Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

F1 test driver loses her eye in crash

Formula One test driver Maria de Villota has lost her right eye and suffered intense facial and head injuries as the result of a collision with a team transport truck during a Marussia F1 test at an airfield in England on Tuesday, the Associated Press and Autosport.com are reporting.

Although still in critical condition, she is stable in hospital, the team said in a statement Wednesday.

Marussia said a surgical team at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge "embarked on a lengthy procedure to address the serious head and facial injuries sustained" in the accident.

The team said the operation began Tuesday afternoon and she was in the operating room until Wednesday morning.

"We are grateful for the medical attention that Maria has been receiving and her family would like to thank the Neurological and Plastics surgical teams," said team manager John Booth in a statement.

"However it is with great sadness that I must report that, due to the injuries she sustained, Maria has lost her right eye.

"Maria's care and the well-being of her family remain our priority at this time. Her family are at the hospital and we are doing everything possible to support them.

"We ask for everyone's patience and understanding with regard to updates on Maria's condition. We will provide further information when it is appropriate to do so and with consideration for her family.

"In the meantime, we would all like to take this opportunity to praise the emergency services at Duxford Airfield, who were on stand-by yesterday, as is usual procedure for a Formula One test.

"With regard to the accident, we have embarked on a very comprehensive analysis of what happened and this work continues for the moment.

"Finally, we have been overwhelmed by messages of support for Maria, her family and the team and we would like to express our sincere gratitude for those."

In the accident Tuesday, Marussia F1 said her car hit the racing outfit’s support truck at the end of her first run at Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire, north of London, at 8:15 a.m. GMT.

It was the first time the 32-year-old Spanish driver, who joined the Russian-owned team this season, tested the MR-01 car.

De Villota had been taken by ambulance to the major trauma centre following what police called “a low-speed accident,” where the test driver apparently crashed into the stationary team vehicle as she came to the end of a run at the straight-line test session.

De Villota is the daughter of former F1 driver Emilio de Villota and joined Marussia as a test driver in March, becoming the sport’s first full-time female driver since Italian Giovanna Amati with the Brabham team in 1992.

De Villota had previously tested for Renault and had racing experience in Spanish F3 and the Daytona 24-Hour race.

Fellow drivers and former world champions Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso expressed sympathy and support for De Villota in messages on Twitter.

Ferrari driver Alonso, the current F1 drivers’ standings leader and a Spanish compatriot, tweeted: “I just got home and found out (about) Maria’s accident, we called the family and hopefully we will know more soon ! All my energy with you!”

McLaren’s Button wrote: “Terrible accident for Maria de Villota, Marussia F1 team test driver. My thoughts are with Maria and her family at this very difficult time.”

Marussia started in Formula One as Virgin Racing in 2010. It rebranded as Marussia for the start of the current season after Russian sports car manufacturer Marussia Motors bought a controlling stake.

It has yet to pick up a point this year ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The team’s race drivers are Timo Glock of Germany and Charles Pic of France.

Texting and Tweeting while racing sprint cars

Back when I was involved in racing, either driving or announcing (as I did at Oswego Speedway in New York State for years), I tended to be very focused.

I considered (and consider) racing to be a deadly game and so I avoided distractions. I was in my own little bubble and didn’t particularly like talking to anybody. Many of the other racers were also very much into themselves, particularly as the time for the feature approached.

Even when I was announcing, I was preoccupied with what was happening on the speedway and in the pit area it surrounded. I was taking note of who was doing what with whom in order to report the race properly and to ask the right questions of the winner in Victory Lane later. I wasn’t much for small talk.

The world has changed with the advent of social media.

Last Saturday night, I was sitting in the second row near the first turn at Merrittville Speedway outside Thorold, enjoying some down ‘n dirty dirt-track racin’, when my phone chimed that I had a text.

It was from Glenn Styers (left), the owner of Ohsweken Speedway on the Six Nations Reserve and a sprint car pilot in his own right. In fact, he was racing at Merrittville that very evening with the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints Touring Series.

Wheels is planning a spread on Styers near the end of July in advance of the annual visit to Ohsweken by the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series featuring NASCAR star Tony Stewart and so we’re doing some special things with him at his speedway. He wanted to know if he had the correct night reserved on his calendar for one of our visits.

I was impressed. Here was a guy getting ready to go out for a sprint car heat race and yet he still had the time and presence of mind to be takin' care of business.

I texted him back the date we'd agreed upon and then watched as he lined up for the first heat of the night. Once the eight cars got the green, he got a little too high on the cushion exiting Turn Four, spun around and backed the car into the wall ever so slightly. When he rejoined, he was last but battled his way up to third by the checkers.

Five minutes later, my phone chimed again. "Ya, that works," his text said.

I had to tell him I was impressed with his recovery from that spin and his top three finish, which meant he went into the redraw for the "featch." The Empire State regulars, plus some runners from the Southern Ontario Sprints, are a tough bunch and not to be taken lightly (26 eventually started the Main Event, while 10 had to settle for tow money) and Styres had just shown that he very much belonged.

"Nice recovery from that spin," I texted. A few minutes passed and there went the chimes again. "Thanks," he replied.

I stopped bothering him after that -- although I'm sure if he texted me that he was texting and Tweeting with others.

In the Main, he finished second to winner Lance Yonge of Penn Yan, N.Y., which had him on a bit of a roll for the weekend, considering he'd won the Feature the night before at his own Ohsweken track.

I should have texted him at the time, but I was hustling to get out of the place ahead of the huge crowd that was on hand. So I'll say it now: Well raced, well placed.

Bernie Ecclestone in jail is no laughing matter

PRECEDE: Terrible news from Europe this morning.

