For Pierre Gasly, the invisible scars left by grief can be far more difficult to navigate than the most treacherous corners on a racetrack.
The Frenchman speaks about his late friend Anthoine Hubert with a softness that cuts through the noise of Formula 1. Not as a driver recalling a tragic chapter in the sport’s history, but as someone still learning how to live with absence.
More than five years on from Hubert’s fatal crash at Spa-Francorchamps, Gasly admits the pain did not fade quickly – and perhaps never truly will. What remains is memory, regret, and a deeper understanding of what matters beyond lap times and results.
Growing Up Side By Side
Before Formula 1, before pressure and headlines, Gasly and Hubert were just two kids chasing the same dream. Their bond was forged long before the spotlight found them, in classrooms, karting paddocks and training sessions where competition and friendship blurred into one.
"We were part of that programme from 10 to 15 years old," Gasly said, speaking to Lawrence Baretto in an episode of the latter’s Off the Grid series.
"It was 15 drivers in France with potential and talent, and Anthoine was one of them.
The late Anthoine Hubert.
"We were roommates. We were classmates. Taking breakfast together, going to class together, having lunch, training with each other. And if I'm doing 13 push-ups, he'll be doing 14. And then I'll go again, doing 15.
"We very much pushed each other to get more potential out of each other."
That push carried them through the junior ranks – Gasly into Formula 1, Hubert to the brink of it. To Gasly, F1 felt inevitable for his friend. Until it wasn’t.
The Moment Everything Changed
On the second lap of the 2019 Formula 2 feature race at Spa, Hubert was killed in a devastating accident. Gasly, preparing for his own Grand Prix weekend with Toro Rosso, watched events unfold from afar – unaware at first that his life was about to fracture.
"I always tried to watch the F2 race, and I saw the crash, the red flag, and initially I didn't know who was involved and it looked bad. My team manager told me that Anthoine was involved,” he recounted.
"As soon as I finished the briefing, I ran down to the hospitality to try to get some more info. And as I went down the stairs, I just saw in the distance my parents just broken in tears. Sadly, I just understood straight away what had happened."
The grief was immediate and overwhelming, magnified by the sense of stolen destiny.
"It's just pain. It was just a matter of time until Anthoine got into F1,” he said. “It seemed like that was his destiny, but it wasn't the first time I had to go through these emotions with one of my closest friends.
"I had lost two years before a friend from back home, and two years later, it happens with Anthoine, with whom I was extremely close."
Racing Through Grief
The cruelty of Formula 1 is its indifference to timing. Just days earlier, Gasly had been demoted from Red Bull – a professional blow that suddenly felt meaningless.
"Eighteen hours later you go to the Grand Prix. The only thing people could ask me for the entire weekend is how bad do you feel about the demotion etc., and you're like, the bigger picture, there is more to life than this. I've just known this guy for so long,” he explained.
"We shared so many moments on track and off track. Honestly, I still can't believe it, extremely difficult to handle the emotions. I think it took me years to actually process what had happened and to sort of accept life as it is.
"You get taught a lot of stuff at school by your parents, but you never get taught how you're supposed to deal with yourself in this sort of situation."
Acceptance did not come quickly. And even now, it carries the weight of regret.
"And one thing I regret is in Budapest,” he remembered. “So after the race, we went to a party together with Anthoine. I didn't want to leave too late. So, I left the party earlier. I was trying to find him, I could not find him in the club.
"I walked out of the club, and then on my way out, I saw him. He was on the outside part of the club on the terrace. And I just waved at him and said, 'Bye, have a good summer, and I'll see you in Spa.'
Read also: Gasly on the friendship and fallout behind his rivalry with Ocon
"I never got the chance to see him again before the crash. And I wish I would have waited maybe a bit longer in the club just to hug him or say bye in a slightly different way. But it taught me to appreciate the moment we live with the people we love and to never take anything for granted."
Today, Gasly honours Hubert not just in memory but in action, organising an annual run at Spa during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend – a quiet, personal tribute at the circuit where everything changed.
It is Gasly’s way of carrying his friend forward. Not as a statistic, not as a tragedy – but as a presence that continues to shape who he is, on and off the track.
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