Damon Hill won the 1996 world championship at Suzuka after teammate Jacques Villeneuve retired from the race, securing the title but closing a bitter chapter at Williams. The team had announced mid-season that Hill wouldn't return for 1997, making his championship-clinching drive his final outing in the car. Hill became world champion as a lame duck, an awkward exit for the driver who'd carried Williams through the post-Senna era and finished runner-up to Michael Schumacher in both '94 and '95. Martin Brundle also ran his final grand prix that day, ending a long F1 career. Williams replaced Hill with Heinz-Harald Frentzen, a calculated move that never delivered the results the team expected when they parted ways with their newly crowned champion. Hill later vindicated himself with a brilliant wet-weather drive for Jordan at Spa in 1998, proving Williams wrong.
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