Hubert “pushing for more” in debut campaign

No sooner had Anthoine Hubert achieved his first ever win in Formula 2, was he having to dispel murmurs of a title challenge, so highly rated is the young Frenchman. “I'm already quite far from the leaders,” he gently reminded reporters.

“I think it may be a bit optimistic to say I'm fighting for the title,” he continued. “They the leaders are experienced, in their third or fourth years, so it's not easy to challenge these guys.”

The 2018 GP3 series Champion is highly regarded amongst this year’s paddock and a Sprint Race win in the Principality will only have elevated those views. It wasn’t just his positioning in Monaco that excited though, it was the maturity shown in his drive, shrugging off the more experienced Louis Deletraz in one of the most intense battles of the season to date.

“I think there's no better place to get my first win, except maybe Le Castellet,” laughed the Frenchman. “It was quite tense and a tough race, especially in the end. I can still feel my heart beating quite hard to be honest! I'm very happy with this first victory of course, especially getting it in Monaco.

And yet, it still felt like a podium finish had been a long time coming for the continually impressive 22-year-old, who had seen fellow rookies Juan Manuel Correa, Guanyu Zhou and Callum Ilott all stick a notch on their bedposts despite him being just as, if not more impressive.

What has come instead, is a steady stream of results and a consistency that the others have been yet to find - he is the only rookie to have scored points in every round so far.

“Since the beginning of the year that's always been my target, to be consistent, always be in the points, and when there is an opportunity like today to take it and try and get some podiums.

“I'm really happy about our start to the season, to be honest I didn’t expect it to be like it is. I thought we were going to struggle a bit more, so I'm really, really happy, but I want more.”

Despite securing his best ever result in the series, the BWT Arden driver remains realistic about what he can achieve in his maiden campaign. “I know I'm a rookie,” he asserted. “I'm in a team that's kind-of rebuilding so we are not going to be really strong every time. I just try to always fight hard for points and to get on the reverse grid.

“We've had some really good Feature Races in Bahrain and Barcelona, so I think we can fight for a good position in the Championship. I'm pushing for more and hopefully more will come soon. More podiums and maybe more wins.”

Hubert has moved up to 7th in the standings on 46 points ahead of the Round 5 in Le Castellet and will be hoping to impress in front of his home crowd in France.