1994 British Grand Prix

The 1994 British Grand Prix was Round 8 of the 1994 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The event was held at Silverstone, United Kingdom on Sunday, 10 July 1994. Damon Hill started on pole position in the Williams Renault and was the race winner.

A memorable win for Damon Hill

The 1994 British Grand Prix should be remembered above all as a significant and very English triumph for Damon Hill on home soil, driving for the quintessentially English Rothmans Williams Renault team. 

In winning this Grand Prix, Damon Hill acheived a feat that eluded his double world champion father Graham Hill – winning his home grand prix (although, it should be said, Graham did come close, twice finishing second behind Jim Clark in 1964 and 1965). 

For Damon, this was a timely victory and one that cemented his position as the Williams team-leader following the tragic death of the legendary Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in May. Although Damon had won the Spanish Grand Prix later that month, his status as defacto number one at Williams had looked somewhat in doubt after the team sensationally recalled 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell – at considerable expense – for the previous race, the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours. At Silverstone, however, Damon re-asserted his unexpected status as the only real challenger to the supremacy of Michael Schumacher, who had been running away with the 1994 championship up until this event. 

By beating Schumacher to pole position by mere thousandths of a second and setting fastest lap during the race, the 1994 British Grand Prix was the first Formula 1 event at which Damon Hill scored a “hat-trick” (pole position, win and fastest lap). Few British patriots will forget the iconic image of Damon waving the Union Jack on the slowing down lap after the race or the special moment when Princess Diana presented him with the winner’s trophy on the podium.