María de Villota

María de Villota Comba
De Villota in 2011
Nationality	Spanish
Born	(1980-01-13) 13 January 1980 (age 33) Madrid, Spain
Related to	Emilio de Villota (father) Emilio de Villota, Jr. (brother)
Previous series
2009–2011 2009 2009 2008 2008 2007 2007, 2010 2006–07 2005–06 2001–05	Superleague Formula Formula Palmer Audi Trofeo Abarth Europe Euroseries 3000 Italian Superstars ADAC Procar – Division I Spanish GT Championship WTCC Ferrari Challenge Europe Spanish F3

María de Villota Comba (born 13 January 1980) is a Spanish racing driver. She is the daughter of former Formula One driver Emilio de Villota, and sister of Emilio de Villota, Jr., who like his sister competed in Formula Palmer Audi.

She is currently recovering from serious head and facial injuries sustained in an accident which occurred during a straight-line testing session in her role as the Marussia Formula One team's test driver.

Career [edit]

De Villota was born in Madrid. She has competed in numerous racing series, including the World Touring Car Championship and ADAC Procar Series. In August 2009, she signed with Atlético Madrid to race for the remainder of the season in the Superleague Formula open wheel racing series. She remained with the Atlético Madrid team until the series folded in 2011. She also competed in the 2005 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race.

Formula One [edit]

On 18 August 2011, the Lotus Renault GP team confirmed reports that de Villota had made her Formula One test debut in a Renault R29 at the Paul Ricard Circuit, and that her management was in talks to secure her a test driver seat in the future.^[1] In December she reiterated her desire to work with the team in 2012, adding that she was in advanced talks over a third driver role.^[2]

On 7 March 2012, it was announced that María de Villota had joined Marussia F1 Team as a test driver,^[3] with the opportunity to sample Formula One machinery later in the year.^[4]

Duxford Aerodrome testing accident [edit]

At approximately 09:30 on 3 July 2012, de Villota was involved in a testing accident at Duxford Aerodrome whilst carrying out straight-line testing for Marussia; her first time in the car. Her car collided with a stationary truck at the end of a test run when it had just returned to the service area. Initial eye witnesses estimated the car was travelling at between 30 and 40mph (50 and 65 km/h) when it crashed.^[5] It took an hour for her to be removed from the car and she was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridgeshire, England, with life-threatening head and facial injuries.^[6][7] She was later reported to be conscious.^[8] The following day, Marussia team principal John Booth stated that de Villota remained in a "critical but stable" condition in hospital and had lost her right eye.^[9][10][11] On 6 July, the Marussia Technical Centre said that following an operation that day, her condition in relation to her head injury had improved.^[12] On 16 July, Marussia stated that the car was not at fault. Team principal John Booth said: "We are satisfied the findings of our internal investigation exclude the car as a factor in the accident".^[13] After a stay of 17 days, de Villota left the hospital and returned to Spain, having escaped neurological damage.^[14]

De Villota made her first public appearance since the accident in October, giving an exclusive interview to ¡Hola! magazine and then hosting a press conference for the general media.^[15] She revealed that she has also lost her senses of smell and taste, still suffers from headaches, and is scheduled to undergo further surgery, but that she is open to a future return to racing if she is granted a licence, and that she also wants to become involved in promoting safety improvements in motorsport. She also released a computer graphic which showed the extent of her initial cranial injuries.^[16][17][18]

Racing record [edit]

Complete Grand-Am Series results [edit]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

Complete World Touring Car Championship results [edit]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Euroseries 3000 results [edit]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	VAL FEA	VAL SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	VAL FEA	VAL SPR	MUG FEA	MUG SPR	MIS FEA	MIS SPR	JER FEA	JER SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MAG FEA	MAG SPR	Pos	Points
2008	Emilio de Villota Motorsport			7	C													22nd	2

Complete Superleague Formula results [edit]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

† Non Championship round

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Official website
• María de Villota – career summary at DriverDB.com
• María de Villota driver statistics at Racing Reference