Grand Prix Rejects

Dreadful news. My thoughts and prayers go out to her friends and family at this dreadful time for them.
RIP Maria de Villota.

Really shocked at this news.

RIP Maria.

awful news after such a strong and brave recovery

Wow. This really did shock me. She seemed to be in great health and spirit after her accident, which makes it even more tragic that she's passed. This is tragic news indeed, my thoughts are with the family at this time.

Whatever caused her to pass away, I think we can all agree a promising life has been cut short.

When I saw this thread, I "braked" at first sight. RIP.

Some British media are now suggesting her death may be linked to the accident rather than suicide as she appears to have died from 'natural causes'. I read its a possibility she had a heart attack following a brain haemorrhage while she slept. One final unfair act for Maria.

I know the show must go on and all that but I'm finding it very difficult to have much interest in the race at the moment.

If it is indeed a delayed consequence of last year's accident, this would be technically the closest we have had to a driver fatality in F1 since Senna.

R.I.P. María.

CoopsII wrote:Some British media are now suggesting her death may be linked to the accident rather than suicide as she appears to have died from 'natural causes'. I read its a possibility she had a heart attack following a brain haemorrhage while she slept. One final unfair act for Maria.

I know the show must go on and all that but I'm finding it very difficult to have much interest in the race at the moment.

I agree- Its going to be a difficult weekend in Formula 1.

Hopefully we can have a safe clean but exciting race for her

RIP Maria, had a bright future ahead of her with the FIA. A tragedy she had to go after recovering so well from her accident.

RIP. At least, she drives a F1 car.

Its a shame that even after your accident, nothing was changed.

To avoid further unfortuate speculation this article (tweeted by Martin Brundle) states that an autopsy has already been carried out & that death was due to natural causes. It does not elaborate further. A brain bleed as suggested above is one possible cause.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/10/11/ine ... 73217.html

A sad, sad moment just before a GP. And to think that she already put everything behind to start a new phase of her life, this just seem totally unfair. We can only hope that she was called to do an important task of a higher being, just like Senna, Ratzenberger and others.

RIP, Maria.

Wallio wrote:This is awful awful news, RIP Maria, what a terrible story to start my day/weekend with.

http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/11/breaking-maria-de-villota-found-dead-in-spanish-hotel/

However, does anyone else think the family's "year and a half we had with with her" statement means they knew SOMETHING was wrong, maybe an accident complication no one publicly mentioned? Or am I reading way too much into this?

I probably know what she had, but i need to verify this anyone knows how to contact her family ?
Nevermind its already verified by Brundle

f1-gast wrote:I probably know what she had, but i need to verify this anyone knows how to contact her family ?
Nevermind its already verified by Brundle

It would be unthinkable & unacceptable to attempt to contact her family at this time & probably at any other time too.

sad news indeed. i first read of this on al-jazeera's facebook page and immediately stopped browsing.
rest in peace, maria

Awful news. Even as a young boy I was training to be a Reject fan by following the March team, and the man pictured in the British GP 1982 preview was someone I knew nothing of, but I decided that wanted to cheer him on.
That man was Emilio de Villota, and having known that name since childhood it's such a shock to see it in the news yet again for sad reasons.

f1-gast wrote:

Wallio wrote:This is awful awful news, RIP Maria, what a terrible story to start my day/weekend with.

http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/11/breaking-maria-de-villota-found-dead-in-spanish-hotel/

However, does anyone else think the family's "year and a half we had with with her" statement means they knew SOMETHING was wrong, maybe an accident complication no one publicly mentioned? Or am I reading way too much into this?

I probably know what she had, but i need to verify this anyone knows how to contact her family ?
Nevermind its already verified by Brundle

I only ask because myself and my family had the EXACT same reaction when my uncle died of lung cancer. It was beyond Stage 4 when the doctor found it, and he gave him 6 weeks to live. My uncle hung on nearly 20 months, and he did pass, our reaction was the same as the De Villotas.......

Truly awful thing to hear

Rest in peace, Maria

JJMonty wrote:On a side note, am I the only one who found Sky's coverage of handling the news disgusting? In particular with Simon Lazenby being as crude as ever..... Unless I've read the situation wrong, he informed Suzie Wolff of the news halfway through the interview, live and she knew nothing about it before hand!

