Maria de Villota

[Scott Webber]

Marussia has announced Maria de Villota has joined the team as a test driver.

De Villota, daughter of former F1 driver Emilio de Villota, drove a Renault F1 car at Paul Ricard in France last year.
The 32-year-old raced in Spanish Formula Three from 2001 to 2005, recording a best finish of fifth. In the last three years she has raced in Superleague Formula for Atletico Madrid as well as in Spanish GT racing.

Team principal John Booth said de Villota will get to drive the team’s car later this year: “We are pleased to welcome Maria to our test driver programme, which will enable her to be integrated into a Formula One team environment and gain a vast amount of experience that will be useful to her career progression.

“We will also provide Maria with the opportunity to sample F1 machinery later in the year, further adding to her racing credentials”

De Villota said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to work closely with a Formula One team and gain important experience to help me progress my career, including the chance to drive the new car later in the year at the Abu Dhabi test.

“I will be joining the team trackside so I’m looking forward to working alongside them at the first race next weekend and this can only help my future ambition to step up to Formula One racing.”

source

 

[Ivan Mills]

cool,will be looking forward to this,providing the marrussia can pull proper G's

edit: not that Abu is the place for that.,shame

 

[GAIAjohan]

best result ever in F3 during the many years: 5th

Not good enough for F1.. Simple..

 

[Ivan Mills]

best result ever in F3 during the many years: 5th

Not good enough for F1.. Simple..

i agree,but generaly its more about the publicity ,i think,so in that regard it'll be interesting to see how it goes

 

[GAIAjohan]

Ashley Force would've been more useful. She's prettier, and actually knows how to do straight line tests with her drag racing experience..

For track laps and the information on downforce etc I think you'd better use an experienced driver who knows what F1 is about, than someone who will be like 5seconds per lap slower than Glock..

 

[Bradley Vanian]

Go to 0:35. She is a pay driver. She is terrible, not because she is female, but because she is a terrible driver who is only in F1 due to big sponsors.

 

[Ivan Mills]

eeek...that's bad:eek:.....now it'll be even more interesting to see what happens

 

[Alexander Macdonald]

Well, my hopes of making it to F1 have increased significantly

 

[ufunacaoenn]

This is VERY interesting! (I am not being sarcastic or ironic!!!)

 

[Hampus Andersson]

and actually knows how to do straight line tests with her drag racing experience..

Yea because driving an F1 car in a straight line at constant speed is so difficult.

What years did she run in F3?

 

[GAIAjohan]

Yea because driving an F1 car in a straight line at constant speed is so difficult.

What years did she run in F3?

Apparently yes:

She ran in Spanish F3 between 2001 and 2005. 5 seasons..

 

[Hampus Andersson]

That´s an acceleration though. Constant speed is a completely different ball game.
Good find, saw it on her website now. Not listed at Wiki.

 

[António da Cunha]

cool,will be looking forward to this,providing the marrussia can pull proper G's

edit: not that Abu is the place for that.,shame

They should have enough G's now.

 

[Ho3n3r]

They should have enough G's now.

That hit the spot

 

[Ivan Mills]

That hit the spot

thats enough info Dewald

 

[Xosé Estrada]

Don't be sexist, she's just another not-talented-enough-rich-family paid driver

She has loads of experience though, raced all kinds of cars during many years.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

She has loads of experience though, raced all kinds of cars during many years.

... and impressed in none of them

 

[Xosé Estrada]

Yes, that's why she's what I said

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Must be in the family genes as her dad never performed in F1 either in the 70s/80s. Didn't qualify for 99% of the races he entered

Sad that Marussia really needs her money so much to assign here a test spot in the team. What happened to Virgin? Aren't they the big spending sponsor anymore?

 

[Hampus Andersson]

What happened to Virgin? Aren't they the big spending sponsor anymore?

Marussia has the controlling stake of the F1 team. It´s essentially a russian team now.