De Villota’s death linked to 2012 Marussia test crash

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In the round-up: The family of Maria de Villota say her death was related to the injuries she sustained after suffering a serious crash while testing for Marussia last year.

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Family links Spanish F1 driver Maria de Villota’s death to Cambridgeshire crash (The Independent)

"Maria left us while she was sleeping, approximately at 6am (on Friday), as a consequence of the neurological injuries she suffered in July of 2012, according to what the forensic doctor has told us."

F1 drivers to honour De Villota at Suzuka (Reuters)

“A statement from the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), which represents most but not all of those on the starting grid, said the silence would be held before the drivers’ parade.”

McLaren in tug of war with Red Bull over designer Peter Prodromou (The Guardian)

McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale: “We have to remember the contract Peter has at the moment is with Red Bull and I have to respect that. It is for them to talk about his leave date but in terms of our position, we have recruited Peter and we are really excited about him joining the team.”

Red Bull fighting to stop Prodromou going to McLaren (Adam Cooper’s F1 Blog)

“[Christian Horner] confirmed that Prodromou would not be able to work elsewhere until 2015.”

Webber will not aid Vettel title bid (BBC)

Webber: “We’ll have a standard race. It’s everyone for themselves to get the maximum result they can.”

Request to delay Ecclestone’s UK civil trial rejected (FT, registration required)

“Constantin Medien on Friday applied to delay the start of the High Court civil trial partly because of what it called the ‘massive’ volumes of documents it had received from Mr Ecclestone’s side, which were ‘very, very much more substantial than anyone expected'”.

Raikkonen plays down Grosjean deficit (Autosport)

“I’m much happier than I was at the previous race even though the starting place is the same.”

Is Sebastian Vettel the greatest F1 driver ever? (The Telegraph)

Christian Horner: “I think it’s hugely disrespectful to Mark Webber to suggest that he isn’t a hugely talented race driver. We know Mark is seriously quick. And that for us puts into context Sebastian’s performance.”

Sauber C32 – rear brake ducts (F1)

“Sauber have followed the trend first set by Lotus and Mercedes of directing hot air from the brakes towards the inside of the rear tyres in order to improve the efficiency of the rear diffuser.”

A graphics comparison: Dorna vs FOM (The F1 Broadcasting Blog)

“Both sets have their positives and negatives. If you are looking for something easy on the eye, then FOM wins, but if you want a data driven set, then Dorna with their MotoGP graphics is a clear winner.”

Tweets

Comment of the day

TMF says Webber and Vettel don’t need nannying from the pit wall:

They have shown so often that they can race wheel-to-wheel and I think Vettel has learned so much he won’t make the same mistake as Turkey 2010.

Best case: Horner tells them to take care without imposing team orders and they come out within seconds after the last stop and show us an epic battle like in Sepang.
TMF (@TMF42)

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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58 comments on “De Villota’s death linked to 2012 Marussia test crash”

  1. So, I’m settling down for eight hours of motorsport: Bathurst, then Suzuka. There’s just one small problem – if previous years have been anything to go by, the end of the Bathurst 1000 and the start of the Japanese Grand Prix overlap.

  2. Why would anyone help Vettel?!

    He’s got the title already all by himself…

  3. It is a very odd and uncomfortable feeling to realize that Ayrton Senna is not the last driver to die in Formula 1 anymore.
    I began to follow the sport (and motorsport in general) shortly afterward and even though I clearly always knew that danger was always there, and witnessed a few tragedies as a fan myself, this era in F1 always kept for me some sort of “undefeatable” aura, mostly at a psychological level of course.
    Well, now that’s gone with Maria. Extremely sad.

    1. Maria did not die in F1. Stop talking nonsense. She was far from being a true F1 driver anyways.

      1. Nice arguments, keep it going.

      2. Put another way: Most recent driver death in F1.

    2. Michele Alboreto?

      1. Well, not quite. Michele was a retired F1 driver.

  4. Its interesting to note that HAM, ALO and RAI have team mates that comply with team orders and despite VET winning all those championships, it was not easy for him, as his team mate is far from co-operative. I say HAM as well because we saw ROS play 2nd fiddle to HAM in Malaysia earlier this year.

