Maria de Villota (1980-2013)
Maybe Maria de Villota wasn’t ever going to break new ground for female racing drivers in Formula 1. Her tragic loss on October 11 this year will still be mourned by the racing fraternity due to her heroic recovery from a testing crash with the Marussia F1 team in 2012 after which she lost her right eye.
De Villota was ruled lucky to have escaped severe neurological damage but had lost both her senses of smell and taste.
It was a credit to the Spaniard’s willingness to not let the crash and its outcomes bring her down that she stayed upbeat in her public appearances following recovery.
Sporting an eye-patch, de Villota was even set to promote a book she wrote starting from October 14, this year, aptly titled ‘Life is a Gift’.
She showed no indication of wasting the gift after she got married to personal trainer Rodrigo Garcia Millan this July and looked set to carry on living.
It came as a rude shock when Spanish media reported of her death in a hotel room in Seville on the day that just happened to mark the first year of her public debut after her recovery from the testing crash.
Sean Edwards (1986-2013)
Just four days after De Villota’s death, motorsport was struck by another tragedy when the promising young British driver Sean Edwards died after a crash at Queensland, Australia in the Porsche Supercup championship, where he was leading the points table.
Edwards’ family had a history of involvement with nasty crashes as father Guy pulled NikiLauda clear of the burning wreckage of his Ferrari following his crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix.
Sadly for Edwards, and despite advances in motorsport safety, there was no one who could similarly come to his rescue in Australia.
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