Watch: Damon Hill in Oswestry - 'Life after F1 just seemed so slow'

Is it any surprise being a Formula One driver is a fantasy for many teenage boys?

But what happens when you step out of the grid and retire? How does one come down from that and go about leading a "normal" life?

Retired world champion Damon Hill was at the Lion Quays Hotel, near Oswestry, to talk to a packed room of starstruck fans ahead of the release of his autobiography Watching The Wheels, out today.

Now the former world champion has spoken about his life, how he's adjusted to life after racing and also about being the son of two-time world champion Graham Hill.

Although a racing champion in his own right, Hill knew comparisons being drawn between him and his father were an inevitability.

He said: "It was definitely a love of mine to race and compete, and that's why I did it but of course that would get brought back to my dad, so it was impossible to detach from my dad's career but then I don't ever want to forget my dad or overshadow him.

"I just knew and know now that the comparisons are inevitable, and there was no way of me having a standalone career, although I did pretty well all things considered, and I think that added another chapter to the Graham Hill story."

Tragically Hills' father died in an air crash when Damon was just 15 years old which made Hill aware of how scared he was of dying unexpectedly.

During his talk, he said the sudden death of his father – along with the death of his teammate Ayrton Senna in 1994 – were the two major and tragic events to have the most impact on him.

"We tend to think of death and being frightened for one's self, and yes the individual has lost their life but it's the impact afterwards, the reverberations, and the effect that has on everyone else. It's the families who really suffer, and I didn't want that for my own family," he admitted.

Later in life Hill himself, a father-of-four, said he had had a taste for himself of how his mum must have felt every time he and his father were on the track, when his son Josh, told him he wanted to race.

"Of course I had some reservations and it was then I realised I was walking in my mum's shoes somewhat, as she experienced it with my dad and me, but it's life and he's entitled to do what he wants," he said.

Hill's fatherly understanding proved useful, when Josh later decided to give up racing and instead pursue a career in music – he's now a drummer for a band called The Severs.

In his autobiography, although fans of Formula One get their money's worth of the thrills and spills of racing, Hill also uses the book as an opportunity to speak candidly about the impact the sport had on him growing up.

He said: "In this book, I talk about my experience, I talk about racing, I like to talk about motor racing. But really it's about how I've been affected by growing up in motorsport, how my dad was a Grand Prix driver and my family were massively absorbed in that. My mum was away with him, supporting him but she was also was at home looking after the kids, she was never in the right place."

Hill also speaks openly about the comedown that follows when someone retires from such a high-speed, adrenaline-fuelled sport.

Retiring at the age of 39, Hill said he expected to feel aware of his change of lifestyle but that didn't make things any easier while he was adjusting to it.

"It's a strange one really, when you're in F1, you're very much in demand, you're working with bright people, part of this high-speed sport then you come out of F1 and it stops, everything just seems so much slower," Hill said.

He added: "All of a sudden you're looking for a new identity, a role to fulfil and finding a new way of describing yourself and what you have to offer the world.

"And of course it's very difficult to switch off the adrenaline and that kind of pattern with the routine of the sport. There was always a target to train towards, and then there wasn't one. It's a rhythm of your life.

"Adrenaline is a powerful drug, and some people just can't stop, but at that time in my life I was ready to stop, and I don't regret it."