Lights Out, Full Throttle by Damon Hill

Author:Damon Hill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Driving by the seat of your pants

Damon: Strange things can happen when you’re driving an F1 car, and both Johnny and I have experienced what many would term as being an out-of-body experience. Has anybody reading this ever slipped on a bit of ice, expected to fall and then found themselves standing up rather than lying on the ground? Well, that’s the kind of thing we’re talking about here, only it goes on for a lot longer.

My own experience happened at Suzuka in 1994. I was chasing Michael for the World Championship and was just five points behind him when we arrived in Japan. The race started in torrential rain and by lap twenty-seven there were just thirteen runners remaining. By this time Michael was 6.8 seconds ahead of me, which would end up being crucial as the race would eventually be split into two after being red flagged and the result would be determined by the aggregate times from both parts of the race.

Anyway, as I went into the final lap I’d completely run out of ideas. My tyres were worn and Michael had driven out of his skin. I described it in my autobiography as the highest level of driving I’d ever experienced and I’d taken myself to the edge of my ability. Now, though, I had nothing left and I knew that Michael would have me unless I could find something extra. But where from? Even my inner voice appeared to have thrown in the towel and I remember saying to myself, ‘Ayrton, if you’re up there, I could do with a bit of a hand down here.’ The only way I can describe what happened next is that from the exit of turn one to the hairpin halfway around the lap I was possessed of an ability to drive way, way beyond my normal limits. I distinctly remember watching my hands move the wheel but I was completely removed from what was happening. I was a passenger in my own car and appeared to have surrendered control to something paranormal. It still makes the hairs on the back of my hand stand up.

The experience wasn’t completely alien to me as in junior formulae I’d sometimes reacted to situations so fast that you were left thinking, Who the hell did that? It’s like slipping on ice but staying upright, as I said. It all happens too quick to be able to say, ‘I did that.’ But in those situations instinct had been like a stabilizer, whereas this time it appeared to be actually driving the bloody car! To cut a long story short I ended up winning the race and in all of the eighty-seven Grands Prix that followed in my career I never came close to driving like that again. Never. Not even close. When I got out of the car I had to hide in the stairwell for a while before taking to the podium as I just couldn’t get my head around what had just happened.

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