Marussia Signs Female Test Driver Maria de Villota

Marussia have signed Maria de Villota as their new test driver for 2012, only days after unveiling their new car and passing the mandatory FIA crash test. The Spanish female driver has recently tested a Renault R29 at Paul Ricard, and has raced in various Championships’ including Spanish F3 and the Daytona 24 Hours.

It has also been confirmed she will be driving the Cosworth powered Marussia MR-01 at the Abu Dhabi Young Drivers’ Test towards the end of the year, which will be her second outing in a Formula 1 car. The last female driver to drive a Formula 1 car was Katherine Legge back in 2005, who now races in the IndyCar Series in America.

This comes as Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, spoke out about female drivers’ in Formula 1, stating he was convinced females would be racing in F1 within the decade. Along with Italian GP3 driver Vicky Piria, it seems a female driver in Formula 1 is becoming more of a reality.

“I am very happy to be joining the Marussia F1 Team test driver programme,” said the Spanish 32-year-old, “This is a fantastic opportunity to work closely with a Formula 1 team and gain important experience to help me progress my career, including the chance to drive the new car later in the year at the Abu Dhabi test. I will be joining the team trackside so I’m looking forward to working alongside them at the first race next weekend and this can only help my future ambition to step up to Formula 1 racing.”

Maria de Villota could well become the first female driver since Giovanna Amati, who tried to qualify for several races for Brabham back in 1992. 

Picture Copyright © Marussia F1 Team 

Female F1 Drivers’ Within A Decade Says Christian Horner

Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, is confident that female drivers’ will enter Formula 1 within a decade. With other forms of motor sport, most notably America’s IndyCar, fielding a strong female contingent it’s naturally only a matter of time before F1 sees its first female driver since Italy’s Giovanna Amati in 1992.

In America, the IndyCar and the now defunct ChampCar World Series Championship played host to many female drivers’. Ranging from previous race winner Danica Patrick to the likes of Milka Duno, female drivers’ have become the norm in American motor sport. 

However, in Formula 1 female drivers’ have remained a rarity. Only five females have raced in F1, and only one of them scored any points in Lella Lombardi who finished 6th in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix for March-Ford. With statistics such as this, it’s hard to imagine how successful female drivers’ have become in America in comparison to the worlds highest tier of motor sport.

With Danica Patrick now competing in the Nascar Nationwide Series, IndyCar still has two females set to race in the coming 2012 season in British driver Katherine Legge and Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro. 

With up and coming female drivers’ in the UK such as Alice Powell, who became the Formula Renault BARC Champion last year, climbing their way up the motor sport ladder, Christian Horner is right in believing female drivers’ will soon be racing in Formula 1 once again.

For the first time ever, the GP3 Series will have a female driver contesting the season in 2012. Italian driver Vicky Piria is set to race for Trident Racing, and is one of many female drivers’ aiming for success European motor sport.

As Christian Horner rightfully said in an interview with MSN Sport, the sport cannot remain the preserve of men for much longer. Whether females will be as successful as the likes of Danica Patrick in IndyCar when they finally break into Formula 1, time will tell.

Picture Copyright © LAT Photographic  

Ferrari And Red Bull Alter March Test Plans

Red Bull Racing will join Ferrari in altering their plans for the final pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya next month, with both teams deciding to start their testing a day later than the rest of the field. The final pre-season test was originally planned to consist on four days between March 1st to March 4th, however Ferrari decided to change their plans and join the test a day later, from March 2nd to March 5th. Red Bull asked the Italian outfit if they could join them, and Ferrari agreed. This means Ferrari and Red Bull will start testing a day later compared to the rest of the field, however they’ll continue testing into Monday, a day after the other teams have finished.

  “We have decided to join Ferrari in running from Friday to Monday as opposed to Thursday to Sunday. We’re just moving it a day,” Explained Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner to AutoSport. “From a logistical perspective, it just made a bit more sense. We asked Ferrari if we could join them, they agreed. It’s in the test agreement and also within the test regs. We are within the time limit for that. It’s something that we’ve elected to do. Lotus are doing their own thing but that’s for different reasons elsewhere.”

Although Christian Horner is stating it’s for logistical reasons only, it’s bound to raise eyebrows from the other teams, especially other front runners such as McLaren and Mercedes.

