At the end of August it will be five years since the fatal accident in Spa took the life of Antoine Hubert, a talented French Formula 2 driver and member of the Renault Sport Academy.
The Alpine team has prepared an 8-minute film in memory of Antoine – this work is available on YouTube since yesterday evening. In particular, Pierre Gasly remembers his deceased friend there…
Pierre Gasly: “The turning point in the history of our friendship happened in 2009, when we were 13 years old. We were asked: “Who wants to go to the Le Mans race?” Of all the young riders who were offered this, only three took a step forward.
Antoine and I were put in the same room in a hotel, we had breakfast, lunch and dinner together – you could say that this continued until we were 18. We were rivals in the races, and above all I wanted to be ahead of everyone. But Antoine just smiled and made it clear that I had no chance of beating him.
We competed with him in everything – I think it created that special psychological attitude, where we always try to surpass ourselves…
That day in Spa I knew immediately that something terrible had happened. It was impossible to face reality, to believe what had happened, because just five minutes ago I was quietly talking to friends, and suddenly they told me it was all over…
It is great that the racing community remembers Antoine, together we organize different events dedicated to him, and I always put flowers at the site of his accident, because I want to keep some kind of bond with my friend. Each of us has our own destiny. Antoine did what he loved most and accepted his destiny.”
Just over a year after that fateful day, Pierre Gasly won the Italian Grand Prix, driving for AlphaTauri, and this is what Alex Jakes, a British television commentator who worked at the Formula 2 race at Spa in August 2019, tells about it in the Alpine film:
“Pierre’s victory in Monza was very special. When he looked up at the sky from the top of the podium, everyone understood who he was thinking of at that moment, who he was addressing…”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