  5. It’s still not formally confirmed that de Villota’s sudden death is directly related to her testing accident, but if this does turn out to be the case, should we consider this to be F1’s first driver fatality since Ayrton Senna?

    1. It’s a tragic death, and if it is proven to be as a direct result of her injuries from her accident then I would have to say yes. Whether she died at the scene or over a year later is semantics in my view, she sustained those fatal injuries driving a Formula 1 car. It’s a truly terrible thing to have happened and it shows that however far safety in F1 has come since 1994, and however far it will improve in the future, this sport is still a dangerous one and the margin between safety and fatality is tiny.

      1. A few years back, Richard Hammond drove a Renault F1 car. If he had been in an accident that day and died, by your logic he would have been a F1 fatality… just like Ayrton Senna, Gilles Villeneuve and all the rest.

        What I’m saying is, I disagree with your assessment.

        1. That’s a fair point, and I can see where you’re coming from. I’m not going to argue about this. Whatever her position in Marussia, she was connected to F1 and it’s very sad that she has passed away, regardless of the cause.

        2. @wonderduck

          In contrary to Hammond though Maria de Villota actually drove an F1 car for a living. That makes her an F1 driver in my book.

        3. don’t be like that wonderduck, there are also hundreds of rich people driving old F1 cars on weekends at race tracks. Maria de Villota was employed by a current F1 team, so Colossal is correct. you don’t need to get all uppety and defense over small details, when something this tragic has just happened. She was part of the F1 community hense the minute silence before the suzuka race. Hammond and club racers wouldn’t have got that at a grand prix.

    2. Without wanting to speculate publicly on the direct cause of death, because that would be unpleasant, I think going by the history, it is either one of two things. Although the crash may have been the original event that triggered these conditions, I would argue it would not be correct to attribute it to an F1 driver fatality.

      At the end of the day, it’s all irrelevant semantics and my sympathy is with her family regardless.

      1. +1

    3. Well if there is any consolation, it didn’t happen in a normal racetrack and she did survive her injuries for a long time, but is one of those things that doctors simply wouldn’t have known she would still be affected by it much later on.

    4. Zantkiller (@)
      13th October 2013, 1:30

      That would be ignoring John Dawson-Damer and Fritz Glatz who both died from crashes in F1 cars since Senna’s death.

      For a lot of people (me included) Senna is still the last F1 driver fatality as Maria was a test driver just like Gary Paffett, Ma Qinghua and the many other test drivers.

      This is still an incredibly sad turn of events that I hope the FIA learn from and improve certain things to stop future rookie drivers from similar circumstances.

      1. Maria had her accident while undergoing a test under the sporting and tech regulation of the current championship. Those driver passed away on a F1 car, but Maria died IN Formula1, the sport.

        It’s not merely a “for the stats” issue. The 2 drivers you mentioned died in cars and events intrinsically outdated in terms of security. Maria’s accident (allegedly, but I find no reason to doubt the medical expert consulted) is the most high-profile fatality concerning the most pressing current issue in terms of motorsport security: drivers being hit by on the helmet by an object. It’s a thing we’ve know for a quite a while (just search for the heated debates on canopy/open-wheels).
        Recognizing that Maria’s death is a full-fledged F1 fatality, that She died as a consequence of her accident, might be the starting point of FIA *really* being aggressive on the issue that already took away Surtees, and nearly did the same with Massa. The same way it’s happend after Senna’s crash.

        But I don’t think It will. Maria not being Senna, her death not being “graphically” linked to the crash, the fact that there clearly were mistakes on he part. Everything is in place for nothing to change.

