Born To Race: The Sons Who Followed Their Champion Fathers Into F1

Like father, like son. An old English adage that has been proven to be true only thrice in the history of the Formula 1 World Championship. There have been 16 instances when sons of former F1 drivers have driven in the high-octane world of F1 but none have been able to create the same aura in the sport as these two father-son duos.

Damon Hill & Graham Hill

In 1996, Damon Hill won the F1 World title, having taken eight wins of the 16 races that year. By the end of his career in 1999, Damon had 22 victories in F1, including the very first win for Team Jordan, the F1 team owned by the flamboyant Eddie Jordan, which he joined in 1997. Damon was merely carrying on the legacy started by his father Graham Hill in the 1960s. Graham was World Champion not once but twice. Once in 1962 and then again in 1968. Talented beyond words, Graham remains the only driver to have won the F1 World title, the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Graham, who was nicknamed “Mr. Monaco” for his five wins at the legendary street circuit, also stars in the 1966 film Grand Prix starring James Garner and can be seen in cameos. Graham died in a tragic plane crash in 1975 when Damon was still in his teens and Damon’s entry into F1 in 1992 was anything but easy. But his driving genes took him to third overall in 1993, his second season in F1, behind multi-World Champion team mate Alain Prost.

In 1994, his team mate at Williams was the brilliant Ayrton Senna but after Senna’s tragic death at Imola, Damon continued the Williams charge losing the Championship to Benetton’s Michael Schumacher by a single point. In 1995 too, Schumacher took the Championship with Damon finishing second. The following year, 1996, changed all that and sent Damon into the history books. He was the first ever son of a former F1 World Champion to win an F1 World Championship.

Nico Rosberg & Keke Rosberg

Nico Rosberg decided he would be World Champ when he was just six. That was 1991. Twenty-five years later, in 2016, Nico was lifting the trophy as the Formula 1 World Champion. It was the second time in the history of the sport that a son to a Champion father had been crowned Champion too. Nico actually never saw his dad win the Championship. He hadn’t been born. At the age of ten, in 1995, Nico began racing in the Karting Championship and in 2000 became team mates with Lewis Hamilton at the Formula A Karting Championship. Six years later, having climbed through the BMW ADAC Series, F3 and GP2, Nico joined Williams in 2006 to race in the F1 Championship. In 2010 he moved to Mercedes GP as team mate to none other than Michael Schumacher. Two years later came Nico’s first F1 win at the Chinese GP, where he had qualified on pole. Through to 2015, Nico had a string of wins but not the title.

In 2016 that changed when he finished ahead of team mate Lewis by just five points in the Championship, giving Nico the World title. Which also made him the second ever Champion son to a Champion father, Keke Rosberg. Keke was the original Flying Finn and became F1 World Champion in 1982 driving for Williams. Keke nearly became an F1 has-been when the Fittipaldi team, where he was a driver, ran out of funds in 1981. An unexpected announcement by Williams driver Alan Jones saw Frank Williams hire Keke, who then gave the team a World title. In 1983, the start of the famous Turbo-era where engines produced upwards of 1000HP, Keke competed furiously in a naturally aspirated car, taking more risks than anyone else on the grid. Keke’s last hurrah came at Silverstone in 1985, the year Nico was born, when he pulled a sensational qualifying lap with an average speed of 160mph (259kmph). It was then the fastest ever lap in Formula 1 history.