In other testing news, Lotus have been given the green light to commence an extra day of running at the third and final pre-season test next week. This comes after the Enstone based outfit pulled out of this weeks test due to chassis woes. The issue has been rumored to have been related to the front suspension, with Lotus confident they have corrected the problem.

Picture Copyright © Manu Fernandez/AP

Barcelona Day 3 – Afternoon Session – Maldonado Remains Quickest

After a cold and slow start to the morning session on Day 3 of the Barcelona test, the lunch interval was warmly greeted by many. However, once lunch was over, Jenson Button broke silence and headed out in his McLaren for the first lap of the afternoon session.

As the Brit crossed the start/finish line after completing his first timed lap, it became apparent that this session was going to follow in the footsteps of all the other afternoon sessions all week with heavy fuel running and race simulations taking place.

With the session fully underway, there was confusion in the Red Bull pits as the mechanics seemed ready to receive Mark Webber, only for the Australian to sail past the pit-lane instead. The afternoon got steadily worse for Red Bull, as they completed a practice pit-stop which was longer than expected. This was due to a problem with the right-rear, sparking a serious looking conversation with team principal Christian Horner and team manager Jonathan Wheatley on the pit wall.

The afternoon session got even worse for Red Bull, as shortly after their disastrous pit-stop, Mark Webber caused the fourth red flag period of the day stopping at Turn 8. The reason behind this issue was not disclosed by the team, as Red Bull personnel covered up the RB8 before it was even loaded onto the back of the truck.

Michael Schumacher completed further mileage for the new Mercedes AMG F1 W03, completing a 59 lap stint throughout the afternoon period. This was almost a full race distance of the Circuit de Catalunya, and was completed without any issues.

Vitaly Petrov in the Caterham completed further running in the afternoon after his morning session was cut short due to front suspension issues. The Russian improved his time to a 01:26.448, however he remained 10th and last.

The afternoon session ended the same as the morning period, under red flag conditions. The fifth and final stop of the day was caused by the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, who’s car ground to a halt at the exit of the pit-lane. The issue was undisclosed, with Ferrari suffering a troubled week in Barcelona.

Tomorrow, the final day of the second pre-season test gets underway. The F1 circus remains at the Circuit de Catalunya, however, with the third a final pre-season test commencing at the track next week.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps
 1.  Maldonado      Williams        1m22.391s           106
 2.  Schumacher     Mercedes        1m23.384s  +0.993   127
 3.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m23.582s  +1.191   99
 4.  Button         McLaren         1m23.918s  +1.527   114
 5.  Vergne         Toro Rosso      1m24.433s  +2.042   78
 6.  Webber         Red Bull        1m24.771s  +2.380   97
 7.  Massa          Ferrari         1m24.771s  +2.380   84
 8.  Di Resta       Force India     1m25.646s  +3.255   83
 9.  Glock          Marussia        1m26.173s  +3.782   108
10.  Petrov         Caterham        1m26.448s  +4.057   70

Picture Copyright © Williams F1/LAT

Red Bull And Ferrari Withdraw From FOTA

Two of Formula One’s leading teams’ have withdrawn from the Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) after disagreements over the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA), a row that has been ongoing for the last couple of months. 

The team apparently wrote to FOTA earlier in the week expressing their desire to leave the association, and due to the fact that teams must give FOTA a two-month notice period, Red Bull and Ferrari will officially depart from FOTA in February provided they don’t perform a U-turn beforehand.

Stefano Domenicali warned earlier in the year that if an agreement couldn’t be met regarding the cost controls of Formula 1 then the future of FOTA should be questioned, with Christian Horner mirroring those views at the Korean Grand Prix as well as mentioning the Concorde Agreement as one of the principal issues of FOTA. 

With two of the sports biggest teams now set on leaving FOTA, could other big names start to question their involvement with the body? HRT are currently the only other team not a part of FOTA after leaving in December 2010, stating that FOTA only focused on the big teams in the sport, however FOTA disagreed with these allegations and said the team were expelled for not paying its annual 2010 membership fee of €100,000.

With the return of in-season testing for 2012, the RRA is going to be hard to control as teams will undoubtedly begin spending high amounts of money on capitalizing on the track time available with new parts and test drivers.

However, could an agreement before Ferrari and Red Bull officially depart in February spark a controversial U-turn and see them rejoin?