      2. I haven’t heard of John but didn’t Fritz die while driving a vintage car in one of those vintage series? Just because it was a vintage F1 car that he died while driving I wouldn’t call it an “F1 death” much like I wouldn’t call somebody who died doing vintage Trans-Am racing (like the Monterrey Historics) a “Trans-Am death”.

  6. I have to disagree with the COTD on one point: Sepang was not an “epic battle”. Sepang was a case of Vettel ignoring a team order and taking Webber by surprise, and Webber fought back. If there had been no team orders, both drivers were racing for position, and both were aware of the other’s intentions, *then* it would have been an epic battle.

  7. I like the squeeky toy story :)

    1. Is a nice story

  8. Lewis told an amusing tale about #Vettel buying Roscoe a squeeky toy and the dog kept him up all night playing with it #practicaljoke

    hehe mastermind Vettel ;)

    1. @celeste I always knew he was an evil genius. :)

      1. @pielighter Niccolò Machiavelli would have been proud ;)

      2. @pielighter

        evil genius

        Let me add a ‘d’ to that, but the cake for cunningness goes to Alonso :)

      3. Next headline going by the English press and their “love” for Hamilton.
        “Hamilton: Vettel is trying to destroy my career and health. Hamilton lashes out”

  9. Obviously, that Jennie Gow is trying (emphasize on the word “trying”) to be funny, or is it that rubbish that F1 “journalists” are spewing out is reaching an all time high?

  10. As a graphic designer, I must say both F1 and Moto GP on-screen graphics are horrible. Mind you, they are not horrible on their own, but in the context of top 4 and 2 wheel motorsport series, these are just poor. This is something that lacks so much in even basic principles of the design. I mean, what’s with all the unnecessary decoration. When there’s always more info to be shown, pointless decoration, glossiness, weird angles and such are all completely out of place.
    This is supposed to be clear and comprehensive serving of the information in the most efficient way, with the best possible use of on-screen space.

    1. It’s still miles ahead of the crap we have in NASCAR, Indycar & other US Series. I would much rather have the F1, MotoGP, V8SC style graphics on my NASCAR/Indycar coverage.

      1. Amen, you guys want to talk about cluttered graphics watch NASCAR and then complain about FOM’s graphics

      2. absolutely true . the NASCAR screen is horrendous. there are a few things that can be changed with F1 onscreen graphics but it they are not bad at all.

    2. Web designer with some graphic design experience, I would have to agree. The KISS method still applies and displaying information in a pleasing, easy to understand style should always be the goal. So many graphics out there seem to be designed to show off the talent of the graphic artist or the client says “we need something that pops!” Graphics should relate to the subject, not detract from it. Especially when onscreen graphics need to be displayed on so many screen sizes ranging from tiny to huge.

      Anyways, glad to know it’s not just me that’s bugged by this stuff.

    3. I still don’t like this on screen graphics. Ever since the TAG Heuer/Siemens graphics we had in teh late 90’s…

    4. MotoGP graphics are awsome dude, what you talking about, way better then F1’s

    5. @obviously Can you please post some samples, from anywhere which could give us a better comparison

      @keithcollantine Since the WDC and WCC are no longer in contention, can we have some space on F1F on an article for the subject in discussion. Thank you.

  11. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    13th October 2013, 1:46

    The FOM vs Dorna article is an interesting comparison.

    Though he says the Dorna graphics are “less cluttered” than the FOM graphics, which I disagree with. FOM is nice and simple.

    It would be nice to get as much data as the Dorna coverage in the FOM feed though.

    Good find @keithcollantine

    1. @tophercheese21 I think the reason FOM don’t show more information is so that people have to buy their Timing App!!!

      Jokes aside F1 is a very complicated/technical sport, but not everyone watching at home is an engineer and fans can get confused very easily. But yes there’s nothing like watching a race live with several channel feeds, PC with three monitors and tablets and smartphones all at the same time, I’m sure some fans living rooms resemble Mclaren’s mission control already!

