Introducing: Anthoine Hubert

Renault link-up has helped tap a rich vein of form in his second season of GP3

Anthoine Hubert has gone from racing a go-kart in a car park to becoming a French driver affiliated to a French manufacturer, and is now sparkling in GP3 Series this year.

A late deal with Renault signed at the first round of the season at Barcelona – a proud moment for the patriotic driver – allied to a return to GP3’S most successful team, ART, has allowed the 21-year-old to kick up a gear in 2018.

Only five times has he finished off the podium, all of them allied to mechanical or on-track issues, and the momentum is gathering as the season reaches its climax. He now lies 32 points ahead at the top of the standings in a field that has pedigree up front.

The target before the start of the year was wins and poles, as neither of those was achieved last year, but something has clicked in 2018 and the Lyon-born driver is flying. “Last year I was not where I wanted to be,” he says, “but it wasn’t like I was three seconds a lap slower. You improve small areas to get better to improve two or three tenths and that’s what makes the difference.”

Working with Renault has certainly boosted those areas: “I think it’s helping. It has many good aspects – it’s helping me to improve myself. I work with them for physical training. I’m branded as a Renault driver and it helps people to look at me potentially for the future.

I think it’s not doing everything, but it helps. I get advice, support.”

There’s no shortage of motivation in Hubert’s camp – he is incapable of giving an interview without uttering the phrase “we need to keep our heads down”. Rather than PR mumbo-jumbo, it’s a call to action. A constant self-motivating mantra to not let his work ethic slip, inherent in all successful drivers without big-money backing.

A lot of that comes from his former rally-driving father, Francois, says Hubert: “My dad was doing rallying as an amateur, some French Championship rounds, and when I was three Santa Claus brought me a go-kart. I started on the supermarket car park on Sundays. Since I was three, I knew I wanted to be a driver.”

Mission accomplished. A driver who some of the Formula 1 hopefuls are looking at with no answer to the question: how to beat Anthoine Hubert.

“SINCE I WAS THREE YEARS OLD I KNEW I WANTED TO BE A RACING DRIVER”