2023-07-01 11:19:00
This is very sad news that the organizers of the 24 Hours of Spa had to make official shortly before 1 p.m. this Saturday. The young Dilano Van t Hoff, who was going to celebrate his 19th birthday on July 26, died during the Formula Renault Regional by Alpine event held this morning. The accident occurred around 10 a.m., on the very last lap of a race contested under the halberds, with very reduced visibility for the pilots.
The peloton was still compact because the heat had already been neutralized under the safety car a few laps earlier. While we thought it was going to end behind the “safety car”, the event was relaunched and the drama happened.
In the Combes straight, a chain collision occurred. Dilano’s single-seater MP hit the rail at more than 200 km/h and ended up across the track. One of his competitors mightn’t avoid him and hit him sideways. Circumstances unfortunately very comparable to those in which Anthoine Hubert died here in F2 almost four years ago. Except that it happened 200 or 300 meters further and is not linked to the Raidillon bend. The single-seaters remain vulnerable during impacts at such high speeds.
Dilano, a Dutchman from Dordrecht, was Spanish F4 champion in 2020. Seventeenth in the championship last year, he returned to the MP Motorsport team.
At these speeds, the pilots see nothing with the “spray” but the red headlight at the back of the single-seater in front of them.
We can better understand following this tragedy why the Lamborghini race was interrupted an hour later following five laps under the safety car and why the drivers of the McLaren event refused to race in the rain.
The organizers, responsible for the circuit, the RACB, the SRO as well as the auto editorial staff of the DH offer their deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of young Van’t Hoff for whom a minute’s silence will be respected before the start of the 24 Spa Hours, this followingnoon at 4:30 p.m.
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