Anthoine Hubert: the star that keeps on shining
- Camilla Coletta
- Sep 23, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 10, 2022
Today would've been Anthoine Hubert's 26th birthday, the French champion who left us in a hot summer afternoon, during that cursed race in Spa where nothing went the way it should've.
Anthoine Hubert was born on the first day of autumn, the 22nd of September 1996, in Lyon, France; he was only three years old when Santa Claus gifted him his first Go-Kart, probably the best gift he could've ever received. Before starting to compete in 2004, Anthoine and his father used to go to a supermarket parking lot to train, using whatever they could find to simulate a race track.
Anthoine was taking his first steps in what would become his passion in just a simple parking lot, where he built the base of his career. He trained there until he was five years old, while participating in some amateur races in Raleigh. He started racing at seven, after gaining a lot of experience in his little Go-Kart in that iconic parking lot.
He was the typical good guy, always positive and empathic, as Callum Ilott describes him: an amazing person with a great family. Anthoine was really kind, someone that could make people feel comfortable immediately, a guy that loved spending time with his beloved friends and family - if he wasn't sleeping, as it was another thing that he massively enjoyed doing, something pretty unusual for someone who’s used to race at more than 200km/h every weekend! His family was very important for him, as they had a lot of influence in his career: his dad, an ex rally driver, never missed any of his races; it was really important for the Frenchman to have his father next to him, alongside his mother,, his brother and his girlfriend, who attended his races very often.
He loved having his whole family by his side during race weekends, as he could dedicate his time to his work but still be with the people he loved and cherished. It was a balancing factor for him. Spending time with his team, talking with the engineers about every session was important for sure - and also necessary - but if things were to go wrong he could have his family's support to face those situations.
He was very close with his friends and they really enjoyed battling with him on track, so much that no one ever said anything bad about him. Callum Ilott was one of his best friends and always talked highly about him.
“I think lots of people would've loved him and I feel so lucky to have met him”
Ilott said in an interview.
Not only an amazing person, moreover a talented driver
He was one of the most popular drivers in the paddock, appreciated by everyone: he was shy outside the race tracks but as soon as he wore his helmet and got on his car he showed his grit, his tenacity and, most importantly, his talent.
Anthoine knew how to stand up for himself in every category he raced in: he was always highly respected; he was one of those drivers that no matter what happened he kept on working hard, because he wanted to do things perfectly. He never surrended: if things got harder than he imagined he just kept working as hard as he could.
““It's really sad: he was going to be a winning and competitive driver and I would've wanted to race and spend more time with him for sure.”
He was a great driver and he always proved it by placing his car in the first half of the grid. With zero presumption, he knew his worth and Callum Ilott thought this was his strength.
He surely was a driver to take example from: Callum told in an interview that Anthoine changed him, not because of his death, but because of his personality, that had a huge impact on people, always teaching them something new. Spa's tragedy changed Ilott's values.
A rising star - that shone brighter than the others - stopped shining earlier than it should've had. His dream to become an F1 driver was shut down like this, at Eau Rouge, during one of the scariest crashes in the history of motorsport.
Exactly 26 years ago that star was born: it didn't exactly stop shining, as in fact, it keeps doing it even brighter than before in the memories of who loved him.
Happy Birthday Anthoine!
I've written this article to tell Anthoine's history, both inside and outside the track: to do so I used his words and the ones of one of his best friends, Callum Ilott, who remembered him in October 2019 in the ©F2: road to F1 podcast.
Article translated from Italian by Alice Cecchi.
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