THE moment when Damon Hill's attitude and approach to Formula One took a decisive, if subtle, turn for the better is recalled with crystal clarity by his team chief, Frank Williams.

In the fortnight between last year's Japanese and Australian grands prix, Hill met up with his wife, Georgie, for a week's holiday in the Far East. After spinning off in the Japanese race, he was, in Williams' words, "a different man on arrival in Adelaide for the final race of the season.

"I don't know what he did or how he did it," says Williams, "but he did it without any help from anyone else." Hill then proceeded to round off a disappointing season with a commanding victory. Displaying greatly enhanced confidence and self reliance, it was as if he had mentally drawn a line under 1995 and started the 1996 season one race early. Eight months later, as he prepares to flex his muscles in tomorrow's British Grand Prix at Silverstone, it is clear that this very personal momentum has not deserted him.

Aside from the fact that he is driving with the confidence of a man at the peak of his form and at the wheel of the best car in the field, close friends believe there is another aspect to his new self confidence his relationship with his wife and family.

Damon and Georgie Hill have three children, the eldest of whom, Oliver, suffers from Down's syndrome. Dealing with such a personal challenge has sharpened their perspectives and priorities.

Hill who has another son, Joshua, and a daughter Tabitha, born days after last year's celebrated collision with Michael Schumacher in the British Grand Prix makes it clear that he is a home bird who fiercely protects his family's private life at their cliff top mansion south of Dublin.

"I don't like being away from home," he admits. "I'll be honest I hate being away from home. But I love coming to races. It's an interesting point. Perhaps being at home is even more attractive because of its comparative rarity.

"But I am really adamant that I don't want my children to go through what I did when I was brought up. I was very happy, was very lucky and everything like that, but my dad was never there, never really around."

A combination of reticence and quiet dignity make Hill reluctant to discuss his relationship with his father, Graham, and mother, Bette, who remains, together with Georgie, his biggest fan. The death of his father in an air crash in November 1975, when Damon was 15, obviously had a profound impression on his formative years.

Dan Gurney, the great American who was a team mate of his father's at BRM in 1960, recalls that Damon went to stay with his family in California in the immediate aftermath of Graham's death, and offers an insight into the young man's confused state of mind at the time.

My recollection of Damon at that time was one of a young man in deep shock," says Gurney. A young man who was asking such questions as what is life all about'? I don't know how one learns to cope with it, but that is what Damon was going through.

"I think he spent some time with my oldest son, John, and I think he was looking for something to take his mind off recent events, if at all possible, so he was a young man in a trance to some degree. I'm sure he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life at that time, but he showed a lot of the same natural curiosity and spirit that both his mother and father demonstrated many times in the past."

As far as his driving this season is concerned, Hill believes that the word "breakthrough" is too over dramatic. "I think people take time to mature," he says. Over the past few seasons I have been collecting all the ingredients to mix the cake, but it fell a bit flat continuing the metaphor at the end of last year, so I had to start with a new mix.

He acknowledges there is always an edge between him and Schumacher, but feels that is inevitable when one driver generally wins at the other's expense.

"But, to be honest, I don't spend too long thinking about it," he says. "As a spectator, I would probably be interested in it. But as a driver, I'm looking only at Damon Hill and what I'm up to, making sure that everything stays together in the team and I use every opportunity I can, to get the best shot at every race.

Hill admits that he draws inspiration from other sportsmen. "I particularly respect Nick Faldo, because golf fascinates me. Like motor racing, it is a mind game, and the way in which he turned things round in the US Masters came back at Greg Norman and simply demolished his advantage to win the tournament, was something which translates in my mind directly with Fl and the pressures I have sustained over the past two seasons.

Yet if Hill achieves his life's ambition this season, it will also be due, in some measure, to Georgie, who does not believe that being an Fl wife requires anything different than being the wife of any other high profile person does. She also rejects the stereotyping of a motor racing wife as somebody who has to put up with a great deal.

"As his job in hand has grown, so must the level of Damon's dedication," she says firmly. "I fully support him in that because I want to. Because I love ham and want him to achieve what he wants to, because that is what makes him happy.

That is part of marriage, isn't it? Supporting the other half when they need it. The constant attention and everybody recognising Damon can be a little difficult at times, but really the upside easily outweighs the downside. Above all else, it is never boring being married to Damon.