Maria de Villota obituary

Maria de Villota passed away on October 12, aged 33. A post-mortem found she died of natural causes, although her family believes these were linked to an F1 testing accident at Duxford Aerodrome 15 months earlier. The Spaniard had recently completed a book about the incident and its aftermath. The daughter of 1970s F1 privateer and Aurora series front-runner Emilio, Maria competed in Spanish F3, GTs and touring cars before gaining experience of powerful single-seaters in the Superleague Formula in 2009-11. An outing in a two-year-old Renault at Paul Ricard in 2011 led to a testing deal with Marussia the following year. Sadly she lost her right eye and suffered skull fractures after she struck the open tailgate of a catering truck while conducting her first straight-line aero test for the team. Since the accident she had worked with the FIA as a road safety ambassador and had served on the Women in Motor Sport Commission.