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If you were in Phil Hill's situation?

Now I'm not saying that he knew, I don't know. But if you knew your teammate had been killed racing and if you retired then your teammate was guaranteed the wdc but if you won the title was yours would you continue to race? Would you want to let your team are get his title and hope next year you were just as competitive or would you grab the chance to get the title?

Kept going.
Know it sounds harsh but what else are you driving for if not to win?

Also, by any chance have you just read 'The Limit?'

If I had been best mates with said teammate, I probably would have maybe retired and given him a Championship out of respect. But otherwise, I'd race and go for the title myself. Sportsmen are competetive, selfish creatures (not selfish as in they'd steal from a child, as in they'd steal from each other). The WDC is what they fight for, and if it's there for the taking, they will.

In that era I would have driven for the tittle without a doubt. Death was common and surprised nobody, people were much harder to it than they are now. For example if a driver died at the beginning of a race now the meeting would be called off where as 30 years ago there would be no question of that happening.

I didn't realise that happened, who was his teammate?

Wolfgang von Tripps was his team mate.

I would have kept on going. In that era you would be very lucky to even claim a WDC, so if I had the chance, I would definitely go for it.

Flash2k11 wrote:Wolfgang von Tripps was his team mate.

Thank you, heard the name before but not the story, this never seems to come up as could have been champions unlike the obvious ones like Stirling Moss

Also remember than Stirling Moss was only 6 points behind Von Trips going into Italy with two races to go so even if Hill had pulled out of the race Moss could of taken the tittle off both of them with just a 7 points from the last two races. Richie Ginther was also only 11 points behind with 18 on the table so it was far from a for gone conclusion.

In Hill's case, I would have raced on and enquired how von Trips was, after the race. Which is what Hill himself did.

http://philhill.com/?p=143

Times and attitudes were far different then. Racing was a sport, and despite shenanigins, was done sportingly by the players.

I think if I was the one who had died I'd have rather been remembered as the guy who didn't win the championship because he died, as opposed to the guy won it partly because my team mate retired from the decider out of respect, or whatever.

Still, I didn't know this was what had happened, so thanks for the info.