Yeah, she hadn't heard the news at the time. However, I'm told Lazenby had a go off camera at the production team for that, so I don't think he's entirely to blame there. Sky dropped the ball horrendously there.

I hope there's some kind of tribute from the winner. You know, a Spanish flag up the sleeve, quickly flown in tribute helmets...something like that.

So shocking to have heard and so sad. It would be fantastic for a tribute to her, yet unfortunately with all the regulations now you can't even bring a flag into you car.

Awful news, simply dreadful to hear this news, especially considering that by all accounts things were really looking up in her life...

RIP Maria

Didn't catch this until a few hours ago with all those football hype thingy here in Belgium. But when i read it i was thinking 'wait, what, please tell me this is a bad joke, right?' which says all there is to say, i guess.

RIP

I at first thought this was another death hoax, sadly this is completely real. Rest in peace

I was shocked to find this out. RIP Maria

Maria was an inspiration to me. She lost an eye when the situation could have turned out much much worse. She recovered and seemed to be in a good mood all the time. She always had a smile on her face as if nothing happened. I think she was one of the more influential sportspeople in 2012. This is so shocking to read, and if it is related to her eye injury, then I am even more surprised, as she seemed to make a full recovery for the exception of her one eye.

Rest in Peace, Maria. My condolences to Emilio and all others in the de Villota family.

I had another 2013 opinion piece ready to upload when the terrible news of Maria's passing came through. So I'll save that article for later in the coming week and in the meantime penned this tribute to Maria as a celebration of her career which I've now uploaded to the site:

http://www.f1rejects.com/centrale/2013/devillota/index.html

RIP Maria.

This is awful news. To think that de Villota, after her tremendous recovery, is now gone, is disheartening. She is a heroine in every sense. Not many people could come back after such a terrible accident like she did and do all of the things she has done. Rest in peace, Maria.

R.I.P.

eytl wrote:But is it not far more inspirational to see the ordinary doing the extraordinary, or at least attempting it? And is that not the kind of story we love celebrating?

this

It's been confirmed - Maria de Villota died due to neurological complications arising from her accident last year.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/110566

In addition to eytl's brilliant tribute, I hope you will not mind me posting something very personal here. I keep a diary, on and off, and I would like to share the entry I wrote yesterday about Maria. As I say, it's very personal but I know that there are some people on here who have had mental health issues and I hope it might help them too.

"Something to re-read at your lowest points.

Since I was 10 the concept of suicide has been on my mind. Although I have never attempted it there many times when depression has gripped me and I have thought that life is just too difficult and the only way I can find peace is to not live anymore. Sometimes all that stops me is that I could not do it to [name removed] and [name removed].

Today is the 11th October 2013. Today’s news is that Maria de Villotta has died.

Maria had a horrific accident which changed her life. She possibly also felt that life had nothing more to offer her at one point. But she came back from that and did inspirational works and always with a smile on her face and recently was married.

I have been keeping an eye on the news today to establish the cause of death. It is hard to say whether it would have been more upsetting if she had taken her own life or whether she had died from natural causes. The thought of her suffering inside and the cheerful, strong personality being just a facade seems desperately sad.

As it turns out however, she has died from natural causes. It is still very upsetting that she should pass away at a time when she was making the most of the hand she was dealt, but I can take some comfort that the impression that I had formed of her was completely genuine.

So the point is this: in a situation where Maria would have been quite entitled to feel like dying, she didn’t give into it. She made the most of what was left of her life and certainly did not want to die. Today I have learned to not be so flippant about my life because at least I still have it. And when I feel like it isn’t worth having, I will think of Maria."

LellaLombardi wrote:I would like to share the entry I wrote yesterday about Maria. As I say, it's very personal but I know that there are some people on here who have had mental health issues and I hope it might help them too.

Thank you for sharing that.

And indeed, the title of Maria's book says it all ... Life is a Gift.

Thank you for sharing that, LellaLombardi. Most of us will not be able to appreciate how debilitating true, medical depression is really like.

LellaLombardi wrote: It is hard to say whether it would have been more upsetting if she had taken her own life or whether she had died from natural causes. The thought of her suffering inside and the cheerful, strong personality being just a facade seems desperately sad.

