A number of F1 drivers have demanded further action be taken at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit following the latest death.
Just four years after Anthoine Hubert was killed in an F2 race at the Belgian track, 18-year-old Dutch driver Dilano Van’t Hoff lost his life in a Formula Regional European Championship race.
Pierre Gasly was close friends with Hubert. Every year since the death of his fellow Frenchman, the Alpine driver has visited the site of the crash at the top of Eau Rouge to lay flowers.
Reflecting on this latest tragedy, Gasly said: “We’re all shocked and extremely sad with what’s happened.
“It reminds us of some obviously very sad times with what happened with Anthoine a couple of years ago.
“It just seems wrong. We should never be in such a position of losing young talents, so it clearly needs a review of what’s happened exactly and making sure these scenarios never happen in the future.
“It’s enough losing some talent in such a fashion, and it’s obviously extremely sad.”
Appreciably, Gasly has opted not to look at footage of the Van’t Hoff incident, but has called on the circuit bosses and the FIA safety department to consider making additional changes to the track to those that were applied following Hubert’s death.
“I really hope all the people involved in safety and looking after the safety of all the drivers are going to take some action because it’s not the first time, and it should have never taken place,” added Gasly.
“We should have never have been in such a situation a few years back. It definitely needs a review because it doesn’t feel right to lose some guys like that.”
Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll was especially vociferous in condemning the section of the track where Van’t Hoff was killed as he was t-boned by another driver at the start of the Kemmel Straight following incidents immediately prior through Raidillon, and in appalling conditions.
“It’s not fair what happened,” said Stroll. “That corner needs to be looked at and changed because we’ve lost two young talents in five years.
“We seriously need to think about what to do with that corner because it’s never fun going through there, and we’re going to be there in a few weeks.
“Every time we go through there, we put our lives on the line. Today we saw something bad happen, and it’s not right.”
Stroll claimed past discussions within the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association about the track have taken place, only for the topic to then “blow over”.
With F1 due to visit Spa at the end of the month, Stroll added: “They need to do something. We’ll be playing with fire in a couple of weeks’ time. Again! And not just us, the F2 kids, F3 kids, everyone that goes through that corner every week.
“Even if it’s dry, and someone loses their car, it’s a blind corner, you hit the wall and come back into the middle of the track. A car comes at you at 300-plus kilometres an hour, you’re toast.”
Reigning two-time F1 champion Max Verstappen naturally described the tragedy surrounding his fellow Dutchman as “incredibly sad”.
Although the Red Bull driver did not know Van’t Hoff personally, he said: “He was a Dutch racing driver, up-and-coming racing driver as well, who had the same dreams as we had when we were at that age, wanting to get to Formula 1 or whatever.
“We have to look into these kinds of situations. It’s easy to blame the track, but also looking at how wet it was and these kinds of things.
“Definitely there are things that we have to look at for the future, what we can do better to protect drivers, because today it was unnecessary, clearly.”
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