He is the driver Damon Hill had his ‘best relationship’ with in F1 but he never scored a point

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Damon Hill didn’t have the longest career in Formula 1, but he packed a lot into the eight seasons he was on the grid.

The crowning moment of Damon Hill’s F1 career was winning the 1996 drivers’ championship ahead of Michael Schumacher and Williams teammate Jacques Villeneuve.

Williams admitted to making a mistake dropping Hill immediately after his triumph, and he saw out his career with spells at Arrows and Jordan before quitting at the end of the 1999 season.

Although he only entered 122 Grand Prix, Hill had one of the best selections of teammates going.

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He lined up alongside Alain Prost in 1993, Ayrton Senna briefly in 1994 before his untimely death, as well as David Coulthard, Nigel Mansell and the aforementioned Villeneuve.

Even during his two years at Jordan, Hill was paired with Ralf Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who both went on to have very good careers.

However, the teammate Hill had the ‘best relationship’ with in Formula 1 was the often forgotten Eric van de Poele.

READ MORE: Damon Hill reveals which Formula 1 star once called him the ‘worst driver I’ve ever seen’

Damon Hill describes having his ‘best relationship’ in Formula 1 with Eric van de Poele

Hill was interviewed in the Drivers on Drivers book, and when asked about the best teammate he had, he said: “In terms of having the best relationship, in Formula 1, in my first team, it was Eric van de Poele.

“He was a lovely guy, but we only really did half a season, and then I was straight in with Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell, and then Ayrton Senna.

“Alain was a perfect gentleman, Nigel was very supportive. And I never got to know Ayrton that much.

“So the next year, the guy I had for a full season was DC [David Coulthard], who I found a bit testy.

“A little bit too chirpy for my liking [laughing]. I was a bit miffed that I had someone else in the team, to be honest, that I had to race against, and then they got Jacques Villeneuve in.

“He was a kind of keen puppy, in a very confident [way] and attempted to establish his place in the team. But we got on really well: he was absolutely direct and very sporting, and I think we had a good relationship considering we were both fighting for the world title.

“I would never expect him to do anything underhand. There was the usual competitiveness for resources, let’s say, within a team, but I never got the sense that he was going to try and do something unsporting in any way.

“So we both got a fair crack at the championship. It was tragic that his wheel fell off in Japan, but there you go!”

READ MORE: He is the driver with the shortest career in Formula 1 history, it lasted just two metres

Who was former Formula 1 driver Eric van de Poele?

Van de Poele was born on 30 September 1961 in Verviers, Belgium, a province of the city of Liege.

A winner of multiple Formula Ford titles in his career, Van de Poele was a DTM champion and raced against the likes of Erik Comas and Eddie Irvine in International Formula 3000 before making the step up to F1 in 1991.

He joined the Modena F1 team alongside Nicola Larini at a time when there were 34 cars on the grid, meaning pre-qualifying was necessary.

Van de Poele was 34th and last on his debut at the United States Grand Prix, meaning his involvement in the weekend ended before most drivers had even taken to the track.

He had a particularly unfortunate start to life in F1, encountering a protestor during one of his laps before his engine failed.

Van de Poele only qualified once in 1991, at the San Marino Grand Prix, when he was on course to earn a remarkable fifth-place finish before running out of fuel on the final lap.

In 1992, Van de Poele earned a move to Brabham, where for seven races he was Hill’s teammate.

During their 14 combined attempts, they managed to qualify for a race once, with Hill squeezing onto the grid at the British Grand Prix in 26th before finishing P16.

Brabham went into administration that year after 11 races, and while Van de Poele earned a late reprieve with Fondmetal for three Grand Prix, a best finish of 10th at his home race was all he could muster before they too went out of business.

That was the end of Van de Poele’s F1 career, but he became a successful endurance driver instead, winning several 24 Hours of Le Mans.