47 replies to this topic

[gray_cat]

From AtlasF1 :

Wednesday February 28th, 2001

Briton Damon Hill has followed Martin Brundle and Derek Warwick by entering the world of car sales.

Former world champion Hill, 40, retired from Formula One in 1999 after a disappointing year with Jordan and he is ready to relish the new challenge which awaits him.

He has teamed up with manager Michael Breen and automotive entrepreneur Nick Whale to set up Damon Hill Limited, and the company has taken on a BMW dealership in Warwick.

Hill hopes that his business can capitalise on his name. "Hopefully having my name on the door will symbolise that the company stands for everything I aspired to in my career as a driver," said Hill.




So, for once I'm in agreement with Mr Hill - BMW has an edge ;)

[FredF1]

After the whole Rover/BMW affair - the tabloids won't be happy...

"Brit champion in Kraut car shock horror" or somesuch crap.

[DangerMouse]

Quote

"Hopefully having my name on the door will symbolise that the company stands for everything I aspired to in my career as a driver,"

So the company will quit after 7 years!

I prefer Brundles interpretation of being a car salesman – TVRs Hmmmmm.

[DangerMouse]

Good point Fred, BMWs sales were badly dented in the UK after the Rover affair. First Jenson then Damon on their side is good PR!

[andy_bee]

I'm not sure it had much of an impact. I think if I remember correctly there was a slight sales dip the month that the fiasco was annouced, but the remaining months all reached previous forecasts. At the same time Rover sales went throught the roof

[DangerMouse]

50% of car new sales in the UK are company cars, Beemers sell most of their cars to companies and the Rover 75 (the one that shifted in droves!) are mainly bought by company car buyers - surely someone/thing must have suffered!?

[andy_bee]

nope, not as I remember. The Rover 75 wasn't really spec'd to compete with BMW anyway and it wasn't a big seller company car wise either, part of the problem. More for the retired gentleman. Good car though drives very very well

Now that Rover is free of BMW they can in specification get closer to BMW. First evidence of this is the new MGF and Rover/MG75 over the coming months.

IMHO I think the Mini will suffer becuase of this when its launched in the UK and also the attitude BMW has given to current Mini specialists threatening to sue them if they continue to use the word Mini

[andy_bee]

sorry forgot one thing. The 75 sold in droves in Rover terms, not BMW 3 series,

[BuzzingHornet]

Wonder if there is a Williams or Berger connection with Hill's new job??

[P1 Pyrsol]

sad, really, but it sheds light on damon's true potential.

[george baird]

Wasn't Mansell selling cars a few years ago I think it was Ferrari and TVR.

[andy_bee]

yeap, and Brundle sells Toyota and TVR, Derek Warwick has a couple of Honda delearships, Frank Sytner (ex BTCC) runs a large chain of BMW and Alpina dealerships and John Cleland runs a Volvo garage. Jack Brabham runs a garage, it use to be Vauxhall but not sure anymore

Anyone else

[BuzzingHornet]

Quote

Originally posted by P1 Pyrsol
sad, really, but it sheds light on damon's true potential.

Why is it sad? He never has to work again if he doesn't want to ... I think that comment sheds some light alright, buts its not on Hill ;)

[Hooster]

Quote

Originally posted by DangerMouse


So the company will quit after 7 years!

Yes, painfully. Damon´s last race was truly a sad affair.

[BuzzingHornet]

Hill was pretty brave to finish the season in 1999, he could have been killed if his mind wasn't right and he must have known it. Anyway its all water under the bridge, I was sad about the way he finished in 99 but happy that he got out with a World title and in 1 piece I'm sure he'll be successful in business now.

Didn't Boris Becker do something similar when he quit tennis? He runs BMW dealerships I believe.

[Todd]

Quote

Originally posted by BuzzingHornet
Hill was pretty brave to finish the season in 1999,

Typical Damon fan. If you think that there was anything admirable about his '99 season, it certainly explains why you thought he was a good driver in the first place. He was just so brave. And dreamy too.

[Samurai]

F1 is the pinnacle of motorsports.
I guess if you lost the fire and desire (and maybe also the reflexes through aging), the high speeds and cutting edge racing could be damn dangerous.

