Few people truly understand what it means to be in the middle of a Formula 1 world championship fight. Even fewer know what it feels like to face that battle against your own teammate or a generational talent. Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion with Williams, certainly does. He defeated Jacques Villeneuve in their title fight and went wheel-to-wheel with Michael Schumacher in 1994. Pressure, expectations, and the mental burden — Hill experienced it all firsthand.
In the new podcast The Race Stay On Track, Damon Hill joins forces with his long-time rival turned friend and co-host Johnny Herbert. Together, they analyze the fierce championship battle between McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, as well as Max Verstappen’s comeback with Red Bull.
The weight of the championship
The discussion begins with an undeniable fact: Oscar Piastri’s points lead has vanished, with Norris now ahead by a single point and only four races remaining. Damon Hill has no doubt about the psychological pressure this brings.
“It’s fantastic. It’s exciting, but it gets to you, no question,” Damon Hill said. “There’s a weight, and I wonder if that’s Oscar’s problem. There’s this pressure — you can’t just get to the end. You have to drive. You wish they’d just call it early… if they could stop the championship [before Mexico] and say: ‘Now we have to declare a winner because we can’t do the last five races.’ As we speak, he’s not in front anymore, but for a long time, Oscar carried that weight.”
Damon Hill recalls Nigel Mansell’s 1992 campaign, when everyone assumed the Briton would win the title with the dominant Williams FW14B.
“It was much better than anyone else’s car. He was winning by a massive margin, and everyone kept saying to Nigel: ‘You’re going to win the championship.’ He would deflect every time, he didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t want to discuss it. And I think mentally you have to handle it that way. It’s like in a race — there’s no point thinking about the finish line when there are still ten laps to go. The moment you do that, you just want it to be over, but it’s not yet. You have to get through those last ten laps and stay in that mindset.”
Damon Hill explained that during his championship-winning season, he was completely absorbed in the competition.
“I was in a bubble. I had no idea what was happening in the world. I’m sure that [Ayrton] Senna, [Alain] Prost, and Mansell had slightly different approaches, but I think everyone understood how important that mental focus was.”
The shock of competitiveness
Damon Hill also pointed out another key factor — surprise. Neither Norris nor Piastri expected to find themselves in a title fight this season.
“I think it’s been a bit of a surprise for people like Oscar and Lando because suddenly their car became competitive. McLaren suddenly found something. And then they started this year with a big advantage. I think they went into the season thinking: ‘It’s great, isn’t it? We’ve got an amazing car. We’ll win every race. It’s wonderful.’ And it was pretty much true. But then you realize, ‘One of us is going to be world champion. And I don’t want it to be you.’”
Hill tried to imagine what Oscar Piastri might be thinking now.
“Everything’s going great, I’m leading the championship. All I have to do is keep Lando behind me and I’ll be fine. I’ve got a few points in hand, it’s like a fishing line — you can let it run a bit, but not until it reaches the end of the reel, just before the end of the championship. He had the luxury of a points cushion. And then, all of a sudden, he lost the rhythm. I remember [Piastri’s manager] Mark Webber saying this kid had never even turned a corner in an F1 car before. The only explanation is that somehow his mindset changed — he used to take every race as a separate goal, which is actually the right way to do it. In other words, if you take one race at a time, whatever happens will happen.”
Despite Oscar Piastri’s recent struggles, Damon Hill praised the young Australian’s calm and maturity in dealing with media pressure.
“He’s open, but at the same time, he doesn’t talk too much or get annoyed by questions. Recently, he was asked things like: ‘Do you think you’re losing ground?’ Can you imagine how you’d feel if someone said that to you? And he seemed to handle that pressure really well. But then something happened — I think he tripped over that realization that you could become world champion, and maybe it got to his head a bit or he got too excited.”
The title fight between Norris and Piastri is fierce, but as Damon Hill reminded listeners, the real battle is psychological. Managing pressure, staying composed, and focusing on each race will be crucial for whoever wants to be crowned Formula 1 world champion. That’s why predicting the winner is so difficult — all fans can do now is sit back and enjoy this thrilling end to the season.
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