Grand Prix Rejects

Here's the official statement :

http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/622/

Confirming the loss of an eye.

S951 wrote:I am so seriously upset for Maria I know she was bought in for promo and tests but no one deserves this utterly devastated for her

@ianparkesf1: Marussia have confirmed Maria De Villota has sadly lost her right eye as a result of yesterday's accident.

Oh Jesus.

That's the end of her racing career. Really bad break.



I know it's not entirely tactful to play the blame game now, but I have to agree with Kostas. An F1 car shouldn't be under its own power near unguarded obstacles like that. I know if it there hadn't been a mechanical failure, nothing would've happened and we wouldn't be talking about it, but you don't take unnecessary risks like that with F1 machinery for this very reason. That's a dangerously unprofessional set-up by Marussia, and it's ended a driver's career.

Enforcer wrote:

S951 wrote:I am so seriously upset for Maria I know she was bought in for promo and tests but no one deserves this utterly devastated for her

@ianparkesf1: Marussia have confirmed Maria De Villota has sadly lost her right eye as a result of yesterday's accident.

Oh Jesus.

That's the end of her racing career. Really bad break.



I know it's not entirely tactful to play the blame game now, but I have to agree with Kostas. An F1 car shouldn't be under its own power near unguarded obstacles like that. I know if it there hadn't been a mechanical failure, nothing would've happened and we wouldn't be talking about it, but you don't take unnecessary risks like that with F1 machinery for this very reason. That's a dangerously unprofessional set-up by Marussia, and it's ended a driver's career.

I'm just thinking what legal implications for the team there are now and what actually happened as there is just to much speculation as to what happened, but it is still such a saddening thing for here you know news like this hasn't actually upset me as much as it has before

Aw bloody hell, this was on the TV news yesterday and I've tried to follow it the best I can ever since. This certainly is a freak accident and leaves a lot of questions hanging in the air, but I hope most of them are answered once the investigation on the accident progresses.

But a horrible injury like that, oh dear... I wish the best for her and her family. Sadly, this also means that there's going to be an even longer wait before we see a woman in F1 (I doubt Susie Wolff gets anywhere).

By the sounds of things she might well have been decapitated so the loss of an eye seems lucky in comparison.

But still.....yeeesh.

Oh my... I'm at a loss of words right now. This is terrible, truly horrible

She drove for Atlético Madrid in the Superleague Formula, so she had a special place in my heart for that. I can only wish she'll manage to recover succesfully and live happily after this.

Ubik wrote:By the sounds of things she might well have been decapitated so the loss of an eye seems lucky in comparison.

But still.....yeeesh.

I have to agree that, whilst it is tragic that she has lost her right eye, in some ways it is fortunate that her injuries were not even more severe given the force with which she struck that truck. At least, fortunately, it sounds as if she will pull through, but even so, it sadly does mean that her career in the cockpit is now effectively over, and it is a horrible way for that to happen.

i'm furious as hell. This unprofessional team needs to get a permanent ban from F1 right starting from this weekend. Why? Because you don't endanger your driver's life with YOUR OWN TRANSPORT LORRYS. The 90's are over, how can this be possible without the team being totally unprofessional? I just can't handle my emotions, all my thoughts with Maria. Hopes she recovers and has at least a long happy life soon after the recovery..

solarcold wrote:i'm furious as hell. This unprofessional team needs to get a permanent ban from F1 right starting from this weekend. Why? Because you don't endanger your driver with YOUR OWN TRANSPORT LORRYS. The 90's are over, how can this be possible without the team being totally unprofessional? I just can't handle my emotions, all my thoughts with Maria. Hopes she recovers and has at least a long happy life soon after the recovery..

Calm down, the exact causes of the accident are yet unclarified.

madmark1974 wrote:Here's the official statement :
http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/622/
Confirming the loss of an eye.

Holy shite

first of all the saddest news, to hear she won't be able to race anymore...

i'm honestly under the impression she made a silly move somehow... the way the car is positioned and its place make absolutely no sense to me...

might be wrong and hope to be!

Oh crap. Horrible horrible news. Poor Maria.

This is something you don't ever want to see if any industry. Work-place injuries are one of the most scary things around.

With the state of her injuries, Maria should really have quite the few chats with Lord Paul Drayson, who was born without vision in one of his eyes and yet still did ALMS and Le Mans Racing. She could learn how to cope and changes to her lifestyle with the issues, but it will be different she now has lost vision in one of her eyes.

I hope for the best for her, we all do.

Oh my. Oh, oh my. I feared that her visor may have been punctured, and tragically, it appears it has.

I feel truly sorry for her as she probably knows right now that her racing career is over. That must be the worst feeling in the world. Just as she was getting her big break, and maybe even an F1 drive in the near future, she has this truly horrific accident Luckily she was only travelling at 30mph, or I fear we would be reacting to much sadder news.

