Pierre Gasly reveals Anthoine Hubert regret and pain of grief

Pierre Gasly has opened up on how he has learned to live with the grief of losing his close friend Anthoine Hubert.

Hubert, who grew up karting with Gasly, was killed in a crash on the second lap of the Formula 2 feature race at Spa-Francorchamps during the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

Speaking to F1.com's Lawrence Barretto in the Off The Grid series, Gasly revealed he regrets not saying a proper goodbye to Hubert the final time he saw his friend before his fatal accident in Belgium.

“One thing I regret is, in Budapest, after the race we went to party together with Anthoine [Hubert],” the Alpine driver said.

“I didn’t want to leave too late so I kind of left the party earlier. I couldn’t find him in the club. I walked out of the club and on my way out I saw him, he was on the terrace. And I just waved at him and said bye, have a good summer and I’ll see you in Spa.

“I never got the chance to see him again before the crash. I just wish I would have waited a bit longer in the club just to hug him or say bye in a slightly different way. It taught me to appreciate the moment we live [in] with the people we love and just to never take anything for granted.”

‘It took me years to process’

Gasly reflected on the tragedy which unfolded just days after he had been demoted from Red Bull back to Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls).

"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 explained.

"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.

"It's just pain. 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.

"18 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. It was 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.”

Following Hubert’s death, Gasly organised an annual run at Spa-Francorchamps to pay tribute to his friend.