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Showing posts from August, 2022

Get to know F1 Drivers: Damon Hill

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  Hi, this week I'm introducing Damon Hill Damon Graham Devereux Hill, OBE (born 17 September 1960) is a British former racing driver from England and the 1996 Formula One World Champion. He is the son of Graham Hill, and, along with Nico Rosberg, one of two sons of a Formula One World Champion to also win the title. He started racing on motorbikes in 1981, and after minor success moved on to single-seater racing cars. Personal and early life Hill was born in Hampstead, London, to Graham and Bette Hill. Graham Hill was a racing driver in the international Formula One series. He won the world Drivers' Championship in 1962 and 1968, and became a well-known personality in the United Kingdom. Graham Hill's career provided a comfortable living. Bette (née Shubrook) was a former rower and medalist at the European Rowing Championships. By 1975 the family lived in a "25-room country mansion" in Hertfordshire and Damon attended the independent The Haberdashers' Aske

Get to know F1 Drivers: Ayrton Senna

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  Hi, this week I'm introducing Ayrton Senna Ayrton Senna da Silva (21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1988, 1990, and 1991. Senna is one of three Formula One drivers from Brazil to win the World Championship and won 41 Grands Prix and 65 pole positions, with the latter being the record until 2006. He died in an accident while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, driving for the Williams team. Early life and career Senna was born at 2:35 AM (05:35 GMT) on Monday, 21 March 1960, in the Pro-Matre Maternity Hospital of Santana, a neighbourhood of São Paulo. The middle child of a wealthy Brazilian family, he was born to landowner and factory owner Milton Guirado da Silva and his wife Neide Senna da Silva; he had an older sister, Viviane, and a younger brother, Leonardo. He was left-handed. Senna's mother was the granddaughter of Italian immigrants, while his father was born to a Spanish mother (fro

Get to know F1 Drivers: Nigel Mansell

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  Hi, this week I'm introducing Nigel Mansell. Nigel Ernest James Mansell, CBE (born 8 August 1953) is a British former racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship (1992) and the CART Indy Car World Series (1993). Mansell was the reigning F1 champion when he moved over to CART, becoming the first person to win the CART title in his debut season, and making him the only person to hold both the World Drivers' Championship and the American open-wheel National Championship simultaneously. Early life and career: Nigel Ernest James Mansell was born on 8 August 1953 in Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, the son of Eric, an engineer, and Joyce Mansell. He grew up in Hall Green, Birmingham. Mansell had a fairly slow start to his racing career, using his own money to help work his way up the ranks. After considerable success in kart racing, he moved to the Formula Ford series to the disapproval of his father. In 1976, Mansell won six of the nine races he took part in, i