Hill grew up in London. His father Graham Hill's death in an aeroplane crash in 1975, when Damon was fifteen, left the family in substantially reduced financial circumstances. Hill worked as a labourer and motorcycle courier to fund his education and early motorsport career. He began racing motorcycles in 1981, wearing the same white-oar-blades-on-dark-blue helmet design his father had used, representing the London Rowing Club.
Persuaded by his mother to try car racing, Hill attended the Winfield Racing School in France in 1983. He worked his way through British Formula Ford, British Formula Three — finishing third in the 1988 championship — and the Formula 3000 series, without winning a race at that level, before becoming Williams' test driver in 1991.
Hill made his Grand Prix debut mid-1992 with the struggling Brabham team, qualifying for two races before the team collapsed. Williams promoted him to the race seat for 1993 alongside triple World Champion Alain Prost. Despite his relative inexperience, Hill delivered strongly, taking his first career win at the Hungarian Grand Prix and following it with victories at Spa and Monza, finishing the season second in the championship behind Ayrton Senna.
The 1994 season was defined by tragedy. Senna joined Williams but was killed at the San Marino Grand Prix, leaving Hill to carry the team alone. He overcame a 66-point midseason deficit to Schumacher to take the championship fight to the final round in Adelaide, where a collision between the two — with Schumacher running off the road and making contact as Hill attempted to pass — ended both cars and gave Schumacher the title by a single point. Hill won the 1994 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award for his efforts. In 2007, Hill explicitly accused Schumacher of causing the collision deliberately; Schumacher maintained otherwise.
In 1995, Schumacher won the title with two races to spare as Benetton proved stronger than Williams overall. Hill and Schumacher had several on-track incidents during the season, both receiving suspended race bans at different rounds.
The 1996 Williams FW18 was clearly the class of the field. Hill won eight races and never qualified outside the front row across the entire season. He became world champion at the Japanese Grand Prix, becoming the first son of a Formula One champion to also win the title. His teammate Jacques Villeneuve mounted a late challenge but retired in Japan, leaving Hill to seal the championship in the race. Despite winning the title, Hill was informed before the season's close that Williams had dropped him in favour of Heinz-Harald Frentzen for 1997.
As World Champion, Hill chose to sign with Arrows — a team that had never won a race — despite offers from McLaren, Benetton, and Ferrari. The season was largely difficult, though he famously led the Hungarian Grand Prix late in the race before a hydraulic failure slowed him to second behind Villeneuve.
Hill joined Jordan for 1998 and gave the team their maiden win at the Belgian Grand Prix in treacherous wet conditions, leading teammate Ralf Schumacher home in a one-two finish. The 1999 season was harder; new teammate Frentzen — Hill's former replacement at Williams — outpaced him substantially. Hill announced his retirement mid-season and raced his final Grand Prix at Suzuka, where he spun off and retired citing mental fatigue.
Hill's career total stands at 22 victories, making him Williams' second most successful driver behind Nigel Mansell.
Hill became President of the British Racing Drivers' Club in 2006, succeeding Jackie Stewart, and oversaw the securing of a 17-year contract for Silverstone to host Formula One. He stepped down from the role in 2011. Hill subsequently joined Sky Sports F1 as an analyst and pundit for thirteen seasons, resigning after the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix. In March 2025 he joined BBC Radio as a pundit for Formula One coverage. In February 2026 he returned to Williams as an official ambassador.
Hill published his autobiography, Watching the Wheels, in 2016, in which he revealed he had suffered with depression. He is also a musician and appeared on the opening track of Def Leppard's 1999 album Euphoria.
Hill is remembered as the embodiment of grit and perseverance in Formula One. Coming from a famous racing family and then having to fund his own early career, his path to the championship was far from straightforward. His rivalry with Michael Schumacher defined much of the mid-1990s, with their collision in Adelaide 1994 remaining one of the most debated moments in Formula One history. Winning the title in 1996 with eight victories in the quickest car was a dominant performance, yet the manner of his dismissal by Williams immediately after — despite delivering the championship — coloured his relationship with the sport's politics. The 1994 BBC Sports Personality of the Year and the 1996 winner of the same award, he is one of only five people to receive the award twice.