Max Verstappen led an outpouring of sympathy for family and friends after the death of the 18-year-old Dutch driver Dilano van ’t Hoff on Saturday at Spa. The world champion also demanded motorsport take action to better protect drivers, describing his countryman’s death as unnecessary. Other drivers were highly critical of the circuit’s iconic Eau Rouge-Raidillon corner.
Van ’t Hoff died as a result of a crash at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. He was competing for MP Motorsport in a race of the Formula Regional European Championship and was caught in a multiple car accident during a restart in wet conditions. In very poor visibility due to spray it appears he spun and was hit at high speed on exiting Eau-Rouge-Raidillon at the start of the Kemmel straight by the RP Motorsport car driven by Adam Fitzgerald.
“It’s incredibly sad,” said Verstappen. “I didn’t know him personally, he was an up and coming Dutch racing driver. He had the same dreams we had, when we were that age wanting to get to F1. It is incredibly sad for the whole family and the team MP Motorsport.
“We have to look into these situations. It is easy to blame the track but looking at how wet it was and these kind of things we have to look at it for the future to look at what we can do better to protect drivers, because I think today was unnecessary clearly.”
The incident occurred four years after Anthoine Hubert was killed in a multiple-car crash in an F2 race on the same section of the track.
In late 2021 and 2022, renovations took place at Spa to improve safety after a series of serious accidents through this section of the track including in the W Series and the Spa 24 Hours. Notably, the run-off areas around Raidillon, the high-speed corner preceded by Eau Rouge, which leads into the Kemmel straight, were extended to prevent cars being deflected back on to the track in the event of an accident.
However, there was concern among F1 drivers who will race at Spa on 30 July that the Eau Rouge-Raidillon sequence was no longer fit for purpose. “That corner needs to be looked at and changed, because we lost two young talents in like five years,” said Lance Stroll. “We’re going there in a few weeks, every time we go through there we put our lives on the line, today we saw something bad happen. It’s not right.”
His feelings were echoed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. “It reminds me of situations I’ve been in the younger categories in Spa,” he said. ‘In similar conditions and being fully honest, there were times I did feel in massive danger just with poor visibility and various situations where it just feels pretty unsafe.”
Van ’t Hoff’s MP team said: “We are devastated at the loss of one of our brightest Dutch talents, who brought so much energy to our team during the years he raced with us.
“Dilano has been a part of our racing family since his motorsport debut with MP back in 2021. We offer our sincere condolences to Dilano’s family and his loved ones, and are in full support of them and our team members who have lost not only a driver but a friend as well.”
Formula One’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali, said: “We are so sad to learn of the passing of Dilano van ’t Hoff today at Spa-Francorchamps. Dilano died in pursuit of his dream to reach the pinnacle of motor sport. Along with the entire motorsport community, our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.”
Teams posted messages of sympathy on Twitter. Red Bull wrote: “Our hearts go out to Dilano’s family, friends, and the larger motorsport community. Pausing to reflect on the tragic passing of this young man, far too soon.” Mercedes said: “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Dilano van ’t Hoff following today’s tragic incident,” while McLaren said they were deeply saddened.
There was a minute’s silence before the Formula Two race at the Red Bull Ring, in the buildup to F1’s sprint race.
Van ’t Hoff began racing in single seaters in F4 UAE championship in 2021 and went on to win the Spanish F4 title that year before switching to Formula Regional in 2022.
