Dutch teenager Delano Van ‘t Hoff died in a crash during a wet Formula Regional European Championship race at Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps circuit on Saturday, his team said.
The 18-year-old, who won the 2021 Spanish F4 championship, was racing for the Dutch MP Motorsport outfit at the Belgian Grand Prix circuit.
“MP Motorsport is deeply saddened to confirm that our driver, Dilano Van ‘t Hoff, has died as a result of a crash during the second race of the Formula Regional European Championship at Spa Francorchamps by Alpine,” the Dutch MP said in a statement. Has been.”
The race, run in wet conditions with heavy spray, was on the support program for the 24 Hours of Spa endurance race.
Formula Two teams and drivers competing at the Austrian Grand Prix observed a minute’s silence.
Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali said: “Dilano died pursuing his dream of reaching the pinnacle of motorsport. Along with the entire motorsport community, our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.”
Media reports stated that Van ‘t Hoff was caught up in a multicar collision during the late restart.
The incident took place near the track where French driver Anthoine Hubert died in the 2019 F2 race at Spa-Francorchamps.
“The story of the race is not that we lost a young driver today at Spa, my thoughts are with him and his family,” Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll.
“What happened is not fair, and that needs to be looked at and changed, because we have lost two young talents in five years, it needs to be changed. We are going to be there in a few weeks, what happened today That’s awful, we lost a member of the racing family.
“Seriously need to think what to do with that corner because passing there is never fun, every time we pass there we are putting our lives at stake, today we saw something bad happen. It Is not right.”
Other F1 drivers talk about the Belgian track at this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Alpine driver Pierre Gasly said: “I really hope that everyone involved in safety and looking after the safety of all the drivers is going to take some action because this is not the first time and this should not have happened, should never happen Should have been in such a situation a few years back, it definitely needs a review.”