Who was Anthoine? A Hubert retrospective

By Joe Murphy

On this weekend more than any other, Formula 1 fans remember the late Anthoine Hubert, who sadly was taken at Spa, just under three years ago.

Many fans remember this moment, yet because he never made it to the mainstream that is F1, he is still unknown to so many. I look to rectify this problem and tell the world just who the man was.

He loved Italian food, and his favourite place to go on holiday was Sydney in Australia. He loved the travelling part of his job and was also a keen film fan. How we all know him, however, is for his racing.

Anthoine was a young and promising French professional racing driver. He was the 2018 GP3 Series champion and, as a result of his impressive form, he was called up to F2 where he raced until his untimely death. When he died, he was only 22 years old and was halfway through the F2 season when racing in Belgium.

But enough about the accident. I want to show you who he really was. Born in France, he began karting as young as 8 years old and won his first ever trophy 18 months later, before even reaching double figures.

It wasn’t too long before he found himself in F4 and in 2013, his debut race no less, he clinched his first victory. 10 more would follow as he was the run away leader in the series. His promotion to F3 occurred a few years later, where he enjoyed more success. This all lead to his F2 run which started in 2018 and got into full swing a year later. In his first season, he claimed two victories. His first ever victory came in Monaco where he won the race by less than a tenth of a second. His second race was in front of his adoring home fans as he won in France in what would be his final race win. He was seventh in the standings at the time the Spa event rolled around.

His talents had caught the eye of Renault (now Alpine) and he was signed up to their academy. A long future in motorsport was surely an inevitability and it is a shame that we never got to see the Frenchman racing against his good friends Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc, with the latter even dedicating his first ever win at the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix, to his fallen friend.

We will remember Anthione every time F1 heads to Spa, much in the same way we remember Senna at Imola and all the other F1 talent we have lost in the sports history. It is important to remember the young Frenchman as a talented prospect who had already achieved so much, but of course had so much more to offer.

RIP Anthoine Hubert.