22 Year Old FORMULA 2 Driver, Anthoine Hubert Who Died Following a Fatal Accident Last Weekend.

22 Year Old FORMULA 2 Driver, Anthoine Hubert Died Following Fatal Accident

Background 

Anthoine Hubert was born on 22 September 1996 in Lyon. The former French professional racing driver was born to a family that loves motorsport. His father (Francois) an enthusiastic amateur rally driver introduced and supported Hubert to achieve his dreams by becoming a professional motorsport driver. Anthoine, a passionate racing driver was on a path. A path that would have risen him up to the very peak of the sport. Anthoine Hubert, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were regarded as upcoming young French-speaking hot-shoes – Hubert was called the Fourth Musketeer among them. The group except Anthoine graduated to Formula 1 but his progress and performance in Formula 2 appeared to be a matter of time before he was ready to join them. 

Career and Achievements  

Hubert karting career started in 2004 when he was seven. He was runner-up in the 2010 CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy. Anthoine took a step further in living his dreams by participating in the CIK-FIA Under-18 World championships in 2011 and 2012, finishing 3rd in both years. In 2013, he took part in French Formula 4 championship, dispatching countryman Jules Gounon to the title by claiming 11 wins from 21 races. The Frenchman turned his attention to Formula Renault in 2014, competing in the Euro Cup Formula Renault 2.0 with Tech 1 Racing and Formula Renault 2.0 Alps as a guest driver. Hubert struggled in the competition that year but he had a better 2015 in the championship finishing 5th with six wins. 

Anthoine made his debut in the European Formula 3 championship on February 2016, racing with Van Amersfoort Racing. A difficult season saw him with just a single win and two podiums. 

November 2016 saw Hubert took part in Formula 3 post-season testing with ART Grand Prix. ART recruited him on February 2017 to participate in the 2017 championship. He won the GP3 Series title with ART in 2018, claiming 2 glorious victories at the Circuit Paul Ricard and at the Silverstone Circuit together with 9 more podiums. 

A few months later, Hubert signed with BWT Arden and joined Formula 2 championship fully. Until his death, Anthoine brought home 2 wins in Monaco and Paul Richard (Le Castellet) with his new team. He has been the only sole rookie to have achieved this accomplishment. 

About his Death 

Anthoine Hubert was involved in a serious crash on 31 August 2019 when participating in Spa-Francorchamps FIA Formula 2. The fatal incident happened in the second lap of the race and it started when Trident driver lost control of his car when climbing the Raidillon curve. This resulted in his car spinning and hit the wall of the circuit, tearing off his rear wing and spreading debris onto the track. Ralph Boschung, another Trident driver, tried to avoid Alesi’s damaged car by moving slowly towards the run-off area. Hubert that was following Boschung closely had no view of what had happened to Alesi, decided to move right to avoid Boschung’s slowing car. Hubert’s car crashed on the right side of the track at an acute angle and was deflected towards the path of Charouz driver (Juan Manuel Correa) who hit it on the left side. Correa was estimated to be racing between 250 and 270km/h in the moments before the impact. The two cars were torn apart as a result of the force of the accident. Both drivers were rushed to the Circuit’s Medical Centre but Hubert couldn’t survive his injuries – he died as a result of that. 
Tributes were paid to Hubert by many drivers and teams in the motorsport world. Bruno Michel, the FIA Formula 2 CEO, said: “Everyone in the Formula 2 family is heartbroken at the loss of Anthoine. He was a joy to work with for these 3 years, and I will miss his constant smile and sharp intelligence that made every encounter with him enjoyable, and our hearts are with his family and the BWT Arden team.”