7 Graham Hill Quotes To Start Your Week

Graham Hill was a two-time Formula 1 World Champion in an era where cars and circuits were at their most dangerous. Compared to drivers today, Hill started when he was already quite “senior”: at 24, he’d just managed to pass his driving test! Suave, seemingly fearless, and determined beyond belief, Hill “talked his way” into becoming a Lotus mechanic, then into a Lotus race car. Four years after his debut, he was World Champion.

He’s also the only man who’s earned the nearly impossible “Triple Crown” of motorsport: winning the Indianapolis 500, 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Monaco Grand Prix. By the time he retired, he’d won the nickname, “Mr Monaco” by winning the race five times. Killed when he crashed his plane in heavy fog, he sadly didn’t get to see his son Damon enter Formula 1 and become World Champion in 1999.

Here’s a taste of what made Graham so endearing:

“I am an artist. The track is my canvas, and the car is my brush.”

“Time is of the essence and I don’t have much essence left.”

“The chief qualities of a racing driver are concentration, determination and anticipation…A 1929 Austin without brakes develops all three—anticipation rather more than the first two, perhaps.”

“Jackie, you won six Grand Prix this year, which is hogging it, slightly…”

“Out of the tunnel, in a blaze of sunshine…”

“While I was on the winner’s dais one of the officials came up and suggested that it was possible that I might not be the winner. I knew I’d beaten Jimmy (Jim Clark) so I just looked at this questioning chap deadpan and said: ‘No way, mate—I drank the milk’!”

– After winning the Indianapolis 500

“Just tell her that I won’t be dancing for two weeks.”

– The message he relayed to his wife after breaking a leg and severely injuring the other at Watkins Glen

Images via wikipedia.org