She never raced in a Grand Prix yet the name Maria de Villota will never be forgotten among the Formula One fraternity. Maria de Villota’s story was one which was both short and tragic, with a potential left unfulfilled.
Born in 1980, the daughter of Emilio de Villota, the former Formula One driver, there was never any doubt that Maria would emulate her father and brother Emilio Jr by going into motorsport. She quickly rose through Spanish domestic series to drive in the World Touring Car Championship with Formula Palmer Audi, the short lived Euroformula Open, where she represented Atletico Madrid FC and in the coveted Daytona 24 Hours.
Like most young racers her ambition was to get into Formula One and little did she know she had been noticed by Lotus-Renault where she was given the chance to test drive one of their cars in 2011. After the test her management were in talks with Lotus about a test driver role while at the same time Maria made it known her desire to be the team’s third driver.
In 2012, however, she announced that Marussia had signed her up as test and reserve driver giving Maria her break into the motorsport elite. She was happily involving herself in the team, learning as much as she could about Formula One in and out of the car with Marussia stating that they were very happy with their third driver. Sadly, it wasn’t to last very long.
On the morning of July 3rd 2012 Maria arrived to test drive the Marussia at Duxford Aerodrome in what was to be her very first test session testing straight line speeds. However, it soon took a dreadful turn for the worst with an accident uncannily and frighteningly similar to Jules Bianchi some two years later at Suzuka.
After her very first straight line run, the Marussia struck a stationary truck, trapping the car underneath it. It became apparent immediately that Maria was unconscious and emergency services were quickly called. It took an hour to release her from the car and she was rushed to Addenbrookes Hospital with most people fearing the worst.
Later that day the hospital confirmed she was critical but stable and twenty four hours later, Marussia manager John Booth confirmed that she was conscious and stable although sadly she lost her right eye. It was the end of Maria’s career but if you bear in mind what happened to Bianchi, it could have been so much worse. After seventeen days she returned home to Spain to recuperate and after recovering, stated she would like to return to some sort of racing if granted a licence as well as promoting safety in motorsport.
In July 2013 she married but tragically it was short lived. After just three months of marriage Maria was found dead in a hotel room in Seville. The autopsy later stated that she suffered a cardiac arrest and it was believed an underlying cause was a detachment of brain mass during her accident. Three days later she was due to launch her autobiography.
Maria de Villota’s story is a tragic one and brings home the danger drivers put themselves in for our enjoyment.
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