A cerebral performer who combined legendary concentration behind the wheel with a rather nervous and sensitive demeanor away from the cockpit. A product of the West Coast US sports car racing scene, Hill came to race in Europe briefly in the early 1950s and was eventually offered a works Ferrari drive at Le Mans in 1955. He was to win the famous French endurance race on three occasions and was promoted into the Ferrari F1 team midway through 1958. Hill played a key role in winning Mike Hawthorn's World Championship in 1958, the American slowing and waving his British colleague ahead in the Moroccan Grand Prix, enabling Mike to finish second in this race behind Stirling Moss' Vanwall. In 1961, Ferrari made sure it was well prepared for the first year of the new 1.5-liter F1 regulations and Phil certainly profited by this, winning the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix to take the title by a point from his teammate Wolfgang von Trips who was killed in the same event.