page_title: Damon Hill
section_title: Arrows (1997)
hierarchical_section_title: Damon Hill / Career / Formula One / Arrows (1997)
caption_attribution_description: English: Damon Hill in a Arrows Yamaha A18 car leading the 1997 Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix.
context_page_description: Damon Graham Devereux Hill, OBE is a British former racing driver. He is the son of Graham Hill, and, along with Nico Rosberg, one of only two sons of a Formula One world champion to also win the title. He started racing on motorbikes in 1981, and after minor success moved on to single-seater racing cars. Despite progressing steadily up the ranks to the International Formula 3000 championship by 1989, and despite being competitive, he never won a race at that level.
  Hill became a test driver for the Formula One title-winning Williams team in 1992. He was promoted to the Williams race team the following year after Riccardo Patrese's departure and took the first of his 22 victories at the 1993 Hungarian Grand Prix. During the mid-1990s, Hill was Michael Schumacher's main rival for the Formula One Drivers' Championship, which saw the two clash several times on and off the track. Their collision at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix gave Schumacher his first title by a single point. Hill became champion in 1996 with eight wins, but was dropped by Williams for the following season.
context_section_description: Hill became the fourth driver in nine years to win the World Drivers' Championship for Williams and not drive for the team the following season, as occurred with Nelson Piquet (1987 champion – 1988 driver for Lotus), Nigel Mansell (1992 champion – 1993 driver in the US-based Indy Car World Series instead of F1) and Alain Prost (1993 champion – retired in 1994). As world champion, Hill was in high demand and had offers for a race seat from McLaren, Benetton and Ferrari but not adequately financially valued despite his status. As a consequence, he opted to sign for Arrows, a team which had never won a race in its 20-year history and had scored only a single point the previous year. Hill's title defence in 1997 proved unsuccessful, getting off to a poor start when he only narrowly qualified for the Australian Grand Prix and then retired on the parade lap. The Arrows car, which used tyres from series debutant Bridgestone and previously unproven Yamaha engines, was generally uncompetitive, and Hill did not score his first point for the team until the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July. His best result for the year then came at the Hungarian Grand Prix. On a day when the Bridgestone tyres had a competitive edge over their Goodyear rivals, Hill qualified third in a car that had not previously placed higher than 9th on the grid. During the race, he passed his rival and new championship contender, Michael Schumacher, on the track and was leading late in the race, 35 seconds ahead of the eventual 1997 World Champion, Villeneuve, until a hydraulic problem drastically slowed the Arrows. Villeneuve thus passed Hill, who finished second and achieved the team's first podium since the 1995 Australian Grand Prix. This new podium ultimately turned out to be Arrows' last ever podium finish.
caption: Damon Hill's Arrows A18 leading the Hungarian Grand Prix.
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