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Why Hill and not Brundle


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#1 HistoryFan

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Posted 20 February 2014 - 12:18

There were two possible drivers for the second Williams seat in 1993. Damon Hill and Martin Brundle.

Hill raced with Brabham in 1992, he was good, but not so promising as Brundle, who was very fast alongside Michael Schumacher at Benetton.

 

So why did Williams choose Hill and not Brundle?

Was ist because of Hill had a promising future and Brundle was older?

Was ist because they need a number two driver alongside Alain Prost?

Or what was the reason?



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#2 Imperial

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Posted 20 February 2014 - 12:42

Wasn't Hill the test driver for Williams prior to his ascension to becoming a race driver for them...?

 

Thus, probably answering the question.



#3 PayasYouRace

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Posted 20 February 2014 - 12:49

You might find some answers in this recent thread, starting from where I posed a similar question: http://forums.autosp...1996/?p=6549845



#4 Spaceframe

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Posted 20 February 2014 - 12:49

Wasn't Hill the test driver for Williams prior to his ascension to becoming a race driver for them...?

 

Thus, probably answering the question.

Indeed, Patrick Head and Adrian Newey were very impressed by his work, so he got the verdict. Brundle was considered, as was Mika Häkkinen, but Head always favoured continuity (so Patrese got the offer first, but he'd already signed with Bennetton, as Williams had advised him to go elsewhere, as they would run Prost and Mansell, and the Italian refused to break his contract.



#5 gold333

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Posted 21 February 2014 - 01:32

Indeed, Patrick Head and Adrian Newey were very impressed by his work, so he got the verdict. Brundle was considered, as was Mika Häkkinen, but Head always favoured continuity (so Patrese got the offer first, but he'd already signed with Bennetton, as Williams had advised him to go elsewhere, as they would run Prost and Mansell, and the Italian refused to break his contract.


The fact that Hill haddeveloped and tested the Williams from 91 through 93 had a lot to do with it. The active components in the 93 car were built from near scratch in the way they were embedded in the design as opposed to bolted on to the 92 car (which was essentially the 91 car).

Head probably thought: we've got Prost, we will win, lets play it safe. He probably chose Hill as a sort of glorified engineer/tester to make sure Prost would always have the right tools at his side throughout the 93 championship.

#6 GD66

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Posted 21 February 2014 - 13:24

Williams have had a long history of undervaluing drivers : much as I thought Damon was similarly undervalued, and indeed poorly treated by Williams, the tantalising question of what Brundle may have been able to achieve there is one for some serious consideration... :cool:



#7 PayasYouRace

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Posted 21 February 2014 - 14:02

Somewhere there's an alternate reality where Williams line-up for 1993 was reigning WDC Jean Alesi and newboy Martin Brundle.



#8 BRG

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Posted 21 February 2014 - 21:17

Ah, that would be the alternate reality where Williams didn't win a single GP in 1993.



#9 Michael Ferner

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Posted 21 February 2014 - 21:30

... or perhaps the alternate reality where one and one makes three... :rolleyes:



#10 Les

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Posted 21 February 2014 - 22:09

Yeah as others have said Damon was  picked as he was the test driver. The face that he turned out to be more than decent proved a very nice bonus and its a credit to Damon who's under appreciated owning to the circumstances of his F1 career. Fact is he turned out late to be an excellent F1 driver. 



#11 D-Type

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Posted 21 February 2014 - 23:02

Surely as he was their test driver, Williams must have known Damon was "more than decent".  Likewise, after having seen him racing against them for eight years, they would have had a fair idea of Martin Brundle's abiliy - and limitations.  On balance they clearly felt that Damon fitted their requirements for a number two to Prost better than Brundle did.



#12 garoidb

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Posted 22 February 2014 - 00:05

Didn't Martin Brundle do a race for Williams in 1988 as a stand in for Nigel Mansell? He would have been well known to Williams I suspect, but was perhaps too established to take seasons out to be a test driver for Williams. Mark Blundell, on the other hand, was the Williams test driver but gave it up for a race seat, allowing Damon Hill his opportunity IIRC. Perhaps Damon's edge was in negotiating being able to combine racing for Brabham while still retaining the Williams test driver role. Did Mark Blundell miss a trick?



#13 Mohican

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Posted 24 February 2014 - 06:38

I do not think that Williams has been better or worse than most at driver choice over the years.
They originally picked Jones (let's disregard everything pre-78) & paired him first with a perceived solid no.2 (Regazzoni in his Indian Summer) - whom they promptly fired in order to sign Reutemann; and we all know what happened after that.
Signing drivers like Rosberg, Mansell, Piquet, Patrese, Hill, Villeneuve and Montoya were inspired decisions; not being able to keep them (or dumping them, in some cases) points the other way. Not signing Senna after the first tests in '83 was not so smart. Reutemann, Boutsen, Frentzen, Schumacher and Webber never really worked out either.

#14 mfd

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Posted 24 February 2014 - 11:44

C'mon guys, Damon was bloody cheap. Very



#15 2F-001

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Posted 24 February 2014 - 12:14

There was a (or a short series of?) fly-on-the-wall docu(s) screened on tv just ahead of that season, following the Williams teams preparations/testing/negotiations etc.

One can't necessarily put too much store by what was said there, but the clear impression was that the management's instinct was to go for Damon - they knew him from his testing role, trusted him and worked well with him (calm, hardworking and good to deal with, and maybe cheaper since he was already there) but that maybe he lacked a spark that they might find in some other hotshot. They just seemed to lack the final bit of confidence to go with their instinct, wondering what they might be missing. In the documentary, they waited until they'd had a major test with Prost and Damon interacting, waiting for Prost's opinion to nudge them into the decision. And Prost gave Damon his nod of approval.

Do you think Hill would have cheaper than some of the others - being already 'on the books' in some sense.

Now one might argue that the Frenchman would favour a team-mate who was a proven tester, a solid team-player, but perceived to present less of a potential challenge to him on track than some other choice.

#16 mfd

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Posted 24 February 2014 - 12:36

2F-001 - that's more or less exactly how I'd put it. Prost did have the idea run past him & a test at Estoril cemented the deal. As for the money, it was used as a sort of control, in both 1993 & 1994 the attitude was "do you want the job or not?"



#17 sennafan24

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Posted 24 February 2014 - 14:15

Somewhere there's an alternate reality where Williams line-up for 1993 was reigning WDC Jean Alesi and newboy Martin Brundle.

In that alternate reality, there would be a very real chance Brundle would become WDC!