It would be highly inappropriate to talk about a possible mistake from her right now, because, as someone else rightly said, a racing driver's health and well-being comes first, no matter how rejectful or hated (by some) they are.

As solarcold pointed out, this was a highly unprofessional showing from Marussia. You'd think that with the 100s of health and safety laws, the requirement to undertake a lengthy and arduous risk assessment, and the miles of red tape that something as fundamentally flawed as parking a TRUCK, with the TAILBED OPEN, anywhere near an F1 car travelling at 150mph plus would be allowed to happen.

Even if it was parked in a designated pit area, it was obviously adjacent to the area of tarmac being used for the test. At the current time, I fully blame Marussia for this horrifying accident. I appreciate that the incident may have been down to plain bad luck, but it is not acceptable to do things based on luck alone, ESPECIALLY when people's LIVES are at stake. If the same situation were to be replayed over a 100 times, this outcome would probably never happen, but if Marussia parked the truck AWAY FROM THE TEST AREA the risk would be eliminated.

My thoughts are with Maria, and I hope she is able to move on from all of this without severe emotional trauma. This awful incident highlights the fact that Formula One can NEVER be safe, no matter what some 80 year old midget thinks. This should be a wake up call for the teams and drivers, who I feel are getting complacent after there being (luckily) no fatsl crashes for almost 20 years. Get well soon Maria

CoopsII wrote:

madmark1974 wrote:Here's the official statement :
http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/622/
Confirming the loss of an eye.

Holy shite

This is really a sad news...

Horrible news. That's her career down the toilet.

Those blaming the truck being there, don't. It's a freak accident, and if whatever caused the sudden acceleration didn't happen they wouldn't have even been given a second thought.

I would like to know the mechanics of the incident, ie. what happened to cause the sudden change in acceleration. I suppose we won't know this until Maria has recovered and is well enough to tell the story unless the ADR can do it.

Best wishes with her and her family at this time.

BaconLettuceNinja wrote:Horrible news. That's her career down the toilet.

Those blaming the truck being there, don't. It's a freak accident, and if whatever caused the sudden acceleration didn't happen they wouldn't have even been given a second thought.

I would like to know the mechanics of the incident, ie. what happened to cause the sudden change in acceleration. I suppose we won't know this until Maria has recovered and is well enough to tell the story unless the ADR can do it.

Best wishes with her and her family at this time.

I, likewise, feel that rushing to judgement whilst the facts remain unclear would be unwise.

Painful though it may be, what we need is a calm, dispassionate examination of the sequence of events that culminated in this accident, for we need to know what went wrong so others don't make the same mistakes (maybe by standardising test procedures so support vehicles are in designated zones, or perhaps restricting these sorts of tests to permanent racetracks).

That is quite simply the most horrible thing I've heard about in F1 since 1994.

I suppose we've become so used to how comparatively safe F1 is these days that things such as this happening come as all the more of a shock... Dreadful news for her, and I hope it doesn't get worse.

James1978 wrote:That is quite simply the most horrible thing I've heard about in F1 since 1994.

Agree completely.

Not since Schumacher won his first title have we witnessed such horror.

Prayers go out to Maria and her entire family during this very rough time.

James1978 wrote:That is quite simply the most horrible thing I've heard about in F1 since 1994.

Don't forget that we lost two marshals very close to each other in the early 2000s, in Australia and Italy. But in terms of drivers, this does seem to be the most catastrophic injury since 94.

Ubik wrote:

James1978 wrote:That is quite simply the most horrible thing I've heard about in F1 since 1994.

Agree completely.

Not since Schumacher won his first title have we witnessed such horror.

Nice timing, very tactful, well done.

(sarcasm)

In reaction to it all Marussia have cancelled their factory tour tomorrow. I have to say I'm obviously disappointed, but there's nothing anyone can do really.

I also think it's very poor taste by members to go about blaming the team. No one should be blamed for an incident like this. Accidents happen, especially in motorsport, and that's it. No one blames Williams for Senna's death (at least not anymore) - maybe that's because they're a top team and have a huge following. Shovelling shite on Marussia is shameful, I'll bet they're going through some tough times right now.

Questions do need to be raised about whether she should have been in the car at all though in the first place, if the cause is attributed to driver error.

But hey, let's not get all worked up over this, the fact is she has survived, and whilst she's suffered horrific injuries, she can live to tell the tale. I think she's been very lucky indeed considering the circumstances.

AndreaModa wrote:I also think it's very poor taste by members to go about blaming the team. No one should be blamed for an incident like this. Accidents happen, especially in motorsport, and that's it. No one blames Williams for Senna's death (at least not anymore) - maybe that's because they're a top team and have a huge following. Shovelling shite on Marussia is shameful, I'll bet they're going through some tough times right now.

