Emilio de Villota

Born in Madrid on the 26th July 1946, Emilio de Villota Ruíz entered 15 F1 World Championship Grands Prix between 1976 and 1982, plus won the Aurora AFX F1 Championship in 1980 with RAM Racing.

He first arrived on the motor sport scene in 1972 when he raced Scuderia Filipinetti’s SEAT 124 SC in the 4 Jarama race, a round of the European Touring Car Championship, and he and H.Hengstenberg finished fifteenth. However, it would be three years before he returned to the ETCC, this time with a Ford Capri RS 2600. He and Jorge de Bagration retired from the Zandvoort Trophy race but they were joined by Mario Cabral at Jarama and they had a second place podium result.

1976 saw a switch to open-wheel racing and Emilio contested the UK based Shellsport G8 International Series with a Roger Heavens Racing Lyncar 006. He did not start at March’s opening round at Mallory Park though was fifth the following week at Snetterton but retired due to an accident at Oulton Park in mid-April. Following results included eighth at Thruxton, tenth at Brands Hatch and Mallory Park, tenth in the Motor Show 200 at Brands Hatch, eighteenth in the Evening News Trophy at Brands Hatch with his best result another fifth place at Brands Hatch in June. At the season ending round at Brands Hatch he came home seventh and in the final standings was joint thirteenth with Ray Mallock, a point behind Derek Bell and Brian Henton. In May that year he made his debut in the World Championship, entering the Spanish GP at Jarama with a RAM Racing Brabham BT44B though failed to qualify for the race. In his only touring car race that year he returned to contest the Jarama 4 Hours, alongside Jean Marie Detrin and Charles Van Stalle (‘Chavan’) in a BMW 3.0 CSL, though they retired due to an accident.

Continuing with the Shellsport Series in 1977 the year started with victory with the Cosworth powered Lyncar at March’s opening round at Mallory Park though a retirement from the second race at Snetterton due to mechanical issues. He did not start in the next two rounds plus missed several races as he moved up to contest the F1 World Championship, running a McLaren M23 with Iberia Airlines sponsorship. He entered seven Grands Prix though only qualified for two, the first being his home race at Jarama where he would finish thirteenth. His other start came in the Austrian GP but despite an accident towards the end of the race on the 51st lap he was classified seventeenth. He did not return to the Shellsport series until the ninth round at Mallory Park at end of July, where he promptly won in the McLaren. After missing further races he was back four weeks later and took a third victory, at Brands Hatch, then followed this with a podium at Snetterton in October, behind Tony Trimmer and Damien Magee. Although his season was split by his Grand Prix race commitments, he finished fifth in the Championship.

In the following year, the Shellsport International Series became the British F1 Championship/Aurora AFX F1 Championship. Now running as Centro Asegurador, Emilio campaigned a McLaren M25 though there would be outings in a McLaren M23 plus one event with a Boxer-Hart. There was a return to the World Championship when he entered that year’s Spanish GP but he failed to qualify the M25 at Jarama. His main focus was the British Championship and he took three podiums in the first three races of a competitive season. Piloting the M25, he was second in the season opening International Gold Cup at Oulton Park, behind Tony Trimmer’s McLaren M23, then third at Brands Hatch’s Evening News Trophy. Another second place came at Snetterton’s Anglia TV Trophy, again to T.Trimmer, and was followed by fourth in the Sun Trophy at Mallory Park. There would be retirements at Brands Hatch and Zandvoort though was fifth at Donington’s Formula 1 Trophy then eighth in the penultimate round at Thruxton and the season ending Budweiser Trophy at Snetterton. He retired the M23 at Oulton Park and Silverstone’s International Trophy though was fourth in Mallory Park’s Dave Lee Travis Trophy race and in his one outing with a Boxer Hart PR2 he came home seventh at Thruxton’s Radio 2 European Trophy. At the end of the season he was third in the Championship behind Tony Trimmer and Bob Evans.

