FIA gives update on investigation into fatal Hubert crash

Formula 1 race director and FIA safety delegate Michael Masi has confirmed the investigation into the Formula 2 accident which claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert on Saturday is already underway, with no deadline being set for its completion.

Hubert was killed in a multi-car crash on Lap 2 of the F2 Feature Race on Saturday at Spa-Francorchamps, marking the first death of a driver from injuries sustained on a grand prix weekend since Jules Bianchi's passing in 2015.

The FIA confirmed in the statement announcing Hubert's death on Saturday that it would be launching an investigation into the crash, with Masi offering further details in his post-race debrief on Sunday at Spa.

"There’s an investigation that started yesterday. It will go from here," Masi said.

"The FIA, with our technical department, our safety department, all the various departments within the FIA, have commenced an investigation immediately.

"The FIA together with the RACB, the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, will work together with the authorities, and the investigation will go on and go from there.

"There are many facets. I won’t be going into any detail until we look at everything as a whole picture."

Asked when the investigation would be completed by, Masi said: "I can’t give you an answer. I don’t think we’ve put any time on it.

"The safety, medical, technical departments within the FIA, together the FIA with the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, which is the FIA’s designated sporting body, is working with the local authorities, and will go through that process.

"We’ll go through the process basically of conducting a full and complete investigation, as the FIA does with all serious incidents. It doesn’t matter if it’s circuit racing, rallying, whatever it may be. It will be all aspects of the incident."

Masi said he "wouldn't want to speculate" if any safety changes would be made ahead of this weekend's F2 event at Monza, but underlined the FIA's commitment to improving safety standards throughout motorsport.

"I think safety is ever-evolving. There’s a few of you in this room that have been involved in attending F1 races for a lot longer than me, and have seen the upward evolution of safety in that short period of time," Masi said.

"Once different technologies become available, different materials become available, safety is an ever-evolving process. It is for me not something that will ever end. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it, safety is one of the core pillars of the FIA and why they exist, and that was something that just won’t stop.

"We’ll continue to research and look at things and improve things as best as we can."

Officials at Spa announced shortly after Hubert's death that the planned F2 Sprint Race at Spa on Sunday would be cancelled, something Masi said was a joint decision between the promoters, the FIA and the local authorities in Belgium.

"From the point of view of cancelling F2, we looked at everything together. There were other powers in play from a local of point of view that we had to respect," Masi said.

"Between F1 Group and the FIA, we worked together and came up with another timetable. We obviously had local laws to respect.

"When there’s an incident of that critical nature, you obviously need to work with the local authorities."