Hill, 64, was for the second consecutive year among the star attractions at the event, which is run on the Victoria Park loop of the street course that hosted F1 from 1985 to 1995.
The difference this year for 1995 Adelaide winner Hill was a chance to take to the track, driving a Brabham BT60B from his debut F1 season in 1992.
“It was a lot of fun,” Hill told Speedcafe of driving the BT60B, which did not make it to the 1992 Australian Grand Prix after the team folded mid-season.
“I’m always a bit nervous about getting back in old cars, but that was an important one to me, that car.
“I qualified for my first Grand Prix in it at Silverstone, and I qualified the last Brabham in Hungary in 92.
“It was interesting times. It got me going in Formula 1 and I thought I’d never see it again. So it’s quite good, actually, that car.”
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Boutsen, 67, won the rain-hit 1989 Adelaide race for Williams, one of just three victories from his 163 Grand Prix starts.
He returned to the Adelaide track aboard the Benetton that won the 1990 race in the hands of Nelson Piquet, giving the Belgian a new perspective.
“It was a big honour for me to be able to drive this car. It’s a fantastic car,” said Boutsen, who drove for Benetton in 1987 and ’88 before moving to Williams.
“It performs very well. The engine is very strong, the gearbox is perfect, the brakes… it’s like what it was in 1990, I guess. Driving it, I understand why this car won the race.”
Baking 35-degree temperatures at the festival were a far cry from the torrential conditions in which Boutsen won the Adelaide race in 1989.
“I learned at the beginning of the race that, listening to the car in front of me, you know when it is backing off,” he reflected.
“Then when it’s backing off you go, ‘maybe it’s time to brake now’. That’s how we could figure out how to avoid accidents.”
Australian David Brabham also joined in on the Adelaide F1 nostalgia, driving the Brabham BT59 in which he’d contested the 1990 AGP.
That race came at the end of a torrid debut F1 season for Brabham with the team bearing his family name.
“It’s been a long time, back to an old girlfriend I guess,” Brabham said of the BT59. “It’s such a pretty little car, [but] it wasn’t particularly fast or reliable.
“At the time Brabham were going through a lot of financial difficulties, as everybody was, because there was a financial crisis going on in ’89, ’90.
“It really effected the Japanese owner of the team. I think he went from a billionaire to a millionaire overnight!
“But getting back in the car just brought back so many memories because there’s still some corners here that we’re still using.”
Brabham also sampled the ex-Hill BT60B.
While Hill went on to become a world champion with Williams in 1996, Brabham’s only other chance was a miserable 1994 with Simtek.
“Both of those cars were our introduction to Formula 1,” said Brabham of the BT59 and BT60B.
“That’s what gave us our opportunity, so you’ve got to look back with fond memories as well.”
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