Phil Hill

PHIL HILL d2008. American racing driver with Ferrari / Maserati and Cooper who was the Formula 1 World Champion in 1961. His career record 51 races / 16 podiums with 3 wins. He began driving full-time for the Ferrari Formula One team in 1959, earning three podium finishes and fourth place in the Driver's Championship. In 1960 he won the Italian GP at Monza, the first Grand Prix win for an American driver in nearly forty years ; this also turned out to be the last ever win for a front-engined car in Formula 1. The following season he won the Belgian GP and with two races left trailed only his Ferrari teammate Wolfgang Von Trips in the season standings. A crash during the Italian GP killed von Trips and fifteen spectators. Hill won the race and clinched the 1961 championship but the triumph was bittersweet and Ferrari's decision not to travel to America for the seasons final round deprived him of the opportunity to participate in his home race at Watkind Glen as the newly-crowned World Champion. When he returned for the 1962 season (his last with Ferrari) he said, "I no longer have as much need to race, to win. I don't have as much hunger anymore. I am no longer willing to risk killing myself". After leaving Ferrari at the end of 1962, he started for the new team ATS created by ex-Ferrari engineers. In 1964 he returned to F1 driving for the Cooper team, before retiring from single seaters at the end of the season and limiting his future driving to sports car racing until his retirement in 1967. Following retirement he built up a highly succesful classic car business, owned a fine vintage car collection and became the most regular judge at The Pebble Beach Concours. He died aged 81 in 2008 from Parkinsons Disease