    2. Agreed, this article is a very good find. Also agree with the comments fromobviously said on above. It’s funny how we view these graphics all the time as F1 fans and just put up with them. As a web design/graphic design guy I can see several things to improve the FOM graphics right away just to make them more legible on any size screen. More muted colors (less distracting to onscreen action), more contrast on the driver names and times. The light grey numbers and letters should be more white and the dark grey background should be more black. They could both be several steps away from full black and white with some transparency while providing better contrast for faster reading recognition. The unneeded angular decoration wastes space and adds nothing compelling to the look and feel.

      I don’t really find the Moto GP graphics any better than FOM, just annoying in different ways, maybe worse overall. Fascinating subject that hits home with me. I get to spend a fair amount of time and effort with clients trying to convince them that pretty doesn’t mean anything if nobody can read your message or worse, nobody wants to because of bad design choices.

      1. @bullmello Maybe FOM can learn something from the CNN guys.

    3. Perhaps the best way to improve the quality of TOM’s graphics would be to improve the quality of their coverage. How many times – usually in Q3 – has the television director concentrated on the first driver out of the pits in qualifying, only for that driver to be fairly slow and we only get coverage of the fastest drivers as they come around the final turn?

  12. R.I.P. MDV

  13. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    13th October 2013, 3:02

    It’s been quite a dark year for Motorsport.

    Most notably,
    Yoshinari Matsushita killed in the Isle of Man TT,
    The marshal in Canada killed by the crane backing over him (Which could have been totally avoidable!)
    Allen Simonsen at Le Mans.
    And a few others in more minor categories this year.

    And now Maria. :(

    1. I had remarked a month or so ago about how this year has been unusually bad for deaths & injuries in Motorsports. Though usually these kind of years are followed by several with very few injures/deaths.

  14. On the subject of TV graphics, Believe the F1 graphics are all designed by a company called ‘dixonbaxi’, I know the 2004-2009 graphics were at least.

    I quite like the current graphics, They display all the info you need without getting too complex & are positioned out the way. Not really keen on the slant but the colors, fonts & sizes make them all easy to read.

    Perhaps a little biased since I worked with them but I still prefer the graphics we had on the digital ppv service from 1999-2002-
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orckj47ffTI

    There was some talk back in May that some new graphics would be introduced next year, Not sure if that’s still the plan or not.

    1. I know, I stumbled across a set of unused 2004-2008 graphics designed by them on their website, was subtly different but looked interesting.

      I must admit they look like they’ve got the graphics down to a tee in terms of presentation and consistency on the extra channels IMO. Still, a new graphics set would make sense with the new 2014 regs. whether it’ll be a complete overhaul using a new system, or just the same system/layout as before but with a new lick of paint, we’ll see.

      I don’t mind the slant, it makes sense with the F1 logo being slanted.

      Also I got the impression from speaking to them on twitter that only the 2004-2009 graphics were designed by dixonbaxi.

      Also, do you know who AEHD media are and if they have any role in FOM’s production? They seem to have a lot of FOM images on their website?

      1. @gt-racer Actually I tell a lie, looks like they’re responsible for the current graphics as well going by their website, or at the very least, the current website and idents.

      2. These are the alternate overlays that could have been used for 2004. They don’t date as much as the ones that were actually used IMO.
        http://dixonbaxi.com/wp-content/uploads/2003/04/formula1-101.png

        1. @fom-fan There’s a 2nd page of those concept graphics featuring the rev-counter & some other bits & pieces.
          http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3020/3043050573_b5d88c6fef_o.jpg

          AEHD media is a fan with nothing to do with FOM.

          1. a bit like me then xD. Although they seem to be closer to them than me, as they seem to have more info on FOM trialling different types of equipment.

        2. @fom-fan The most incredible thing about these overlays?

          Tarso Marques is 9th.

    2. @gt-racer Forgot to mention you, sorry.

    3. Does anyone know what happened to the medical car in the clip?

    1. @puneethvb I think McLaren hinted at ‘technical’ staff. Anyways if Alonso joins McLaren he would be stabbing Ferrari in their back :p

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