Formula 2 organisers have retired #19 from future use in the championship as a tribute to the late Anthoine Hubert.
Hubert sustained fatal injuries in the high-speed incident which occurred on the second lap of last year’s Feature Race at Spa-Francorchamps.
Hubert spent the last three years of his career in Formula 1’s support paddock, taking the 2018 GP3 Series title, and graduated to Formula 2 for 2019.
Hubert, who was a member of Renault’s young driver programme, claimed victories in Monaco and France and officially classified 10th in the championship.
A new award, issued to the best rookie, was founded in Hubert’s honour and now the #19 raced by the Frenchman last year has been retired from future use.
Hubert’s replacement at BWT Arden for the final two events of 2019, Artem Markelov, used #22.
HWA Racelab, which has taken over Arden’s entry for 2020, will use #16 and #17 as expected, on account of the squad classifying in eighth place in last year’s Teams’ championship.
Prema, which finished ninth, will bypass #18 and #19 and instead use #20 and #21 as the next two concurrent numbers.
Trident, which finished at the foot of last year’s standings, will subsequently run with #22 and #23.
Unlike in Formula 1, support categories Formula 2 and Formula 3 do not use permanent driver numbers.
The reigning Teams’ champions are allocated #1 and #2, the runner-up #3 and #4, and so on, with #13 bypassed.