Spanish driver  Maria de Villota, recently signed to test drive for the Marussia F1 team, is in hospital in England after a crash during a straightline test at Duxford airfield on Tuesday.

Local ambulance officials says her injuries are "life-threatening."

De Villota's Duxford outing was her first test for Marussia. She was set to give the major upgrade package that the team is introducing for the British Grand Prix its first run.

The daughter of ex-F1 racer Emilio de Villota, she is a former World Touring Car Championship driver. At age 32, she first drove an F1 car at the Paul Ricard circuit last year.

She was testing what Marussia described as a major upgrade to be introduced at next weekend's British Grand Prix.

Here's a link to the latest story.

Earlier:

It bothers me that so many people apparently think the possibility of Bernie Ecclestone going to jail is something to laugh about.

I suppose it’s human nature to be jealous of success, of good fortune, and of success gained through great risk and very hard work, as is the case with Ecclestone.

It’s a pity his critics didn’t work as long or as hard or else they might have success of their own and not be so jealous.

The really difficult thing to comprehend is that all these people say they’re fans of Formula One racing . What they fail to understand is that if it wasn’t for Ecclestone, there wouldn’t be F1 racing as we know it.

The fact of the matter is that the guys who were F1 racing in the Sixties, the Ron Dennises and the Ken Tyrrels and the Frank Williamses were, like most road racers of the time, content to play pretty much in their own little world.

They disdained commercial involvement; they really were, in the true sense of the phrase, independent contractors and if a country wanted to promote a Grand Prix, the national motor racing authority had to deal with the drivers and teams on an individual basis just to get them to show up.

Most of the participants lived hand-to-mouth. The drivers and mechanics were often so hard up they frequently shared flats or apartments and when they went racing they lived in tents at the circuits.

One person changed all that: Bernie Ecclestone.

After Colin Chapman, because of his experience at Indianapolis, introduced Gold Leaf tobacco sponsorship to F1, it was Ecclestone who saw the potential for the whole of F1, not just one team.

Anybody who’s paid attention knows that Ecclestone, who owned Brabham, then got the teams to form the Formula One Constructors Association, with him as its head, and the rest is history.

From a small-thinking, low-buck (for the times) bunch of blue-collar auto racers came the licence to print money that we know today. And each and every one of them is filthy rich – all thanks to Bernie.

And, yes, he took a big chunk of the cash that came in up front because it was his initiative, his bargaining, his vision that got that series – and auto racing in general – to where it's at now.

Because of Ecclestone's scheming and chutzpah, Dan Gurney, Roger Penske, Jim Trueman and Pat Patrick were inspired to break away from the U.S. Auto Club (stuck in the same small-town mindset that F1 was in the mid-Sixties) and formed CART. And they all got rich, too.

And from F1 and CART on down, through F2 (now GP2) and F3 (GP3/Indy Lights), racing entrepeneurs created a world-wide industry that generates billions in economic activity and employees hundreds of thousands of people.

And it’s all – all – because of Bernie Ecclestone.

What?

Don’t believe me?

Tell me who, then? Who else did it?

It wasn’t Frank Williams or Ron Dennis or Jackie Stewart or any of the rest.

And it wouldn’t have "just happened," either.

No, it took the little genius, B. Ecclestone, to chart the way.

If he’s broken the law, either in England or Germany or wherever, the charges will be laid and the chips will fall where they may.

But before any of that happens, laughing at the possibility of someone – anyone – going to jail is repulsive.

It is most undignified, and people should be ashamed.

Weekend Racing:

– The scary thing about the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Saturday night – won by Brad Keselowski, with Kasey Kahne second and Denny Hamlin third – is that there are only nine races left before the Chase for the Championship starts.

Where has the time gone.

If Kahne hadn’t had to stop Saturday night because of a botched pit stop (a loose wheel), he might have given Keselowski a run for this money. He was on the charge the last 10 laps; another couple of laps and he would have caught the leader.

Matt Kenseth, who will likely drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in the No. 20 Home Depot-sponsored car from 2013 on, leads the Sprint Cup standings with Dale Earnhardt. Jr. second and Jimmie Johnson third.

The NASCAR stars now go to Daytona for the Firecracker 400, now known, of course, as the Coke Zero 400, which just doesn’t have that July 4 ring.

In the Nationwide Series, Austin Dillon won the Kentucky race Friday night by cheating. Kurt Busch was second and Kevin Harvick was third.

Dillon was dominant in his win but in post-race inspection, NASCAR found the team to have been cheating (actions detrimental to stock car racing, among other infractions) and fined the crew chief $10,000 and docked the owner, Morgan Shepherd, and the driver, Dillon, six points each.

It’s hard to tell why anybody wouldn’t cheat in NASCAR. If you win the race, or finish second or third, you get to keep the position. It’s there in the record book and you get the payoff – in this case, $97,000. So you pay the fine and you’re still $87,000 ahead. Where’s the deterrent?

– Joao Barbosa and Toronto-born Darren Law won the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series at Watkins Glen, N.Y., on Sunday. In GT, Robin Lidell and John Edwards won the class and took the points lead in their Chevrolet Camaro.

Up next for Toronto race fans: the Honda Indy Toronto. James Hinchcliffe, Dario Franchitti, Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Alex Tagliani and the rest of the IZOD IndyCar Series warriors will do battle on the streets of Toronto Friday (Free Friday practice),  Saturday (qualifying) and Sunday (race) next weekend.

Plus there will be a full lineup of supporting class races, including the Firestone Indy Lights (David Ostella of Maple driving).

More information and tickets at www.hondaindytoronto.com