There was a time when the idea of Nico Rosberg beating Lewis Hamilton to the Formula One world championship would have been considered unlikely. Hamilton is a three-time champion. He is not only faster but also more skilful. However, with two races of the season remaining and a lead of 19 points, the German is the overwhelming favourite to win his first crown, if not here in São Paulo on Sunday then in Abu Dhabi at the end of the month.

None of this comes as much of a surprise to Damon Hill, the most ruminative of F1’s TV commentators, who says a title for Rosberg would be well deserved. “If Lewis applies himself, and is right on it, there’s no way Nico can get close to him,” Hill said in the buildup to the Brazilian Grand Prix. “There is a certain amount of talent which you can’t compete with, no matter how many hours you put in. Nico has got his talent too, but it’s not of the same level as Lewis’s.

“But I have to say Nico would be a worthy champion. Anyone who goes head to head with a driver like Lewis, in the same team, and comes out ahead at the end of a long season – you have to say credit to that person. If he wins the title, it will be well deserved and I would not try to devalue it at all. He would be a very worthy champion.”

Hill, the champion of 1996, added: “When you see the people he’s been up against, Michael Schumacher and now Lewis, he has held his own against some pretty tough opposition. I think he’s definitely world class. And he’s got better. He’s honed his craft and become more complete in every respect.”

Hill, like Rosberg, is the son of a champion. Graham Hill won the 1962 and 1968 championships; Keke Rosberg did so in 1982. “Having a father who is a former world champion doesn’t help you on the track,” Hill says. “In some ways it adds to the complication. If you have had a successful dad, you are never a stand-alone competitor because people are always referring back.

“But I do wonder if Keke has helped Nico away from the track, with the politics and the way the sport works. That’s very important in Formula One. Keke probably told him not to put his foot in that trap over there. Lewis has strayed into a few land mines, hasn’t he? I also believe inherited talent must be there, to a degree, with both Nico and myself.”

There is a notion Rosberg would be one of F1’s less memorable champions. Like a burglar he seems intent on going about his business without leaving evidence of his work. Compiling a DVD of his racing highlights would certainly present a challenge.

Hill will not have it. “To be fair to Nico he has put in some superb performances,” he said. “He has had his pieces of bad luck too. He has shown he can race. He muscled his way past Kimi Raikkonen in Malaysia, which was a high-risk move, but he did it. And when he’s been under pressure he’s held his nerve. He’s also shown this season that he’s not prepared to be pushed around. Lewis is a very wily competitor. He’s experienced and he knows how to street-fight. I think in Spa two years ago [when the two Mercedes drivers crashed] Nico may not have been as culpable as he was made to appear. I think that knocked the stuffing out of him. He even got booed on the podium. But this year Nico has shown he can handle himself. I was of the opinion that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth but I’ve come to doubt that.

“He is also a team player and has not been anxious to promote himself as a brand. And he has often been a dutiful No2 when Ross Brawn was running the team and he was asked to come second. So he has deferred to Lewis on occasions, for the sake of harmony.”

Hill, 56, is one of the sport’s most interesting figures. He has an interest in the arts. He reads. He wrote his recent autobiography, Watching the Wheels, himself rather than use a ghostwriter, and it has been widely praised.

“There was a kind of relief in being able to tell a story in its entirety. I didn’t want to be telling any snippets. It’s a human story, with a bit of sport in it.” Hill writes movingly about his battle with depression and the difficulties he and his family experienced after his father was killed in a plane crash in 1975.

Hill was 15 when his father died. He buried himself in music and bikes to “lift me out of this quagmire of doom” but depression would follow. In his book he says: “Depression is like being buried alive, or having someone sitting on top of you all the time. You feel unbearably heavy. It’s like carrying around a dead body. It’s exhausting. You are like a battery that has gone permanently flat.”

After missing the grand prix in Mexico Hill is back on punditry duty in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. “I think it’s been the saving of the season that Red Bull have re-emerged from the depths of despair to put a challenge up,” he said. “Without them it would have been a bit of a boring show, just watching Lewis and Nico. We need more of that and we need a bit more from Ferrari and a few others. It’s just not entertaining watching the same people win week in and week out.”

That is unlikely to change here, however, despite the expectation Red Bull will be competitive. And Rosberg, playing a calculating game of late, knows that victory will give him the title he so covets.