Anthoine Hubert

31st August 2019 - the FIA Formula 2 Championship returns to the F1 support package after the Summer Break shutdown. The Belgian Grand Prix was a much anticipated weekend in F1, F2 and F3 for various reasons, however after Saturday the mood at Spa was dramatically changed.

On lap 2 of the Formula 2 feature race, Trident's Giuliano Alesi crashed at the top of the famous Eau Rouge-Raidillon complex. His teammate Ralph Boschung broke and took avoiding action, and an unsighted Anthoine Hubert (BWT Arden) hit the back of Boschung and crashed an acute and high speed angle into the tire barrier. Hubert's car came to a rest perpendicular to the racing line but in the runoff, however despite this an unsighted Juan Manuel Correa (Sauber Junior Team with Charouz) T-boned Hubert flat out at roughly 180mph, Correa flipping and Hubert taking a third impact into the tire wall. The race was immediately red flagged.

At 18.35 local time, the FIA announced that Frenchman Anthoine Hubert had succumbed to his injuries sustained in the accident. Correa suffered serious leg and spine injuries, underwent a successful surgery in Belgium and has now been transferred to a specialist hospital in the UK. 

Alesi's F2 car has been impounded by the Belgian authorities for its involvement in the accident and as a result Trident will only field one car next weekend at Monza for Alesi. Sauber Junior Team and BWT Arden will also only field one car at the Italian Grand Prix out of respect for Hubert, but are expected to return to 2 cars for the Sochi and Abu Dhabi rounds.

It was a harrowing weekend of motorsport with several very big accidents not in F2, but in F1, F3 and ELMS at Silverstone, and it served as a reminder to fans, old and new, that despite all the advances in safety, motorsport will never be completely safe.

Anthoine Hubert belonged to a quartet of Frenchmen (and Monegasque) drivers and friends all destined for Formula 1, comprising of himself, Jules Bianchi, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly. Bianchi, Leclerc's Godfather, was the first of them to graduate to F1 in 2013, but sadly lost his life in a crash at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, and before last weekend remained the last driver to lose their life at an F1 weekend. All four were and are greatly respected people, as well as drivers, and it was only a matter of time before all four would have been in F1 together, most likely with Leclerc and Bianchi at Ferrari, Gasly at Red Bull and Hubert at Renault, as Hubert was part of the Renault driver academy, and on the same day of his crash and passing had a deal sorted by Renault to keep him in F2 for 2020.

Fittingly, Leclerc won his first Formula 1 race the day after Hubert's passing, dedicating his win to his fallen friend. This isn't the first time Leclerc has had to dedicate a victory to someone he has lost, with his GP3 title dedicated to his Godfather Bianchi, and his F2 title and Azerbaijan win dedicated to his father who died just before that year's Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend.

Anthoine Hubert will be missed by the entire motorsport community, but what we can do is race on for Anthoine, as he died chasing his dream and he wouldn't want others to stop chasing theirs.

Rest in peace Anthoine.