This, so much.

Shame what happened to her. I hope she recovers from her other injuries. To see driver's career end is one thing, but when you are just starting you're career, and something like that happens, it's even worse.

AndreaModa wrote:In reaction to it all Marussia have cancelled their factory tour tomorrow. I have to say I'm obviously disappointed, but there's nothing anyone can do really.

I also think it's very poor taste by members to go about blaming the team. No one should be blamed for an incident like this. Accidents happen, especially in motorsport, and that's it. No one blames Williams for Senna's death (at least not anymore) - maybe that's because they're a top team and have a huge following. Shovelling shite on Marussia is shameful, I'll bet they're going through some tough times right now.

Questions do need to be raised about whether she should have been in the car at all though in the first place, if the cause is attributed to driver error.

But hey, let's not get all worked up over this, the fact is she has survived, and whilst she's suffered horrific injuries, she can live to tell the tale. I think she's been very lucky indeed considering the circumstances.

No matter how hard you try to be safe, accidents always happen unfortunately. The seriousness o the situation and Maria's injuries have clouded some members judgement, including myself I have to admit,

My first thoughts were worse than reality really. De Angelis was the first thing to come to mind. Really thought it would end up that way.

I'm sorry, but I think this s*** has to be seriously investigated. Yes, accidents happen and always will, but we need to understand what exactly happened and what could have avoided it. Every small improvement does help; I'm of the opinion that the 1994 spec cars weren't as intrinsecally unsafe as they are pictured these days (Roland was driving a damaged car, Ayrton had a freakish accident, other people like Alesi, Wendlinger, Lehto or Montermini survived horrendous crashes), but nevertheless they could be improved, and they were improved.

Best wishes to Maria, and hope she makes as good a recovery as possible, as soon as possible. Also, best wishes to her family and to Marussia, who must be feeling terrible.

I echo RealRacingRoots' observation that Lord Paul Drayson is a good example of what may still be possible for Maria. Granted, the fact she lost the eye suddenly rather than at birth means she can't have her racing licence back for 5 years, which would pretty much rule out F1 on age-to-experience ratio grounds even if she made a perfect re-adjustment to her disability. However, there is a test someone with a single functional eye can do to demonstrate the necessary capabilities to race. If she recovers sufficiently, Maria could eventually get her licence back, at which point there are quite a lot of series who wouldn't mind having her join them (ex-F1 testers do not grow on trees).

Until then, I cross my fingers and hope for the best for Maria from now on.

I am still quite worried.

pasta_maldonado wrote:... parking a TRUCK, with the TAILBED OPEN, anywhere near an F1 car travelling at 150mph plus would be allowed to happen.

The awning and truck were parked over 300 meters away from the actual testing strip and not in line with the strip.

They might not have a great car, but they are very professional. I know and have worked with quite a few people there, some of them with over 15 years of F1.

Adding a bit more...

Red arrow and circle show where the awning was.



http://i.imgur.com/QQHdY.jpg

In the second image you actually notice that the truck belongs to the awning guys. The Marussia truck is behind the awning.

Personally I concur with what other said and so: Get well, Maria.

I'd wait a word from Enoch about this.

Ferrim wrote:I'm sorry, but I think this s*** has to be seriously investigated. Yes, accidents happen and always will, but we need to understand what exactly happened and what could have avoided it.

I think its a given that thats going to happen

Very sad news . Hopefully that's the last injury for Maria. A loss of an eye is still better than other things she couldve had.

And I echo other members comments about Marussia being at fault. It's still too early to determine what exactly happened.

Well, it is going to be hard for her to get back to racing. Helping yourself to make up for the decrease of depth perception lost with the eye is very hard - although it can be done, otherwise you couldn't even have one-eyed people drive normal cars. As someone whom's father has lost an eye in an accident as well I can tell you that is not the case - although he had to quit on his job (ambulance officer) which does not bode well for her prospects.

Anyhow, we need to take it as the reminder we are still dealing with a sport that can, while (thankfully) taking a freak accident nowadays, deal death or injury at any given moment. Let's see what the inevitable investigation will result in.

Not good news,

just echoing a few posts, lets just hope she gets well, as said could have been worse.

Im sure they will investigate, but Maria would be the teams prioirity for now

Sadly I can imagine her injury being really painfuf, I hope it isn't though.

CoopsII wrote:

Ferrim wrote:I'm sorry, but I think this s*** has to be seriously investigated. Yes, accidents happen and always will, but we need to understand what exactly happened and what could have avoided it.

I think its a given that thats going to happen

I hope so, but some people were talking about "freakish accidents" and "accidents will happen"...

Looking at that picture Monstrobolaxa posted, it looks like the team wasn't to blame for the truck, but who does that other truck belong to?