1996 Formula One World Championship 1996 Formula One World Championship The 1996 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 50th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. The championship commenced on 10 March 1996 and ended on 13 October after sixteen races. Two World Championship titles were awarded, one for Drivers and one for Constructors. Damon Hill won the Drivers' Championship two years after being beaten by a point by Michael Schumacher, making him the first son of a World Champion (his father Graham having won the title in 1962 and 1968) to have won the title himself. Hill, who had finished runner-up for the
Australian Formula 1 In 1983 CAMS adopted Formula Mondial as the new Australian Formula 1 but allowed cars complying with Formula Pacific to compete alongside the new cars for that year. (Formula Mondial was an FIA approved international formula very similar to Formula Pacific but with cars restricted to using the 1.6-litre Ford Cosworth BDA four-cylinder engine.) For 1984 CAMS changed the category name from “Australian Formula 1” to “Formula Mondial”. The Australian Drivers' Championship (for the CAMS Gold Star award) was open to drivers of AF1 cars throughout the life of the formula, i.e. from 1970 to 1983. During those years the