Motorsport is a strange game sometimes. While the drivers that compete do it for the pure love of racing, the sport can sometimes take more than it gives. F1 drivers, and racing drivers in general, are tagged as people having a fighter pilot mentality. But these heroes of ours, irrespective of the category, put their lives on the line for our entertainment and for the love of what they’re doing. Today, we lost one such hero, Dilano van’t Hoff. Though his passing for immeasurably sad, it did reveal to all of us who he looked up to.

Hoff wanted to forge a path of his own in this sport. Unfortunately, today, during Race 2 of the FRECA championship running at Spa-Francorchamps, he lost his life striving for it. But all throughout his racing career, it turns out that the 18-year-old Dutchman looked up to the Dutch lion himself, Max Verstappen.

Max Verstappen led late Dutch driver to glory

Hoff was a Spanish F4 champion, with a bright future in this sport. However, after his unfortunate and devastating passing, Verstappen came onto his social media handle at Instagram to pay his tribute. That’s when we learned about this wholesome connection.

A family member of the 18-year-old revealed to the entire world exactly what the 2x champion meant to Hoff. They took to the comments section of Verstappen’s tribute post to write, “You were his great example. Thanks Max.”

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While this revelation was enough to make us all full with emotions and pride, Verstappen himself delivered a classy tribute.

Max Verstappen delivers classy Dilano van ‘t Hoff tribute

News had broken in earlier today, that van’t Hoff had passed away after his incident in Spa. He got tangled in a fatal incident at the exit of the iconic Eau Rouge – Raidillon section of the circuit. However, that is exactly when tributes started pouring in from the entire racing fraternity, include Verstappen.

Verstappen posted a black-and-white picture of Hoff and wrote, “Extremely sad to hear the news about Dilano today.. I want to send my condolences to Dilano’s family and loved ones. Rest in peace.”

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Rest in peace, Dilano!