I agree with this, but as you suggest, I feel that if her extra 18 months of life were filled with joy and happiness, as most of the photos of her suggest, then this is the less-sad option. Her family have said that they have appreciated having the extra time with her since the crash, and this is what we should all hold onto.

And when her biography becomes available here in English, I would love to go out and buy a copy to read.

I must admit that, when I first saw the news, I thought that there must have been some sort of terrible mistake by the press - but sadly not. I'm pretty shocked and saddened by the news, although it is touching to see the response of the motorsport community and the support that they are giving the family.

mario wrote:I must admit that, when I first saw the news, I thought that there must have been some sort of terrible mistake by the press - but sadly not. I'm pretty shocked and saddened by the news, although it is touching to see the response of the motorsport community and the support that they are giving the family.

In my opinion, it's actually a bit too much. I'd guess that 95% of the people that praise her "inspirational personality" and what a "great woman" she was didn't even know her personally. I also feel that for all of her "achievements", her death received a bit too much coverage in the media. When Allan Simonsen died, while actually racing, at Le Mans, most media outlets just spend a couple of lines at the very bottom of their sports coverage for that. In fact, I feel like Senna himself died again, judging by some reactions.

As usual, Mario Andretti managed to find appropriate words: https://twitter.com/MarioAndretti/statu ... 5874944000

Ferrarist wrote:

mario wrote:I must admit that, when I first saw the news, I thought that there must have been some sort of terrible mistake by the press - but sadly not. I'm pretty shocked and saddened by the news, although it is touching to see the response of the motorsport community and the support that they are giving the family.

In my opinion, it's actually a bit too much. I'd guess that 95% of the people that praise her "inspirational personality" and what a "great woman" she was didn't even know her personally. I also feel that for all of her "achievements", her death received a bit too much coverage in the media. When Allan Simonsen died, while actually racing, at Le Mans, most media outlets just spend a couple of lines at the very bottom of their sports coverage for that. In fact, I feel like Senna himself died again, judging by some reactions.

As usual, Mario Andretti managed to find appropriate words: https://twitter.com/MarioAndretti/statu ... 5874944000

Perhaps there is a certain element of that - it could be that, with the ongoing investigation into the accident (which it seems might have caused longer term injuries that were behind her sudden death), her public profile was higher than Simonsen and therefore it generated more headlines.

It is also possible that the ACO preferred that Simonsen's death did not attract too much attention - there have been some awkward questions for them about the safety standards of the Circuit de la Sarthe in the past few years (consider McNish's heavy accident in 2011 that came close to injuring a number of marshals and fans), and that of the cars too (remember that Gachnang saw her career stall after breaking her leg at Abu Dhabi, a track with a considerably better safety rating). Intense questioning from the press about a high profile death might be somewhat difficult for them to cope with.

Ferrarist wrote:

mario wrote:I must admit that, when I first saw the news, I thought that there must have been some sort of terrible mistake by the press - but sadly not. I'm pretty shocked and saddened by the news, although it is touching to see the response of the motorsport community and the support that they are giving the family.

In my opinion, it's actually a bit too much. I'd guess that 95% of the people that praise her "inspirational personality" and what a "great woman" she was didn't even know her personally. I also feel that for all of her "achievements", her death received a bit too much coverage in the media. When Allan Simonsen died, while actually racing, at Le Mans, most media outlets just spend a couple of lines at the very bottom of their sports coverage for that. In fact, I feel like Senna himself died again, judging by some reactions.

As usual, Mario Andretti managed to find appropriate words: https://twitter.com/MarioAndretti/statu ... 5874944000

Maria de Villota was both the daughter of a former F1 driver and was trying to make it to F1 herself before that testing crash. It isn't so much Senna, but Adam Petty who has died again. As for those not so knowledgeable on NASCAR, Adam Petty was the son of Kyle Petty, grandson of 7 time NASCAR Champion Richard Petty, and great-grandson of 1959 Daytona 500 winner Lee Petty. I am fairly certain that Adam's death got more attention from the media than Neil Bonnett despite the fact that Bonnett had multiple Winston Cup wins in the 1980s. As one can compared de Villota and Petty for one other reason, neither had a sustained appearance in the top series as Petty only made one Winston Cup start but scheduled for six other starts in 2000 and de Villota was a F1 test driver which given the duties of an F1 test driver means never racing beyond Friday to test the car at most and usually far more of an in case of emergency substitute.

