"It was terrible, and to this day, I still feel the tension I experienced," Damon Hill recalls the moment in November 1975 when he heard on television that his father, Graham Hill, the two-time Formula One world champion, had died in a plane crash. Hill had to leave the room to find his mother and break the news.
"It was like setting off a bomb, and I had to tell my mum. Of course, it was even harder because I was only 15—too young to handle something like that."
The depth of Hill’s grief is explored in a new documentary that follows his journey to follow his father into racing and eventually match his achievement by winning the F1 championship in 1996. Early in the film, his wife, Georgie, remembers him as one of the saddest people she had ever met.
"I was angry at everything," Hill says. "I had grown tired of being known only as a famous driver’s son. I just wanted a normal life where people saw me for who I was. Georgie wasn’t impressed by my father’s legacy or the racing world—she was a refuge for me."
Six months into their relationship, Georgie finally understood his sorrow when they drove past the cemetery where his father was buried. "It hit me out of nowhere," Hill says. "Until then, I had only cried occasionally, but that moment broke everything open. Sometimes, a deep cry is exactly what’s needed."
In the documentary, he admits to briefly wishing he had been on the plane with his father. At 15, death had seemed easier than life. "In those first moments, I just wanted to be with him," Hill says. "I loved spending time with him—he was incredible."
Did he ever seek help? "Back then, people didn’t know about grief counseling. The closest I got was a visit from my school chaplain, who tried to comfort me."
As a child, Hill was more interested in motorcycles than racing. But in his mid-20s, he chose to follow his father into F1. "It was partly about filling the emptiness after losing him. I wanted to reclaim something of that world we lost."
He told Georgie he would become world champion one day. "I said a lot of wild things," Hill admits with a laugh. "But I was determined—and in F1, you need that drive."
Hill was 30 when his F1 career finally took off.
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