Pierre Gasly says his tribute to Anthoine Hubert was personally important to him, after he revisited the site where he lost his friend ahead of the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix.
Gasly organised a run, or walk, in memory of someone he knew from early childhood. The event took place on the Thursday prior to the Belgian GP and saw members of the F1, F2 and F3 paddock to complete a lap the of Spa-Francorchamps.
The event honoured not just Hubert, but also Dilano van ‘t Hoff, who also lost his life at the track earlier in 2023. Van ‘t Hoff at the start of the Kemmel Straight in a similar accident, this time caused by poor visibility in torrential conditions.
Hubert and Van ‘t Hoff were just 22 and 18 years old and were really only at the start of their racing careers.
“Everyone knows how close I was with Anthoine,” Gasly said to the media. “I think they know how close he was with the team, as part of the academy and part of the team for some time.
“I think it was a common desire to organise this event to remember. It was organised well before it [van ‘t Hoff’s death] happened in recent weeks.
“I think it’s great that we all, as a community, come together when these things happen. I think a small event, even if it’s only a run, is a way of gathering all of the community together to remember great talents that we lost way too early.”
Gasly’s grief
Hubert lost his life in 2019, when a collision with Juan Manuel Correa proved to be a fatal accident.
The incident saw Hubert’s BWT Arden car sustain 81 times the force of gravity, with the FIA reporting that the Frenchman sustained non-survivable trauma and that nobody was to blame.
The pair had been friends since they were seven years-old and lived together for six years prior to the tragic incident in 2019.
Gasly asked Charles Leclerc to win the 2019 Belgian GP for their friend, as the Ferrari driver started on pole and went on to win the race – dedicating the win to Hubert.
Gasly revisits the site of the accident annually, typically alone, to have a private moment with his late friend and to leave a tribute.
Upon switching from AlphaTauri to Alpine, the Frenchman revealed that Hubert‘s mother was one of the first people that he told and that he hopes to honour the team that his friend was a member of.
“I’ve always said it, we always had this common dream of making it to Formula 1, me and Anthoine,” Gasly said to media at the time. “He had his dream to perform with Alpine.
“If it’s something I can achieve in a way to remember Anthoine even more within my life, that would be amazing
“Obviously when this [move] happened, it was definitely something I thought about, and about the family.”
