When Lando Norris faced his first media duties as Formula 1 World Champion, there was a particularly tender moment which was not caught on camera.
As the new champ was thrust before the usual throng of cameras and microphones in the pen, there appeared to be one individual hanging around waiting for him. As he completed one of his final interviews with BBC Radio 5 Live, he was greeted by one of its co-commentators for the race. It was the unmistakable figure of one Damon Hill.
Hill, Britain’s eighth World Champion, gave Norris a hug and a handshake, seemingly welcoming him into the club as not just the 11th British champion, but the newest member of an exclusive club of men to stand on top of the world.
After some reflection, the careers of Norris and Hill are, in some ways, quite similar. Not in the sense of pathways, as Norris mirrored the majority of those who climbed the ladder, whereas Hill was several years older than his contemporaries and never did karting, beginning his route by junior formulas via a racing school. But, in terms of how they reached the pinnacle, and the obstacles they had to overcome via their own particular brand of personality.
Norris’ first shot at title glory was last year, when McLaren became the fastest car on the grid. His obstacle between him and success lay in the form of Max Verstappen, undoubtedly one of sport’s true greats, but carried a reputation – particularly amongst a lot of the British media – for being the ‘pantomime villain’.
This, of course, stemmed from his bitter 2021 rivalry with Lewis Hamilton, and the ‘post-truth’ nature of some of his pre and post-race interviews. Perhaps Verstappen was a driver given the sort of ‘naughty boy’ moniker in the UK that no driver had been given since Michael Schumacher.
Verstappen – the Schumacher-like nemesis of Norris
Hill and Schumacher fought out their own testy title battles, where Schumacher’s reputation as ‘the bad guy’ was first spawned. Schumacher, the cold-blooded but undisputed talent of his generation, up against a smiling, British gentleman. Norris, like Hill, lost out the first time, and the 2024 season drew up similarities between Hill’s with Schumacher 30 years prior, and the following 1995 championship.
The pair’s coming together in Austria had shades of Adelaide 1994, and perhaps the psychological edge Verstappen achieved was similar to that of 1995, when Hill, despite often having an equal or indeed faster car, was mentally defeated by Schumacher.
Norris spent the early parts of 2025 – amid his lower ebbs during the first quarter of the season – talking openly about his feelings and the psychological issues he was facing. Whilst Hill never particularly showed his emotions too much, he reflected in his 2016 memoir ‘Watching the Wheels’ that after the miserable ‘95 campaign, he sought advice from a PR expert – not a psychologist, perhaps – who sought his sometimes more morose post-race interviews into something positive, even when something had gone wrong. In 1996, Hill showed a difference in character before TV cameras, largely conveying more positivity than he had ever done.
1996 was, of course, Hill’s year. With the Williams FW18 easily the quickest car, and with Schumacher now at Ferrari – amid one of its lowest periods – Hill was the stand-out favourite for the title. He only had one obstacle – a rookie team-mate in Jacques Villeneuve.
It was Hill’s fourth full F1 season, and 2025 was Norris’ seventh. Whilst not a rookie, Norris held a similar amount of time spent in F1 over team-mate Oscar Piastri. Like Hill, Norris won Round 1 in Australia, and, also like Hill, was fortunate in overcoming his team-mate’s charge. Whilst Hill never lost the title lead all year, Villeneuve constantly lingered over his shoulder and threatened to take his title away from him. Piastri went a step further and opened up a sizable lead. But other similarities still remain.
Verstappen’s first half of 2025 was, perhaps in some ways, like all of Schumacher’s 1996. Outdriving a poor car with a couple of wins to take away as a form of pride. And whilst Verstappen was able to mount a monumental comeback that Schumacher could not muster, Norris was still fighting his team-mate, and, like Hill, himself.
Some might say that Hill made heavy weather of 1996, which, in some ways, perhaps Norris also did, not utilising a considerably quicker car to produce a year in which he, perhaps on paper, could or should have cleaned up against a team-mate who did not know the team as well. A running theme of ‘96 was Hill’s botched starts, often from pole position or at least the front row. These cost him wins, similarly to how Norris failed to take victories last year from the same issue.
Winning the hard way but ‘my way’ – Norris emulates Hill with title success
Whilst Norris possesses a boyish charm and endears him to many people with an undeniable amount of supporters [his ‘Lando Stand’ at Silverstone filled its 10,000 capacity], not everyone was sold. Hill also admitted in his memoirs that he occasionally dropped the odd PR blunder, telling a journalist prior to his Adelaide showdown with Schumacher that he was perhaps not being paid enough by Williams, a rare chink in his gentlemanly armour.
Norris has done similar, too, twice making what appeared to be blunt and rude remarks towards Hamilton. In 2020, he claimed that Hamilton only needed to beat a small number of drivers to win a championship.
“I’m just happy for him, nothing more,” he said after Hamilton won his seventh title. “It doesn’t mean anything to me, really. He’s in a car which should win every race, basically. He has to beat one or two other drivers, that’s it. Fair play to him, he’s still doing the job he has to do.”
The pair also exchanged frosty words after the Hungarian Grand Prix last season, with Norris taking aim at Hamilton’s previous car advantage.
But, what really counts, is that both men won the title in the final round, and albeit under slightly underwhelming circumstances. In Suzuka, Hill got a great start, whereas Villeneuve floundered, and ultimately crashed out, confirming Hill as #1. In Abu Dhabi, Verstappen and Piastri finished ahead of Norris, but third was still enough to win.
Afterwards, Norris spoke about how much it meant to him to win “my way”. Maybe not being as ruthless as his competitors, and perhaps not always showing perfection out of the car, but perhaps achieving it by honesty and decency where others might not, or at least in the eyes of the populace.
Hill’s crowning moment was perhaps the same. Never one to give an inch, but never one to force others in doing so. Talent, hard work and often with a smile, was how it was won for both of them. And as the pair exchanged their embrace in the Yas Marina Circuit paddock, they were able to stand shoulder to shoulder as equals – two men who have achieved F1’s greatest prize, something that can’t be taken from either of them.
READ MORE – Lando Norris expresses regret at past Lewis Hamilton F1 remarks
Discussion about this post