Phil Hill, American F1 Champion, Dies At 81
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Aug 29, 2008
Phil Hill, a reserved Californian who became a gifted race-car driver and the only U.S.-born driver to win the Formula One international auto-racing championship, died Thursday. He was 81.
Hill died at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula of complications from Parkinson’s disease, said John Lamm, a close friend who is also editor-at-large of Road & Track magazine.
Hill won the Formula One title for Ferrari in 1961. He also was the first American to win the 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans, France—a race he would win twice again—and he won the Sebring 12-hour race three times, among many other victories.
“I, as well as all employees of Ferrari are extremely saddened by the news of the passing of Phil Hill, a man and a champion who gave so much to Ferrari,” Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said. “Phil and I have always kept in touch throughout the years and I know I will miss his passion and love for Ferrari very much.”
Hill won the 1961 Formula One title by a point over Wolfgang von Trips, the Ferrari teammate who was killed in the team’s final race of the year. Hill won three F1 races, taking the Italian Grand Prix in 1960 and 1961 and the Belgian Grand Prix in 1961.
It was a tragedy from which Hill’s Formula One career never really recovered and he eventually retired from single-seater racing in 1964, going on to establish a successful car restoration business in his native California.
“Phil was a very special guy and had a love for the automotive age,” said Gurney, a teammate with Ferrari. “He was always a potential winner when he sat in a race car. He was both a competitor and a close friend and a fellow I could look up to.”
“It’s a sad day,” said Carroll Shelby, a close friend of Hill’s who became a celebrated builder of sports cars after retiring from racing. “Phil was an excellent race-car driver with a unique feel for the car, and his real expertise was in long-distance racing.”
Hill, despite driving with safety gear in his race car that paled by today’s standards, never suffered a serious injury. He retired from driving in 1967 at 39.
“I had an amazing amount of luck to race for 22 years and not a drop of blood or a broken bone,” Hill once said. Then he quipped: “Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough.”
