The race at which NGH announced his retirement (I believe he took a ceremonial lap or 2).
Question: why did he not enter as a driver? His F1 career finished with a DNQ at Monaco - would it have been better if he finished it driving a Hill in his home GP? Surely he would have qualified for the British GP...
Graham Hill: British GP 1975
Started by
ensign14
, Jul 09 2006 17:55
4 replies to this topic
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#2
WHITE
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Posted 09 July 2006 - 18:16
Originally posted by ensign14
The race at which NGH announced his retirement (I believe he took a ceremonial lap or 2).
Question: why did he not enter as a driver? His F1 career finished with a DNQ at Monaco - would it have been better if he finished it driving a Hill in his home GP? Surely he would have qualified for the British GP...
Graham Hill was one of my favorite drivers. Perhaps, having being Monaco his first GP, he wanted to end his career there too.
#3
Barry Boor
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Posted 09 July 2006 - 18:57
Graham says 'Goodbye'.
#4
Vitesse2
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Posted 09 July 2006 - 20:52
I think WHITE has probably nailed it, although I'm not sure Graham would even have entered for Monaco if it hadn't been for Stommelen's terrible accident in Spain two weeeks earlier.
Equally, the team suddenly came together again after a somewhat uncertain start to the season: they started out with Graham and Stommelen, Migault came and went and then Jones and Brise both arrived - those two must have looked like a good pairing!
The car he's driving in Barry's picture is carrying Brise's number.
Equally, the team suddenly came together again after a somewhat uncertain start to the season: they started out with Graham and Stommelen, Migault came and went and then Jones and Brise both arrived - those two must have looked like a good pairing!
The car he's driving in Barry's picture is carrying Brise's number.
#5
KJJ
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Posted 09 July 2006 - 22:47
There's an explanation in Hill's posthumously published autobiography "Graham". Firstly he'd signed Brise after his victory in the Monaco F3 race and then after the newcomer's performance in practice for the Belgian GP Graham decided, while taking a bath, to retire:
"I'd been tremendously impressed with Tony Brise's performance that day and as I was running my own team I felt I ought to be in the pits to back up my drivers and make sure that they and the new cars did well. If I continued to drive in the team I wouldn't be able to do this and, although I was still enjoying being a racing driver, I would really only be indulging myself."
Hill then decided to announce his retirement on the eve of the Btitish Grand Prix. So I guess there was no "romantic" reasoning behind Monaco being Hill's last race, just the practical business of running the team.
"I'd been tremendously impressed with Tony Brise's performance that day and as I was running my own team I felt I ought to be in the pits to back up my drivers and make sure that they and the new cars did well. If I continued to drive in the team I wouldn't be able to do this and, although I was still enjoying being a racing driver, I would really only be indulging myself."
Hill then decided to announce his retirement on the eve of the Btitish Grand Prix. So I guess there was no "romantic" reasoning behind Monaco being Hill's last race, just the practical business of running the team.
