Lewis Hamilton Defends FIA Only 7 Days After 18-Year-Old Prodigy’s Untimely Death: “Done a Great Job on Safety”

Spa-Francorchamps has been a happy hunting ground for Lewis Hamilton, the Brit having won 4 of his 103 races at the Belgian venue. But as good as the track has been to Hamilton, it has become notorious over the years for becoming a hunter, claiming the lives of 49 drivers since its first race. And seven days ago, it took its most recent victim, 18-year-old Dutch prodigy, Dilano Van ‘t Hoff. 

The tragic accident occurred during the fourth round of FRECA, in its second race of the weekend in Spa. The race happened in extreme wet weather—some would say even undrivable—conditions. Heading onto the Kemmel Straight after climbing up the hill through Eau Rouge and Raidillon, Van ‘t Hoff spun due to the immense spray. And Adam Fitzgerald’s car T-boned him during his spin, and he died on impact. Because of this accident’s similarity to one that happened in 2019 in almost the same place, the FIA has been receiving a lot of backlash for not making the track safer. But Lewis Hamilton defended it.

Lewis Hamilton comes to the rescue of the FIA

In 2019, during an F2 race at the Belgian GP, Anthoine Hubert crashed into the wall at Raidillon. And as he ricocheted off the wall, Juan Manuel Correa’s car T-boned him, and Hubert, too, died on impact. While talking about both these similar accidents, as quoted by motorsport-total.com, Hamilton said, “It’s definitely devastating to see that we’ve lost two young drivers in such a short space of time, but I have faith in the FIA ​​who have done a great job on safety.”

Questions have been raised about the track’s safety ever since Hubert’s accident. And the same questions have come up now. After the race that never happened at Spa in 2021, the FIA made a few changes to make the track safer, which Hamilton defended. The run-off area on either side of Raidillon—the sight of Hubert’s crash—came into question. So for the 2022 season, apart from changing the radius of Eau Rouge a little, the FIA significantly increased the run-off area around Raidillon.

The track undergoes changes almost every year to make it safer. Hamilton said, “They make so many changes to every circuit year after year, and I’m sure they will be looking very closely at Eau Rouge to see if we can improve on that. When you come over a hill, you can’t see anything, especially when the weather is bad, and that’s happened twice now, so we definitely have to make a step.”

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Hamilton believes that even though the FIA has made changes to the track, it has the potential to get safer. He highlighted concerns around the Eau Rouge-Raidillon section, and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll feels the same.

Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso issue contrasting views on the accident’s cause

After the accident, Lance Stroll made it known that he felt the track was at fault for Van ‘t Hoff’s death. He said, “It’s not fair what happened, and that corner needs to be looked at and changed because we’ve lost two young talents in the span of five years. It needs to be changed, that corner. We’re going there in a few weeks. It’s horrible what happened today.” 

While he believes the track needs changing, Fernando Alonso raised concerns about visibility. He thinks the conditions were too risky because of which the visibility was close to zero. He claimed, “People watching at home can’t understand that we can’t see anything. Visibility at that speed in the rain is a big problem, and that’s what happened today.”

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Do you feel the FIA has taken enough security measures to make Spa safer?