Maria de Villota Seriously Injured in Test

Marussia test driver Maria de Villota has been injured in a crash while testing the team’s car today.

The team were running at Duxford Aerodrome in Cambridgeshire when de Villota’s car apparently struck a stationary vehicle, believed to have been the team’s truck.

De Villota, who was driving the car for the first time, was taken to hospital following the crash. Her injuries have been described as “life-threatening”.

The team issued the following statement: “At approximately 09.15 BST this morning, the Marussia F1 Team’s Test Driver Maria De Villota had an accident in the team’s MR-01 race car at Duxford Airfield where she was testing the car for the first time.

“The accident happened at the end of her first installation run and involved an impact with the team’s support truck.

“Maria has been transferred to hospital. Once her medical condition has been assessed a further statement will be issued.”

Cambridgeshire police confirmed a racing car had been in collision with a lorry at “low speed”.

The BBC’s Chris Mann gave the following account of the crash: “It suddenly accelerated into the big truck that had brought it there.

“There was a sort of board down, like a loading board, and the car went careering into the side of that. Probably on 20 or 30mph at that point – it had been doing obviously 200mph when it was going down the straight at Duxford.”

De Villota, the daughter of former F1 driver Emilio de Villota, joined the team as test driver in March.

This article will be updated.

flyingturns89 wrote:You had me concerned at stuck throttle. Hope she can race again.

PKligBKFan wrote:Unfortunately, Maria lost her right eye in the accident. She remains in critical yet stable condition.

PKligBKFan wrote:Unfortunately, Maria lost her right eye in the accident. She remains in critical yet stable condition.

BlueThunderfan wrote:Looks like Virgin is screwed.

BlueThunderfan wrote:Looks like Virgin is screwed.

BlueThunderfan wrote:Looks like Virgin is screwed.

BlueThunderfan wrote:Looks like Virgin is screwed.

Casey Lester wrote:Before the source, my post was this:

Why in the hell would they park their truck on the circuit? That's the team's fault for that. If the truck was safely off the track, they never would've had the accident.

After the source:

So she was coming into the pits. Why was she going so fast? Brake failure? Where was the truck anyways; sitting on pit road somewhere?

After finding it on Wikipedia:

Straight line tests? Alright... They still should have had the truck clear from the racing area.

Casey Lester wrote:OK, the throttle hung? Well, any way you look at it, Marussia really needs to make some improvisations with safety...