Motorsport Remembers Anthoine Hubert One Year On

August 31, 2020 James Gregory Formula Two 0

Tributes have been pouring in from across the motorsport community as Formula Two marked the first anniversary since Anthoine Hubert’s tragic passing following an incident during last season’s Belgian Feature Race at Spa Francorchamps.

The anniversary was marked across the weekend with an emotional minute silence ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix and F2 Feature Race and all cars carrying a special sticker in tribute, with F2 this morning posting a lovely tweet, saying ‘Toujours avec nous, Anthoine.’

2017 GP3 champion and Anthoine’s former ART Grand Prix teammate, George Russell tweeted that Anthoine would ‘Always be with us mate’ along with a couple of photographs of the pair together.

Campos driver and former GP3 teammate, Jack Aitken had shared stories across the weekend on social media and today tweeted about the last time he was with Anthoine just hours before the race.

Aitken and Hubert were part of Renault’s Academy last season and the French constructor have paid an emotional tribute in which they spoke of how a year has passed since the tragic events of Spa.

Another of Hubert’s former GP3 teammates and current F2 title contender, Callum Ilott responded to Aitken’s story by sharing his own tale of his final moments with Hubert just hours earlier.

Mercedes and Williams also paid tribute on Twitter with the Silver Arrows stating that they were ‘proud to carry Anthoine with us yesterday’ through the special sticker that all cars carried throughout the weekend.

Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was a close friend of Hubert and the Frenchman took to Twitter to speak of his sadness and the fact that ‘life can be a lot shorter than we think,…’

Several junior teams also paid tribute across social media including ART Grand Prix of whom Hubert raced for between 2017-18 in GP3, guiding the Frenchman in his second season to the last-ever GP3 crown ahead of their merger with Formula Three Europe to become F3 in 2019.

F1 also paid their own tribute in describing Hubert as ‘outrageously gifted, much loved’ and that he would be ‘always in our thoughts.’

We must however not forget Hubert’s Arden F2 teammate, Tatiana Calderon who posted that Hubert’s ‘absence will be always felt,…’ and Arden themselves who left F2 at end of last season, as the team posted their own tribute on Twitter on Friday evening.

French Grand Prix Organisers echoed everyone’s thoughts as they paid their own tribute on Twitter with a photograph of Hubert on the podium after winning the 2019 F2 French Sprint Race at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Finally, I would like to pay my own tribute to Hubert because although we only spoke on a few occasions via email, he was a brilliant guest when I interviewed him ahead of the 2017 GP3 season run-in and again in November 2018, when I contacted him for a brief Q&A as part of an university project that I did based around the future of the British Grand Prix and wanted a junior driver perspective on how much of a loss Silverstone would be for the sport which he happily provided in describing Silverstone as ‘mythical…’.

Interestingly, he also said that ‘Silverstone is with Spa Francorchamps, my favourite track in Europe!’ yet he lost his life at the latter circuit just over nine months later but if there is anything positive to take from the tragedy last year, it is that Hubert died doing what he loved on a track that he absolutely loved, although he did bring us some delight over the few preceding months with two wonderful victories in Monaco and France.

Gone but never forgotten. #AH19

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