One of the most famous battles in Formula 1 history took place between Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher.

The 1994 season saw Michael Schumacher trying to win his first drivers’ championship with Benetton coming up against Damon Hill in just his second full season in Formula 1.

Hill was 32 years old when he made his F1 debut in 1992 and had no prior experience in go-karting before starting his single-seater career.

He faced the pressure of trying to carry the Williams team after the death of Ayrton Senna and while Schumacher dominated the beginning of the campaign, Hill went on to win four of the last six races.

Schumacher and Hill’s clash in Adelaide, which won the German the title, is well-documented but wasn’t the end of their rivalry.

He has now explained another incident that took place later in their careers that saw Schumacher complete a full U-turn on his feelings towards his British rival.

Photo credit should read MARTYN HAYHOW/AFP via Getty Images

Michael Schumacher’s ‘embarrassing’ British Grand Prix cap hit on Damon Hill

Hill was taking part in a wide-ranging interview on the High Performance Podcast about his life and career, and his rivalry with Schumacher was one of the topics they touched on.

He was reminded of the time he went toe-to-toe with Schumacher at Silverstone and after the race, the German hit his cap.

The 1996 F1 world champion didn’t react at the time, however, he explained when recalling the incident: “It was embarrassing, wasn’t it?

“I mean, he was sort of trying to buddy up with me. Now that I’m the winner or whatever, I don’t know.

“I mean, it was an interesting clip in that film. I thought those little moments really kind of… because I had endured a lot of his comments that were not so flattering about me.

“And I thought, okay, why, why would I… anyway, the games people play!”

Hill eventually got the better of Schumacher in 1996, winning the championship during Schumacher’s first season at Ferrari.

Williams regretted letting Hill go at the end of that season, but he had achieved the dream of every F1 driver before making his bizarre switch to Arrows the following year.

Damon Hill explains why racing Michael Schumacher made him a better Formula 1 driver

Hill was asked about the games Schumacher used to play and how this impacted him as a driver, and he continued: “I think he was what he was, he was a competitor.

“He was someone who was able to put pressure on every little part of your life.

“I will say this, if it wasn’t for Michael, I would never have found out to what heights I could go as a racing driver.

“I had to extend myself beyond what I was capable of and I won. And there’s a picture of him congratulating me after Suzuka, he didn’t do that very often.

“I think he knew that I’d put up a good performance, and so that’s magnanimous of him, so the rivalry gave me an opportunity.

“I won against him in races, fair and square, and eventually I won a world title. Admittedly, he was in an uncompetitive car at the time.

“But I fought against some of the greatest, I can measure up against Alain Prost, Ayrton didn’t give me a chance, unfortunately, I was not as quick as him, but I’d loved to have known how much closer I could have got.

“And to race against Michael and Nigel, I didn’t do too bad.”

Schumacher pushed plenty of drivers to their limits, and it’s a shame that his career never truly coincided with the peaks of Senna, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell.

Nelson Piquet is said to have retired because of Schumacher’s arrival at Benetton, such was his level of talent, and Hill can take great credit for how he managed to defeat the seven-time world champion.

Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen and eventually Fernando Alonso were among the few drivers to topple Schumacher during his Ferrari days, but Hill was the man who stopped him from achieving every racer’s dream of winning in their debut season with the Scuderia.