Former Formula 1 reserve driver Maria de Villota, 33, was found dead in a hotel room in Seville on Friday morning, the president of the Spanish Automobile Federation, Carlos Garcia, has confirmed.

“I have just found out. It is a very hard to take. There is no explanation for what has happened,” he told Spanish National Radio.

“She was a great person and an example for everyone.”

De Villota, daughter of former Formula 1 driver Emilio De Villota, lost her right eye in a crash while testing for the Marussia team at Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire in 2012.

“Maria has left us. She had to go to the sky like all the angels. I give thanks to God for the extra year and a half he left her with us,” read a message from her family posted on De Villota’s Facebook page.