[JayWay]

So put others in the path of danger cause he was to stuborn (or greedy) to retire.

What a hero.

[gray_cat]

Quote

Originally posted by BuzzingHornet
Hill was pretty brave to finish the season in 1999

Since you brought it up BH, I must say I can't disagree more.

If Damon Hill was a gentleman he would of been brave and honest enough to quit at the beginning of '99.

Instead, having greed as a sole motivation, he wasted seat in Jordan, wasted $10M of EJ's and sponsor's money, hit a few cars and provided moveable chicane for the rest of the year. But the profit was good and what else matters for DH ?

I wish him all the best in his future commercial endeavors - that might be his real talent, since being a gentleman often is an obstacle for salesman career

[BuzzingHornet]

If he was so bad why didn't they sack him?? Answer me that.

Todd, yeah i'm a fan and sure in hindsight I wish he'd not bothered turning up for 1999 but be serious, you seem to have no sense of perspective whenever Hill is mentioned.

JayWay, so which was he, stubborn or greedy??

Gray_cat, did you hear about the 1999 races from Todd? I take it you didn't see many of them... sure Hill was slow but he didn't hit anyone, he was taken out a few times though...

[JayWay]

BH,

I don't know, I'm not Damon.

[BuzzingHornet]

Thanks for that honesty JayWay, you've proved that opinions count for s*** when you don't know the real anwers

take note Todd and gray_cat ;)

[Hooster]

Quote

Originally posted by BuzzingHornet
Hill was pretty brave to finish the season in 1999.

Brave my ass. If he had been brave he would have left F1 when his motivation to drive left him. In my book staying in F1 and just going through the motions was cowardly and greedy.

[BuzzingHornet]

There are different kinds of bravery.

[JayWay]

No BH. You even admitted that Damon shouldn't have been out there. He had no fight in him, and lost the will to race. Thus he was a danger. The reason for him staying out there doesn't make a difference, he shouldn't have been out there.

[gray_cat]

Quote

Originally posted by BuzzingHornet
If he was so bad why didn't they sack him?? Answer me that.

sure Hill was slow but he didn't hit anyone, he was taken out a few times though...

I don't know exactly why they didn't sack him, I guess they tried a few times, but between Jordan and BH promotion contracts it was difficult and expensive to do.

As for hitting cars, you should ask Ralf that

[BuzzingHornet]

you guess?
well they tried to replace him once but Verstappen was a second slower than even a demotivated Hill... so what do you do?

JayWay, I don't think it was as simple as that. He did actually try and turn things round, ok he had a crap year but he was still good at Imola, Spa, Hungary, Silverstone and had some bad luck at other tracks late in the season like Nurburgring, Sepang and early in the season at Australia, Brazil. thats 2/3 of the races... there was only a handful where you could say he was genuinely poor.

[gray_cat]

It is difficult to find replacement mid-season, I think they were talking about Trully, but between buying-out Hill's contract and buying-out Trully's contract it was all too complicated.

The fact that there was no good replacement available doesn't make Hill's 'I go - I don't go' position any better - even English magazines (like Autocar) only stopped short of calling him an idiot at the time

[BuzzingHornet]

yeah I know but hindsight is a great thing, how do you know the time to pack it in is now?? For all you know, next race things could be back to normal, especially when you have won or pole/led on all of the circuits on the calender...

Anyway its a question of opinion and we all have our agendas on this topic don't we ;)

[Singing in the rain]

Buzzing Hornet,
perhaps a bit OT, but Boris Becker makes PR for Mercedes together with Mika Häkkinen, yes! Some of the spots in television are at least a bit funny. Are they only shown in Germany? I don't think Boris ever made anything with BMW.
Boris is considered a F1-fan and apparently knows Mika quite well.
It's doubtful whether Boris is surfing on the atlas pages though...

[BuzzingHornet]

Thanks, maybe I got Merc and BMW mixed up.

[Todd]

Quote

Originally posted by BuzzingHornet
sure Hill was slow but he didn't hit anyone, he was taken out a few times though...

