Formula 1

About the season

Damon Hill won the title at the finale in Japan after teammate and title rival Jacques Villeneuve, who started on pole, retired when a wheel came loose - Hill's championship came 28 years after his father Graham Hill's second title. Villeneuve, arriving as reigning IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner, took pole on his F1 debut in Australia and his first win in just his fourth race, fighting Hill for the title all the way to the last round. Schumacher's first season at Ferrari brought two wins (a rain-soaked Spain and Hungary) but no serious title challenge, as he adapted to a car well off Williams's pace. Williams claimed their fourth constructors' title in five seasons, the peak of the dominance built on their active-suspension years. Damon Hill won the 1996 Drivers' Championship with 97 points (Williams), 19 points ahead of the runner-up. Williams won the Constructors' Championship with 175 points, 105 points ahead of the runner-up. Across 16 completed races this season, there were 166 retirements. 4 different drivers won a race this season. Damon Hill took the most race wins, 8 in total. Hill won the season-opening race, the Australian Grand Prix. Diniz made the biggest gain of the season at the Brazilian Grand Prix, from grid position 22 to finishing 8 (up 14 places). The closest finish of the season came at the European Grand Prix, with a gap of just 0.762 seconds. The season's biggest upset win came from Panis at the Monaco Grand Prix, starting from grid position 14. The Monaco Grand Prix saw the most retirements of the season, with 19 drivers failing to finish. The most dominant win of the season came at the Spanish Grand Prix, with a margin of 45.3 seconds. Hill won the Japanese Grand Prix, the final race of the season.