Obituary: Remembering Roger Hill, ‘one of the greatest mechanics ever’ in F1

On the 26th of August 2025, mourners gathered in Surrey to celebrate the life of a remarkable man, Roger Hill, with the key word here being ‘celebrate’.

No dirge-like hymns here, instead the joyous, upbeat sound of the Jeff Lynne-penned ‘Mr Blue Sky’ reverberated around the crematorium.

Richard Jenkins: Roger Hill was ‘utterly dedicated to Tyrrell’

Obituary written by Richard Jenkins.

Amongst the congregation, having flown in directly from Switzerland, was Sir Jackie Stewart, three time World Champion and a living legend of the sport and his son Paul, but also some of motorsport’s top journalists and a host of former colleagues who travelled from Scotland, Wales and all over England to be there to honour Roger Hill, who died, aged 84, on the 19th July 2025.

Roger, who would have been quite embarrassed about the above and the fact an obituary is even being published about him, was a modest, quiet man but with a incredible and inspirational dedication to his sport, his employers, his colleagues and his family, which culminated in the cars he looked after, in his role of chief mechanic at Tyrrell, winning 23 Grand Prix, 3 World Drivers Championships and 1 World Constructors Championship.

Born on the 11th of November 1940 in New Zealand, Roger was originally a welder and engine tuner with a passion for motorcycles (which never left him). He moved to England in 1965 with five other Kiwis on a Busman’s Holiday to enjoy some scrambling and motocross, and before long, he made England his home.

He initially found work with a famous speedway engine tuner, Mike Erskine, then got a job at Charles Lucas’s Formula 3 team, preparing cars for Piers Courage and Roy Pike as well as Lucas himself. One of the fellow six scramblers was a chap called Max Rutherford, who by now was the chief mechanic for Ken Tyrrell. Max introduced Roger to Ken, and the rest, as they say, is history. As with Sir Jackie Stewart, Roger didn’t sign a contract with Ken, quite simply, “I shook hands and I had a job, which I stayed in, effectively, until 1998.

Hill replaced Rutherford as chief mechanic in 1969 whilst Tyrrell’s outfit was still racing Matras, and Stewart won the first of his three titles that year. Hill then oversaw all the challenges that then ensued as Tyrrell went for their own car – after a brief dalliance with a March 701 – which saw Tyrrell take both driver and constructor world championships in 1971.

There were lows with the death of Francois Cevert, chronic lack of money in the early 1980’s and the disqualification of the team from the 1984 Championship due to lead shots in the water, but he also oversaw Jody Scheckter’s wins, the introduction and development of the P34, wins for Patrick Depailler and Michele Alboreto and helped a host of young drivers, including Martin Brundle, Stefan Bellof and Jean Alesi in their development.

Replaced as chief mechanic in 1990, he remained with the team in a number of roles until the demise of the team in 1998, before working with a company that built promotional replica Formula 1 cars.

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He was loyal and utterly dedicated to Tyrrell, but to his family too. He married Angela in 1969, remaining together devotedly until her death from cancer in 2015, and was a ‘cool dad’ to son Mark, known to millions as a TV presenter and as an expert on the Antiques Roadshow, and to daughter Karina.

Mark himself acknowledges that he could never have done what he has without his father’s quiet encouragement and strong example, but also recalled how Roger approached any project, big or small: “As a schoolboy, my class was asked to design a train. Most people turned up with converted shoe boxes, or something quite frankly c**p. I arrived with a machine-carved sycamore model with mica windows, made with Dad and Keith Boshier, a fabricator at Tyrrell. I was disqualified, but I was still so, so very happy and proud.”

Roger enjoyed tending his garden, his source of relaxation away from racing, but his last years were unfortunately beset by the ravages of dementia. Not that you would’ve known it to meet him, for he remained incredibly cheerful, with a cheeky sparkle in his eye, always loving visits from former colleagues to his care home.

Tributes to Roger help sum up just how respected this very humble, but hugely successful, man was in the motorsport fraternity. Former Tyrrell driver Julian Bailey said, “Roger Hill was certainly a good bloke. In many senses, Roger was the effective leader of the team at times, and nothing was too much trouble for him.”

Brian Lisles, who worked in motorsport for Tyrrell and Newman Haas, becoming one of the most respected team managers of the sport recalled; “Roger had an incredible work ethic. Physically, he was as tough as nails, although he didn’t look it. He was the backbone of the team. There was nothing he couldn’t do. He would say, ‘Give me more time and I’ll get it done.’ He had the gift of wonderful mechanics’ eyes because he could spot a problem, such as a crack, before it caused any trouble.”

But the final word has to go to Sir Jackie Stewart. “Roger Hill was one of the greatest mechanics the sport has ever known. He was better at his job than I was at mine.”

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