According to Spanish media, the body of Maria Villota was found in her hotel room in Seville, this morning.
According to police sources, Maria Villota was scheduled to participate in a talk called ‘What really matters’.
Emergency service sources have said that they received a call from the hotel at 07.23am to attend to a young woman and have subsequently confirmed that Maria Villota has died. According to reports, emergency personnel did try to resuscitate her but were unsuccessful and it is believed that she died an hour prior to the emergency call. No further details regarding cause of death are available at this point and an autopsy will be conducted.
A statement on her Facebook page, signed by her family, read: “Dear friends: Maria has left us. She had to go to heaven like all angels. We are thankful to God for the extra year and a half that he left her with us.”
The Marussia F1 Team released this statement on their web page: “The Marussia F1 Team would like to make the following statement in response to the very sad news of the death of Maria de Villota:
Our thoughts and prayers are with Maria’s family and friends at this very difficult time.”
Maria Villota was the daughter of former Formula One driver Emilio de Villota, and sister of Emilio de Villota, Jr., who like his sister competed in Formula Palmer Audi. She was only 33 years old.
Villota made news headlines in 2012 when she sustained serious head and facial injuries in an accident which occurred during a straight-line testing session in her role as the Marussia Formula One team’s test driver. Maria lost an right eye in the accident but was making a great recovery and was cleared to start driving again.
Maria Villota was the first female driver to test for a contemporary Formula 1 team since Katherine Legge in 2005. She also raced in several series including Spanish F3, the Daytona 24 Hours, and Superleague Formula Championship.
More to follow.
