Formula 2 driver dies in Spa: the tragedy of Anthoine Hubert


Formula 2 driver dies in Spa
The tragedy of Anthoine Hubert

Today is the second anniversary of the tragic accidental death of Anthoine Hubert. The French Formula 2 driver dies in Spa after his car is completely torn to pieces in a crash. The grief is still great, but the motors of motorsport roar again shortly after the accident.

At some point the world association FIA confirmed what the ghostly silence over the dark Ardennes forests of Spa-Francorchamps had long announced: “The driver of car no. 19, Anthoine Hubert, has succumbed to his injuries.”

The great tragedy caught up with formula racing again on August 31, 2019. Five years after the fatal and ultimately fatal accident of Frenchman Jules Bianchi at the 2014 Formula 1 race in Suzuka, Anthoine Hubert died in the rubble of his Formula 2 car.

Hubert, protege of the Renault Drivers Academy and one of the most promising talents in French motorsport, had lost control of his car in the asphalt run-off of the Eau Rouge valley at the entrance to the high-speed Raidillon passage. When trying to avoid his compatriot Giuliano Alesi, who was slowing down, he skidded and triggered a fatal chain reaction.

Motorsport just goes on

The following Juan Manuel Correa (USA) had no chance, at well over 200 km / h he hit the wreck of Hubert’s car, which was perpendicular to the road and which was torn into three parts in the terrible impact. The driver’s survival cell was torn to pieces on the left side, and Hubert was thrown across the track with tremendous force in the rubble of his monocoque. At 6:35 p.m., doctors at the medical center pronounced him dead.

There was great sadness and consternation in the paddock, and yet a few hours later the engines roared again in Spa. Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 remembered the Frenchman in a minute’s silence, stickers on helmets and cars reminded of a life that was so terribly suddenly and much too soon extinguished.

Then everyone got back into their cars, Hubert’s childhood friend Charles Leclerc won the first Formula 1 victory of his career in a Ferrari. Anthoine would have wanted it that way, they all said afterwards. And maybe that’s even true.

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