Graham Hill and Monaco: A King in the Principality

Graham Hill's story is one of perseverance. At 24, the age when Fernando Alonso won his first title, Hill didn't even have a driving license. A friend showed him an advert; for five shillings a lap, he could drive a Cooper 500 around Brands Hatch.

He took a pound and completed his first four laps of a long career. His skill not only with the wheel but also with tools led Colin Chapman, the father of Lotus, to hire him as a mechanic during the week and a driver on weekends. His gestures in the pit, his image behind the wheel in those early years, denote a passion, a disciplined fanaticism that takes a man far in his career, a career intertwined with the rise of Lotus.

On May 18, 1958, in Monaco, Chapman's team was present for the first time at a Formula 1 Grand Prix, with Cliff Allison and Graham Hill driving Lotus Type 12 Formula 2 cars, but with the engine capacity increased to 2 litres.

They passed the qualifying tests, something a certain Bernie Ecclestone did not achieve, and in the race, while Allison finished sixth, Hill had to retire on lap 70 while in the same sixth place. It didn't matter; Graham was persistent, and this was just the first of the 176 Grands Prix he would compete in over 18 seasons in the top tier of motorsport. In 1959, he was forced to retire again as the Lotus 16 was a fragile car; "when a wheel from my own car overtakes me, I know I'm sitting in a Lotus," Hill said with irony.

In 1960, Hill moved to the BRM team (British Racing Motors) and drove the P48 alongside Bonnier and Gurney. In Monaco, he was sixth in practice and finished seventh in the race, although he wasn't running when the chequered flag fell. By the end of the season, he had scored his first points in the World Championship. A year later, he set the fastest time in practice but didn't finish the race.

The 1962 season began. Hill and BRM won the first Grand Prix of the calendar, the Dutch Grand Prix on May 20, in Zandvoort. In Monaco, on June 3, he set the second-fastest time in practice behind Jim Clark and his Lotus, but finished sixth in the race. At the end of the season, he won his first world title.

It's 1963. Hill remains with BRM, with Richie Ginther as his teammate. Monaco, on May 26, is the first of the world championship events. At the start, the fastest in practice, Jim Clark with the Lotus 25, is surprised by the two BRMs and takes 18 laps to regain the lead after overtaking Hill. Hill struggles to hold off Surtees' Ferrari and eventually loses third place on lap 57 at Sainte Devote. But there are still 43 laps to go, and many changes occur. "Big John" has oil pressure issues and falls back. Clark's gearbox locks after a spin at the Gasometer corner. When Surtees is ready to attack again with his Ferrari, it's too late: Graham Hill crosses the finish line and claims the first of his five victories in Monaco. At the end of the British championship, he finishes second behind the Scotsman Jim Clark.

The second victory in Monaco comes a year later, on May 10, in an edition where the Owen Racing Organisation cars, officially registered as BRM, repeat the 1963 results with Hill and Ginther occupying the top two spots. Hill's victory was hard-fought after a beautiful mid-race battle against Clark and Gurney. In the world championship, he finishes second again, but this time behind Surtees.

On May 30, 1965, everyone in Monaco bets on Graham Hill. The Briton has set the fastest time in practice with the BRM P261. His teammate is another flying Scot, Jackie Stewart, who won the previous year's Formula 3 race in Monaco. To the delight of Louis Stanley, BRM's boss, Hill and Stewart dominate the early stages of the race, followed by the Ferraris of Bandini and Surtees.

But on lap 25, as he exits the tunnel at 190 km/h, Graham Hill finds the chicane blocked by Bob Anderson's Brabham, idling, and has to brake desperately towards the escape road where his car stalls; Hill jumps out of the cockpit and pushes the car back onto the track. He's back in the race but in fifth place. Now Hill demonstrates his perseverance, clawing back two seconds per lap from his rivals.

Brabham breaks down, and Stewart is delayed after spinning at Sainte Devote on an oil patch. Hill continues to attack in one of his most beautiful races, overtaking Surtees at Mirabeau on lap 53 and passing Bandini on the same descent on lap 65. The Monegasque Louis Chiron, the former Bugatti driver of the 1930s and now race director, waves the chequered flag over Graham Hill, who secures his third consecutive victory on the streets of the Principality; the bettors can sleep easy.

And in 1966, guess who won? If you bet on Hill, you lost because that year the Briton finished third in a race where he engaged in a beautiful battle against Jim Clark, the other icon of the sixties. The winner was the other BRM driver, Stewart, followed by the Italian Bandini. Incidentally, in that edition, director John Frankenheimer filmed many scenes of "Grand Prix." In that legendary film, in the scene where a fictional driver celebrates a party after winning the Belgian Grand Prix, Hill can be seen raising his champagne glass in a true actor's gesture with a somewhat ironic look.

In 1967, during that tragic edition of the Monaco Grand Prix where Lorenzo Bandini lost his life due to burns suffered in his accident at the harbour chicane, Hill, now driving for Lotus again, finishes second behind Dennis Hulme and his Brabham. And in 1968, after a long night spent at the Tip Top Bar (on the descent from Mirabeau), a classic spot next to the now-defunct Chatham (better known as Rosie's Bar), Graham Hill starts at the front of the grid in his Lotus 49, now with the red and gold colours of Gold Leaf, but lets Johnny Servoz Gavin with the Matra pass. He knows Monaco doesn't allow mistakes and that the Frenchman won't withstand the pressure. And so it happens on the fifth lap when the Matra hits the barriers at the chicane. Hill, now in the lead, perfectly controls the attacks of his pursuers and wins for the fourth time on the streets of Monaco. That same year, he becomes world champion for the second time.

It's 1969. A glorious decade is ending, and Graham Hill, one of its great protagonists, is now forty years old, and many consider him at the end of his career. But the Briton, who has let his hair grow to stay in fashion, never throws in the towel, and so the newspapers of Monday, May 19, of that year, headline Graham Hill's fifth victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, ahead of Piers Courage with a Brabham BT26 from a team owned by a car dealer named Frank Williams, and the Lotus 49 of Swiss Joseph Siffert.

It will be the last Grand Prix he wins. At the end of the year, in which he finishes sixth in the world championship, he suffers a terrible accident at the United States Grand Prix on October 5 at Watkins Glen, where he shatters his legs. Many think he will never walk again, but on March 7, he is behind the wheel of a Lotus from Rob Walker's private team. Difficult years follow, but in 1972 he proves his worth by winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Matra, alongside Frenchman Pescarolo, a driver who has often stated that he was surprised to see the level of motivation of a veteran like Hill. This victory, the two F1 world titles, and the Indianapolis 500 with a Lola in 1966, make him the only driver to achieve this triple crown.

In Formula 1, he would still compete for several seasons; in 1971 and 72 with Brabham, and in 1973 he created his own team with a Shadow DN1 designed by Tony Southgate, an engineer trained at BRM. In 1974 and 75, the team, named Embassy Hill, used Lola cars.

The results don't come, and in Monaco, during the 1975 practice sessions, he fails to qualify. He is 46 years old and has 18 F1 seasons behind him. He resigns to the evidence, and the public applauds him with respect, knowing they will not see him again on those streets where the Londoner reigned.

Hill dedicates himself to managing his team and his driver Tony Brise. On November 29 of that year, 1975, the Piper Aztec plane, with several team members including Brise, piloted by Hill himself, loses its way in the fog and crashes into a golf course. There are no survivors.