Tragedy once again shook motorsport with another death of a young driver. The Dutchman Dilano Van’t Hoff, 18, lost his life this Saturday after suffering a serious accident at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit (Belgium), when he was contesting the fourth race of the European Regional Formula Championship (FRECA). The Dutchman found himself blocked in the middle of the track, without visibility due to the rain, and received a fatal impact from a rival.
The tragic accident occurred in the closing laps of the second race of the weekend. Involved in the crash were Adam Fitzgerald, Joshua Dufek and Enzo Scionti, as well as Van’t Hoff.
At the entrance to the Kemmel straight – the fastest in Spa, after the Eau Rouge climb and the Raidillon variant – there was very little visibility due to the spray of water from the rain. There was a chain collision, some cars went off the line, but Van’t Hoff got stuck in the middle of the track and Fitzgerald didn’t see him and crashed into him violently.
The fearsome T-shaped collision, a high-speed side impact, as occurred just four years ago in Spa in the accident that killed Frenchman Anthoine Hubert in Formula 2.
The race was immediately suspended. The Dutch pilot was extracted from the cockpit already unconscious. Resuscitation attempts at the Spa circuit medical center were unsuccessful.
The organization made the death of young Van’t Hoff official three hours after the event.
Immediately after, there were expressions of condolence from the F1 drivers from Austria, as well as criticism on social networks of the permissiveness of the organization and the competition authorities for not suspending the race with the low visibility conditions that existed on the track. .
Van’t Hoff, a driver for the MP Motorsport team, was in his third season in the European Regional Formula; he was 16th in the overall championship standings. In 2019 he was champion of the Spanish Formula 4, in which the Catalans Pepe Martí and Enric Bordàs, and Dani Maciá from Alicante were running that season.