As his unofficial biographer and personal bidet, you should remember that Lamon pulled one of his characteristic over-ambitious inside "passing" maneuvers on Ralf Schumacher at Monaco in 1999. Amazing. You can't even be right about your favorite subject.

[BuzzingHornet]

Quote

Originally posted by Todd


As his unofficial biographer and personal bidet, you should remember that Lamon pulled one of his characteristic over-ambitious inside "passing" maneuvers on Ralf Schumacher at Monaco in 1999. Amazing. You can't even be right about your favorite subject.

So sue me.
anyway i'm surprised Michael Schumacher can sit straight with your nose wedged up his backside I think he is the one who needs a personal bidet.

[DangerMouse]

Reading between the lines I’m sure he wanted to quit in 1999 but Benson and Hedges wouldn’t let him.

Quote

Todd:
Typical Damon fan. If you think that there was anything admirable about his '99 season, it certainly explains why you thought he was a good driver in the first place. He was just so brave. And dreamy too.

The couple of times Hill got his act together in 1999 Trulli punted him off. Is setting the fastest trap speed all weekend through Eau Rouge brave or admirable enough?

Plus at least Damon was brave enough to race his team-mates on equal terms unlike a professional, yellow streak of piss I can mention.

[Todd]

Quote

Originally posted by DangerMouse
Is setting the fastest trap speed all weekend through Eau Rouge brave or admirable enough?

No. That could have been a peculiarity of his set up. He was soundly beaten by H2F, Eddie, and Ralf that race anyway. With a good qualifying session and a podium-worthy car, why couldn't he at least keep Ralf at bay?

Quote

Originally posted by DangerMouse
Plus at least Damon was brave enough to race his team-mates on equal terms unlike a professional, yellow streak of piss I can mention.

I've heard an audio tape of Lamon appealing to Eddie Jordan for team orders to be instituted. There has never been comparable hard evidence of MS' team giving him a win.

[BuzzingHornet]

Canada 2000...

[FIAsco]

Why does every topic which involves Damon Hill end up in a pissing contest between DH and MS fans?
Don't you ever get bored of it? :yawn:
Go back to kindergarden.

[Todd]

You heard what Jean or Ross said to Rubens during the race?

[BuzzingHornet]

Quote

Originally posted by FIAsco
Why does every topic which involves Damon Hill end up in a pissing contest between DH and MS fans?
Don't you ever get bored of it? :yawn:
Go back to kindergarden.

Because Todd shows up and starts writing BS... get used to it.

[gray_cat]

BH,

I started this thread because it seemed rather ironic to me that Hill ended-up selling BMWs. You switched the subject to his 'bravery' in '99. Is this your agenda ?

Quote

Originally posted by DangerMouse
Reading between the lines I’m sure he wanted to quit in 1999 but Benson and Hedges wouldn’t let him.

Yes, Hill wanted to quit because didn't want to risk, but he wanted also to keep the money - when it became clear that he will not be paid in full, he decided to drag along. This is quite understandable, but hardly an example of bravery. If my memory serves me well, he actually has gotten into history books as a driver who aborted the race because was afraid to carry on - what so particularly brave about that ? Besides, he cheated on his own team - would you call somebody, who takes the money and than quits the job unfinished, a gentleman ?

[BuzzingHornet]

I didn't switch the subject I passed a comment, you'll find that until several of you replied I stayed completely on topic. This is all water under the bridge anyway, ancient history... i'd rather talk about his new job.

He's not some kind of used car dealer, he owns a dealership! Thats totally respectable... isn't it??

Like I said, he doesn't have to work at all does he?? You can't really slag him off for NOT sitting on his backside on a beach somewhere doing sweet FA.

[B.Traven]

Interesting was the case of Ayrton Senna :
Altough he ever had strong links with Honda , he chose Audi as the car to represent when he set up a car dealership in Sao Paulo ( still run by his brother Leonardo )

[gray_cat]

Hill does have some taste for good cars - he was driving '63 Ferrari 250GTO in historic race (overreved the engine, I heard)

BMW might actually use DH and Button to improve their position in UK.

[BuzzingHornet]

That is, if they get Button back ;)
Possibly.

