for trade names, had required of Chapman that it align a duet of " stars" , thus breaking with the traditional policy of Lotus consisting in engaging a second pilot of less gauge at the sides of Clark. Lotus, which leaves one painful season 1966 (mainly because of the engine H16 BRM) approaches 1967 with a completely new technical project: sublime the Lotus 49 with engine Ford-Cosworth. Having had the honor to develop V8 Cosworth (mainly because Clark, exiled tax, account its days of presence in England), Hill signs the pole-position as of her first appearance, in Zandvoort. But in race, it is Clark which is essential. Overpowered by the engine trouble, Hill knows one season overall frustrating and does not gain only one race.

In spite of the loss of the exclusive use of the Ford engine (from which from now on the semi-official Matra from the team Tyrrell and the McLaren profit), Lotus approaches the season 1968 in position of favorite, have regard to their very promising services of 1967. Even if Hill and Clark profit from the same statute within the team, the strong man of the team is however indeed Clark. Admired for her professionalism and her bravery, Hill is regarded less by it by the majority of the observers as a pilot less talented than the Scot. Moreover, to nearly 40 years, it passes to be a growing old pilot, who has his more beautiful years derrières him. One thus awaits especially him that he plays the team-members of luxury. These considerations on the power struggles within the TEAM Lotus fly brutally in glare when on April 7th, 1968, Jim Clark (easy winner of the first sleeve of the championship in South Africa) is killed in a test out of Formula 2 in Hockenheim. It is in fact on Graham Hill which all the hopes of the TEAM Lotus rest. Winner in Spain then in Monaco, it settles championship of the world at the head and will not leave it any more in spite of the ceaseless pressure of Jacky Stewart (Matra) and Denny Hulme (McLaren). The GP of Mexico, like four years earlier, the world title is played in a brawl with three at the time of the ultimate handle of the championship, but this time, it is Hill who out of victorious spring and which takes down its second world title.

The euphoria of the second world title of Hill continues at the time of the beginning of the season 1969, where it takes down a new victory in Monaco. But it is about the field of the swan for the English veteran, whose burst of speed appears moreover in blunted, and who largely undergoes the law of his new team-member, the young Austrian Jochen Rindt. The season is completed even in a dramatic way for Hill, victim with Watkins Glen of a serious accident: set out again without buckling its safety straps following a first slew-round which had obliged it to push itself its car (as in Monaco in 1965), it violently leaves the road a few moments later, is made eject its car and is raised with the two broken legs

End of a career in bottom of grid (1970-1975)

The serious wounds of Hill seem to have to sound the end of its career. Facing the forecasts, it however carries out its return to the competition at the beginning of the championship of the world 1970. The TEAM Lotus not having preserved it, it found refuge within the famous stable of Rob Walker, which engages of the Lotuses on a purely private basis (and with a certain success like proved it the victory of OJ Siffert with the GP of Great Britain 1968). But the results are very disappointing, Hill managing to register only 7 points.

In 1971, it joined Brabham, where it joins again with the victory at the time of the test out-championship of International Trophy, at the wheel of the famous called BT34 " grip homard" because of the form characteristic of its front cap. But the results in championship of the world do not follow. In 1972, the arrival with the head of the stable of Bernie Ecclestone does not change gives it, and it continues to fight in bottom of grid, in the hope of grapiller some points. This season 1972 is to however mark of a white stone for Hill, who gains the 24 Hours of Mans on Matra MS670 (as a crew with Henri Pescarolo) and returns to the Pantheon of the automobile sport while becoming the first pilot of the history (and the only one at day) to take down the triple crown, i.e. to have gained the championship of the world of F1, the 500 Miles of Indianapolis and Mans.

In 1973, it decides to assemble its own stable of Formula 1, baptized Embassy-Hill of the name of a mark of cigarettes. After having engaged into 1973 of the frames Shadow, then into 1974 of the frames Lola, the Embassy-Hill stable becomes manufacturer with whole share in 1975 with the GH1 (actually an evolution of Lola of the former season). Always pilot, but less and less powerful (as its sad not-qualification with the GP testifies some to Monaco 1975), it decides to put a term at his career at the time of the GP of Great Britain, where it is satisfied to carry out some turns with the idle, without helmet, for one to greet the public, which reserves a true ovation to him.

November 29th, 1975, of return of a meeting of private tests, it is victim of an accident to the orders of its private aircraft. He and its five passengers (whose his young pilot, the great hope of F1 Tony Breaks) is killed on the blow.

Others

With a presence Formulates 1 of them which was spread out over 17 years (of 1958 to 1975), Graham Hill always holds the record of the more long career in the discipline queen. Its record of number of Grand Prix disputed (176) held until 1988 before being beaten by Riccardo Patrese.
Graham Hill is one of the first pilots to have raised a helmet with personalized decoration (hitherto, the pilots were satisfied with a plain color). Its heaume blue harms (which appears black on the photographs), decorated white bands symbolizing of the oars, was inspired by the colors of London Rowing Club, its club of oar. His/her son Damon Hill will take again to him also these colors

Career Formulates 1 of them

Statistics

Grands Prix : 176 departures (179 participations)
Victories : 14
marked Points : 289
Poles Positions : 13
Podiums : 36
Better Turns in race : 10
Beginnings in F1 : 1958 - Grand Prix of Monaco ( Result: abandonment )
First victory : 1962 - Grand Prix of the Netherlands in Zandvoort
First pole position : 1962 - Grand Prix of Belgium, with Spa-Francorchamps
Last GP disputed : 1975 - Grand Prix of Brazil, in Interlagos ( Result: abandonment )
Last participation: 1975 - Grand Prix of Monaco ( not-qualified )

Note: Graham Hill counts 179 participations for only 176 departures. This difference is explained by the fixed price of the TEAM Walker following the tests of the GP of Italy 1970 (in homage to Jochen Rindt which had just committed suicide on the Lotus from factory) and by its not-qualifications with the GP of South Africa and Monaco 1975 (its two only participations on the Hill GH-1).

Victories in Championship of the world of F1

Note: With five victories with the Grand Prix of Monaco, Graham Hill a long time held the record of the number of successes in Principality. This record was beaten only in 1993 and sixth victory of Ayrton Senna, which irony of the history, was essential in front of Damon Hill, the son of Graham.

See too

Damon Hill, her son
Embassy-Hill, her stable of Formula 1
Pilot of Formula 1: classification by better Pilot turns
of Formula 1: classification by Pilot podiums
of Formula 1: classification by Pilot poles position
of Formula 1: classification by Pilot victories
of Formula 1: classification by hat tricks

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