For 1979 he switched to a Lotus 78, racing under the banner of the Madom F1 Team, and four victories saw him again finish third. He retired at the season opening Belgian Cup at Zolder then was seventh at Oulton Park’s International Gold Cup, fourth at Mallory Park’s Sun Trophy and third in the Anglia TV Trophy at Snetterton. His first victory came at the sixth round at the end of May, in the Rivet Supply Trophy at Thruxton and he followed this with a second win in the International Whitsuntide Race at Zandvoort. Despite retirements at Brands Hatch and Thruxton he took consecutive wins at Oulton Park’s Daily Express Formula 1 Trophy at the end of June and the Nogaro Grand Prix. His other finishes included second place at Donington Park’s Formula 1 Trophy, sixth at the ATV Trophy at Mallory Park and eighth at Snetterton’s Budweiser Trophy. He retired due to engine problems at Brands Hatch’s Race of Champions and an accident in the final race at Silverstone while the 55 points accrued put him third in the standings, to Rupert Keegan and David Kennedy.

1980 saw him piloting a RAM Racing Williams FW07 though he contested one round in a Fittipaldi F5A and after his two previous season’s third place finishes he finally took the Championship title. He was on the podium in nine of eleven races entered, taking pole six times and winning five races, at Mallory Park (twice), Brands Hatch, Silverstone and the Gran Premio Lotteria di Monza in Italy. Other finishes brought second at Oulton Park, Silverstone and Thruxton, third at Snetterton and fifth (with the Fittipaldi) at Thruxton and there were only two retirements at Brands Hatch and Oulton Park. As the season progressed, Emilio was leading Guy Edwards by sixteen points in the championship after eight of the twelve races. At Brands Hatch he took pole position but Guy Edwards took the lead after a better start and stayed in front until his engine failed on the last lap. Emilio took the win and two weeks later the title was his with his second place finish at Thruxton, ahead of Eliseo Salazar and Guy Edwards in third. He entered that year’s Spanish GP and qualified seventeenth though retired due to an accident on lap 36, unfortunately involving race leader Carlos Reutemann and second placed Jacques Laffite. As Reutemann and Laffite came up to lap him, the race leader went to the outside of the corner and overtook on the right, planning to have the inside line for the hairpin that followed. Emilio moved his Williams slightly to the left to make more room for him-just as Laffite’s Ligier went to the inside. After colliding with the Williams, Laffite bounced off and then hit Reutemann which saw both cars retire on the spot. Emilio was able to carry on to the pits though his suspension was beyond repair and his race was also over. The GP was originally scheduled to be part of the World Championship but it was later announced that World Championship points would not be awarded to the competitors, making it a non-championship race.

After the Aurora Championship was discontinued he concentrated on sportscars for 1981, racing a Grid Team Lola T600 with Guy Edwards. There were retirements at 6 Hour races at Silverstone and Watkins Glen though they took their first victory in June at Pergusa. Contesting 1000km events, although they did not finish at Monza they were eighth at the Nurburgring and took a season’s second victory at Brands Hatch’s Flying Tiger 100 event in late September, winning by a margin of eight laps. The year saw his Le Mans debut and he, Guy Edwards and Juan Fernandez brought the T600 home in fifteenth place and third in class. He attempted to enter 1981’s Spanish GP though was eventually disallowed from starting due to the Concord Agreement. In the build up to the race, the expected turnout was low and to maintain Spanish interest the race organisers wanted Emilio as a private entrant. However, the Concorde Agreement (which had been drawn up at the start of that year) had a clause in it stipulating private entries were not allowed. Despite this the organisers’ entered Emilio for the race and after the ATS team arrived late, wanted to allow his car to replace Slim Borgudd’s. Unfortunately as his Equipo Banco Occidental Williams was pushed into the pitlane its Cosworth engine refused to start and Emilio had to watch the first practice as his mechanics got to work on the misfire. However, there were political wrangling going on behind the scenes and the organisers’ eventually accepted defeat and Emilio was refused entry to race.

