Listen to this article Even the very best of cars can have their areas of weakness, or diva-like tendencies as they have been coined by Mercedes in recent years. But on the 1996 Williams FW18, weak spots were few and far between. Damon Hill took it to eight wins, nine pole positions and that year’s world championship title, making it a shoo-in for his favourite car. He also achieved a feat matched by only two other drivers in the past 40 years, by qualifying for every race on the front row. To put that into perspective, only Ayrton Senna (1989), Alain Prost (1993) and Hill in the FW18 have done so since the 1950s. In the first decade of the world championship this was fairly common. Excluding the anomalous Indianapolis 500, Juan Manuel Fangio (five times), Nino Farina (three times), Alberto Ascari and Jack Brabham a …

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