CoopsII wrote:I know the show must go on and all that but I'm finding it very difficult to have much interest in the race at the moment.

Agreed. Was just watching qualifying on iplayer, and halfway through I started to zone out and wonder what the point of it all was.

Onxy Wrecked wrote:

Ferrarist wrote:

mario wrote:I must admit that, when I first saw the news, I thought that there must have been some sort of terrible mistake by the press - but sadly not. I'm pretty shocked and saddened by the news, although it is touching to see the response of the motorsport community and the support that they are giving the family.

In my opinion, it's actually a bit too much. I'd guess that 95% of the people that praise her "inspirational personality" and what a "great woman" she was didn't even know her personally. I also feel that for all of her "achievements", her death received a bit too much coverage in the media. When Allan Simonsen died, while actually racing, at Le Mans, most media outlets just spend a couple of lines at the very bottom of their sports coverage for that. In fact, I feel like Senna himself died again, judging by some reactions.

As usual, Mario Andretti managed to find appropriate words: https://twitter.com/MarioAndretti/statu ... 5874944000

Maria de Villota was both the daughter of a former F1 driver and was trying to make it to F1 herself before that testing crash. It isn't so much Senna, but Adam Petty who has died again. As for those not so knowledgeable on NASCAR, Adam Petty was the son of Kyle Petty, grandson of 7 time NASCAR Champion Richard Petty, and great-grandson of 1959 Daytona 500 winner Lee Petty. I am fairly certain that Adam's death got more attention from the media than Neil Bonnett despite the fact that Bonnett had multiple Winston Cup wins in the 1980s. As one can compared de Villota and Petty for one other reason, neither had a sustained appearance in the top series as Petty only made one Winston Cup start but scheduled for six other starts in 2000 and de Villota was a F1 test driver which given the duties of an F1 test driver means never racing beyond Friday to test the car at most and usually far more of an in case of emergency substitute.

I don't think De Villota got attention more than she deserved, but it's Simonsen who got attention less than he deserved. WEC is not as popular as F1, so he didn't got enough attention.
Probably people who are talking about inspirational personality are not talking about her as a racing driver (I seriously doubt they know something about it), but consider her an inspiration because she was able to deal with the crash and the injury without losing her smile and her will of living.

Sunshine_Baby_[IT] wrote:

Onxy Wrecked wrote:

Ferrarist wrote:
In my opinion, it's actually a bit too much. I'd guess that 95% of the people that praise her "inspirational personality" and what a "great woman" she was didn't even know her personally. I also feel that for all of her "achievements", her death received a bit too much coverage in the media. When Allan Simonsen died, while actually racing, at Le Mans, most media outlets just spend a couple of lines at the very bottom of their sports coverage for that. In fact, I feel like Senna himself died again, judging by some reactions.

As usual, Mario Andretti managed to find appropriate words: https://twitter.com/MarioAndretti/statu ... 5874944000

Maria de Villota was both the daughter of a former F1 driver and was trying to make it to F1 herself before that testing crash. It isn't so much Senna, but Adam Petty who has died again. As for those not so knowledgeable on NASCAR, Adam Petty was the son of Kyle Petty, grandson of 7 time NASCAR Champion Richard Petty, and great-grandson of 1959 Daytona 500 winner Lee Petty. I am fairly certain that Adam's death got more attention from the media than Neil Bonnett despite the fact that Bonnett had multiple Winston Cup wins in the 1980s. As one can compared de Villota and Petty for one other reason, neither had a sustained appearance in the top series as Petty only made one Winston Cup start but scheduled for six other starts in 2000 and de Villota was a F1 test driver which given the duties of an F1 test driver means never racing beyond Friday to test the car at most and usually far more of an in case of emergency substitute.

I don't think De Villota got attention more than she deserved, but it's Simonsen who got attention less than he deserved. WEC is not as popular as F1, so he didn't got enough attention.
Probably people who are talking about inspirational personality are not talking about her as a racing driver (I seriously doubt they know something about it), but consider her an inspiration because she was able to deal with the crash and the injury without losing her smile and her will of living.

I guess that could be said that Simonsen got ignored given the relative lack of coverage.