He continued in sports cars the following year with Grid Racing, driving their S1 in the World Endurance Championship, IMSA and several DRM rounds. Teamed with David Hobbs there were retirements at the 1000km Monza and 6 Hour Silverstone events then was thirty second alongside Desire Wilson in the 6 hour Mid Ohio race. When racing solo he was tenth and sixth in DRM rounds at Norisring and Hockenheim and thirty third at the 500 Mile Pocono event. He and Fred Stiff were thirty ninth at the 500 Mile Road America and twenty fourth at the 500 Km Road Atlanta then were joined by Derek Daly and came home tenth in the Shell Oils 1000km Brands Hatch. There was a return to compete at Le Mans, sharing the S1 with Desire Wilson and Alain de Cadenet, thought they retired due to engine problems after just seven laps. He returned to F1, in a season that provided many talking points, after starting with a drivers’ strike, eleven different drivers won in the sixteen races, with eventual world champion Keke Rosberg only winning one race. Emilio entered five Grands Prix with the LBT Team’s March 821 though failed to qualify for these rounds at Zolder, Monaco, Detroit, Montreal and Zandvoort. The season featured controversial disqualifications, a boycott, last-lap dramas and, sadly, tragedies and serious injuries and writer/journalist Nigel Roebuck said of 1982 it was “an ugly year, pock-marked by tragedy, by dissension, by greed, and yet, paradoxically, it produced some of the most memorable racing ever seen”.

1983’s racing schedule saw Emilio in three different disciplines, contesting Formula 2, sportscars and touring cars. The first of his two starts in the European F2 Championship came with James Gresham Racing’s March 832 and he took ninth at Silverstone’s Marlboro/Daily Express International Trophy then later was thirteenth in the Gran Premio de Madrid race at Jarama in the Minardi Team’s M283. He was back with Grid Racing in sports cars and his year started in IMSA with the S1 at the Budweiser GP of Miami, finishing twenty fourth with Tom Sneva, though he and Skeeter McKitterick did not qualify at the 500 Mile Pocono. In a European Endurance Championship round he came home eighth at the 1000 km Brands Hatch, with S.McKitterick and Dudley Wood. Emilio’s main competition that season though was the Spanish Touring Car Championship and it proved fruitful as he took the championship title at the wheel of a Ford Capri RS 3000.

There was only one start in the next year, with Grid Racing’s Porsche S2 at the Budweiser Grand Prix of Miami in February but he retired from it and did not race again that season. He returned to the European Touring Car Championship in 1985 and, teamed with Francisco Romero in a VW Golf GTi, they finished eighteenth in the Vallelunga 500Km and seventeenth at the Donington 500Km events. There was a retirement for them at Monza and in a final race with the Golf in late October at the 4 Hour Jarama he and Thierry van Dalen came home fifteenth. In 1986, he joined John Fitzpatrick Racing in the World Sportscar Championship, racing their Porsche 956B alongside Fermin Velez. In the seven races they competed they scored five top ten finishes but did not start at Brands Hatch de to an accident in the warm up. The first two races brought tenth at the 360 Km Monza and fifth at the 1000 Km Silverstone while later in the year they came home eighth in the 360 Km Jerez then third and eleventh in 1000 Km races at Nurburgring and Spa. A highlight of the season came at Le Mans, when, joined by George Fouche, they brought the Danone Porsche Espana car home in fourth place. This would be Emilio’s last visit to the Circuit de la Sarthe. 1987 saw him participate in the season-opening races of the World Sport-Prototype Championship and, sharing Kremer Racing’s Porsche 962C with Paco Romero, finished tenth at Jarama and the following week were eighth at Jerez. Following this his main competition came later in the year in the Porsche 944 Turbo Cup, scoring two podiums to finish eighth overall.

Emilio retired from international racing and into the 1990s enjoyed success in the Spanish Porsche Carrera Cup, winning three championship title in 1993, 1995 and 1996. In 1996, he also had a one-off appearance at a round of the BRP Global GT series with Freisinger Motorsport’s Porsche 911 Bi-Turbo, in the Gran Premio Repsol Resistencia Del Jarama, alongside Pablo de Villota and Fulvio Ballabio. There were one-off appearances several years later, first in a round of 2001’s Spanish GT Championship alongside Jorge Serra Bayona in Jorge’s Porsche 911 GT2 and they were ninth in the first race though did not finish in the second. In the following year, 2002 saw him contest the second round of the Porsche Supercup at Barcelona and he was fifteenth and tenth in the two races.

During this period Emilio had founded his own racing team and school in 1997 and his children, Emilio Jr. and daughter Maria both took up racing. Emilio Jr. competed in Euroseries 3000, F3000 International Masters, Porsche Supercup and the Spanish F3 Championship. Sadly, in 2012 Maria suffered severe injuries during a test drive with Marussia F1 at Duxford Airfield and passed away in 2013.