[Samurai]

Hi I just woke up

Yes you'd expect an F1 driver's (especially an honest WDC!) name would be an advertising boost to people in interested in cars. it's more credible than selling expensive watches or hamburgers for example (though of course since I'm a fan if I had a choice between buying 2 brands, I'd buy Damon's ;) ).

This dealership is also waaay more reasonable than the old rumoured Indi 500 drive (you don't get younger unfortunately,... ).
But if he did get it back, I'd line up to watch of course!

[mahelgel]

Damon Hill.... Even though he was far from perfect, i always liked him, and i allways cheered for him when he was on the track.

Hill was pretty good when he got the setup of the car right. And when it was right, he did some fantastic races. He also was a good developer, and started his career at Williams as a test driver. But when he didn't get the setup right, he usually did an ok qualifying, but in the races he was not even close to where he should have been.

He also did a few "strange" overtaking manouvers which didn't look too good on camera, but i still rate him highly. He did a fantastic job in getting Williams over the loss of Ayrton Senna (the whole team did a fantastic job to get close to the WC). He also did a great job in the 96 season (even though the williams was pretty much the fastest car that year).

And he didn't start out in F1 until he was 30 years old (at least i think he was about 30 years old when he started out in F1 after a ok bike career), and that is pretty unusual in the world of F1 today...

And as posted earlyer, I think Damon was brave to abort a race because he didn't want to risk it... it takes guts to admit fear when one are in a business like F1... (it's just a different kind of brave...)

Why people has the need to put down Hill, i don't know. And why the fans don't manage to see his downsides, i don't know. Why he choose to drive the 99 season, i don't know. But i still see him as one of the great F1 drivers in the 90s (and not only in the 90s...)

[HartleyHare]

Good luck to him if he thinks he can sell those sh1tboxes.


Only joking!;)

As to the final season, I understand that part of the B&H contract demanded Hill in the car - if he had left it would have cost Jordan money. He saved them money by staying. Oh well, water under the bridge...

Hope he makes a decent enough living, but now he is not driving, I'm not that interested, really. Same goes for Carl Fogarty and Nigel Mansell. Great performers, but that is as far as my interest goes, really.

Good PR move by BMW, though, I agree.

[DangerMouse]

Quote

Todd:
quote:

Originally posted by DangerMouse
Is setting the fastest trap speed all weekend through Eau Rouge brave or admirable enough?



No. That could have been a peculiarity of his set up. He was soundly beaten by H2F, Eddie, and Ralf that race anyway. With a good qualifying session and a podium-worthy car, why couldn't he at least keep Ralf at bay?
quote:

Originally posted by DangerMouse
Plus at least Damon was brave enough to race his team-mates on equal terms unlike a professional, yellow streak of piss I can mention.



I've heard an audio tape of Lamon appealing to Eddie Jordan for team orders to be instituted. There has never been comparable hard evidence of MS' team giving him a win.

Todd,

So whenever Hill does well there’s an excuse ready? If MS set the fastest time through Eau Rouge you’d hail it as an example of skill, when Damon does it excuses – Pathetic.

Hill made a poor start at SPA and got stuck behind Zanardi allowing HHF Ralf etc to disappear. When clear of Zanardi he went on to set the 3rd fastest lap – but in effect lost a whole pitstop to HHF.

The Spa 98 crap again – You’ve got the tape so why not use your brain? Hill said “We can race for this if you want – your call” to EJ. Meaning he knew damn well that overtaking in those conditions was daft and risky – why throw a way a first win and a 1-2 at that? Alesi said it was impossible to overtake Ralf in that race despite being quicker because the conditions were so poor, MS was unable to overtake Hill in Suzuka 98 in a perfectly healthy and much faster Ferrari – what makes you Think RS could do it in the same car in terrible conditions?

Hill deserved that race, he utterly destroyed Ralf on race pace only to have his massive lead depleted thanks to the pace car – if you think that makes RS worthy of the race win over Hill then you’re an idiot – but then we already know that.

And wasn't Eddies famous qoute about waiting for the call while pulling away at Suzuka (97?) that so him chuck a 12 second (and increasing) lead only to slow and bulk JV good enough evidence of enforced team orders to help MS?