Callum Ilott described how the Formula 2 tragedy in Spa 2019 “changed my values” as a racing driver and as a person.
The Briton was driving in the F2 series for the Sauber Junior Team by Charouz when Anthoine Hubert was killed in a terrible accident in Raidillon, in which Ilott’s team-mate Juan Manuel Correa was seriously injured.
A very popular figure, Hubert was raised and raced with several of the current F1 racing drivers in karting, perhaps closest to his compatriot Pierre Gasly, and a very bright future was expected.
That gloomy weekend in Belgium made a big impression on Ilott and as he continues his career in motorsport the 22 year old Briton has described the exact mark he has left.
“In order to satisfy my own mental state, I spent the whole evening and the next day analyzing what had happened,” said the Ferrari Academy driver in an interview with Adrian Flux.
“In my mind I almost completely understood why it happened and it felt easier to accept.
“I’ll go through it and put it together. I had lost a good friend and my teammate was fighting for his life. It was an ongoing process to deal with it.
“You can’t change what happened, but he (Anthoine) changed me – not because of the accident, but because he was, how he influenced people, and I learned a lot from him. I took it upon myself to make changes, inspired by him.
“Everyone says ‘you do it (race) for them,’ but I’d rather take the lessons they gave me as it has a bigger impact than doing it for them.
“It can happen to anyone and you have to seize every opportunity and moment in life – that was one of my lessons. It has helped me change my values and my understanding of some things. “
Ilott, who recently debuted his IndyCar racing, knows what it is like to be involved in a serious accident as he saw an Alfa Romeo F1 car testing an Alfa Romeo F1 car just months before Hubert’s fatal accident.
“You have to strike through again,” said Mick Schumacher’s runner-up in the 2020 F2 championship.
“As long as you have time, you can pity yourself and punish yourself. It can be a bigger lesson than moving on.
“For a week I believe that nobody could really talk to me. Physically, I was almost okay, I had a slight backache, but it was all mental. For me it had more to do with my career.
“It was a great moment to have that end result, the fall, and then to have it, so I was more concerned about my career.
“In a week or two I was back in Formula 2, it was a distraction to get going again.
“You can get out of the spiral and get on with what you’re doing. You learn your lesson and make the most of it. “
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