Female driver joins Formula 1 test team

Spanish racing driver María de Villota will form part of the testing team for the Formula 1 team Marussia, known until this season as Virgin.

Villota, 31, is the daughter of the former Formula 1 driver Emilio de Villota, and had been hoping to join the Lotus team as a test driver. But in the end she found a place at Marussia F1, one of the three recent additions to the grid.

"I am very happy to be joining the Marussia F1 Team test driver program," Villota said in a statement after the announcement was made. "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."

De Villota is taking on the challenge after spending the last three seasons racing in the Superleague Formula, an open-wheel single-seater championship where many of the teams were sponsored by soccer clubs (De Villota raced for Atlético Madrid).

She has also participated in Spanish F3, the Daytona 24 hours and the Euroseries 3000. She has prior experience of a Formula 1 car, having taken a test drive with Lotus Renault F1 at the Paul Ricard circuit last year, where she clocked up 300 kilometers.

"We are pleased to welcome María to our test driver program, which will enable her to be integrated into a Formula 1 team environment and gain a vast amount of experience that will be useful to her career progression," said team principal John Booth in a statement on Marussia's webpage. "We will also provide María with the opportunity to sample F1 machinery later in the year, further adding to her racing credentials."

Formula 1 continues to be a male-dominated sport, with just five women racing drivers ever having entered a Grand Prix. However, only two of those actually qualified and started a race. Italian driver Lella Lombardi is the woman to have competed in most Grands Prix, racking up 17 entries and two starts. Desiré Wilson, from South Africa, is the only woman to win a Formula 1 race of any kind, driving to victory at Brands Hatch in the British Aurora F1 series in 1980.

In the United States, however, female driver Danica Patrick has seen more success, having won the IndyCar Series as well as having finished in third place at the Indianapolis 500.