This is an excellent, obscure gem documentary that launched in July 2025. It had a limited cinematic and is only available on Sky/NowTV, but the F1 documentary Hill is a brilliant, candid, moving account of a remarkable F1 career.

Finding Therapy in Motorsport in the Damon Hill Film

Damon Hill was a late arrive in F1, hired by top team Williams at the start of 1993 following a stint as test driver with the team. After world champion Nigel Mansell unexpectedly quit, Hill unexpectedly found himself in a top drive.

The documentary builds to this gradually, laying the foundations his upbringing in the world of F1. He’s the son of double world champion Graham Hill.

His father survived F1’s most dangerous era, but died in a November 1975 light plane crash in London.

That personal tragedy upended the lives of the Hill family and left an indelible impact on his son, one that he’d spend decades battling on a psychological front. It’s worth watching the first 10 minutes of this interview as Hill discusses the incident candidly and just how awful the whole affair was (from the three-minute mark).

The Hill family was left near enough destitute in the aftermath, with Damon setting his sights on still getting into F1. What’s clear is motorsport provided therapy for the young Hill, a chance to escape his grief whilst focussing in the lonely environment of a cockpit.

Hill’s Rise at Williams

The documentary primarily focusses on a three-year period of his Williams career. After his debut in 1993 when he won three races, 1994 began with new teammate Ayrton Senna—the best driver in the sport.

Really, there’s no way Hill could have known what was ahead with that development. Senna killed in an accident at Imola (see the 2010 Senna documentary), then Hill trying to revitalise the devastated team. That included taking a crucial win in Spain on 29th May, within the same month of Senna’s death, the team’s first victory of the season.

It’s one of the most emotional wins in F1 history, the entire Williams team provided a reason to live.

He mounted a title challenge against Benetton’s Michael Schumacher, who was undoubtedly a better driver—a step above Hill. And this is something he had to deal with in his F1 career, taking on some of the very best drivers. He wasn’t as fast, but he had buckets of determination to keep at it and keep improving his craft.

It all came to a head at Adelaide, where Schumacher notoriously rammed Hill to secure his first world title.

Hill had a largely awful 1995 season, which led Williams to decide to replace him for 1997 (announcing the news in mid-1996 when their driver was leading the championship).

The documentary explores in close detail why Hill went off the rails in 1995. Suffering burnout from 1994 and subsequent PR duties, he’d had no real rest into the new season. He was also still struggling with the legacy of his father’s death and began looking to Sir Frank Williams and engineer stalwart Sir Patrick Head as father figures.

Those two were very old-school type ’60s gents and weren’t equipped to deal with Hill’s (or any driver’s) psychological status.

It seems ridiculous now. In modern F1 there’s a much greater understanding of mental health and how this can affect driver performance. Hill just had to shoulder this remarkable situation—the death of Senna, lifting the whole team after, trying to lead them forward.

We don’t know how we’d deal with that situation, probably not very well. Damon Hill was very admirable in his efforts, even though bottling his emotions up did lead to his notorious errors across 1995.

But his self-doubt was a constant, having to compare himself to the likes of Michael Schumacher—a near impossible relentless genius behind the wheel.

Happily, Hill did come back strong and win the 1996 world championship. How that title win also aligned with closing a psychological block with his father is explored well in the film, which is an extension of his excellent autobiography Watching the Wheels (2016).

At the heart of it all is Damon Hill’s battle to overcome his self-esteem battle. A very likeable bloke that he is, down to earth, smart, affable—he overcame the odds and his story feels underappreciated.

The fact the film didn’t get a wider cinematic run is disappointing, but if you have Sky/Now then this is well worth your time.

The Production of Hill

The film was directed by Alex Holmes, but Sky Sports presenter Simon Lazenby also played a significant role in getting the project launched.

Damon Hill, until last year, was a regular on Sky Sport’s F1 broadcasts as a pundit, although he’s since moved over to the BBC radio team on their live F1 shows.

The film has launched at a time when the Brad Pitt F1 movie is in cinemas, so we feel that has also taken attention away from Hill’s wider attention. It did premiere at Manchester Film Festival this July, though, and unfortunately we had to miss the screening due to work (DAMN YOU CAPITALISM!!!).

It got a review in The Guardian (“compelling story of formula one star“) and has been discussed in the F1 community, but that Brad Pitt film will dominate proceedings this year. Which is a shame, as Hill is a fine piece of work.