Maria Teresa
De Filippis

Maria Teresa de Filippis was born on 11 November 1926 and grew up in Naples. She took up motor racing in the late 1940s and won her first race in a Fiat 500 on a run between Salerno and Cava de' Tirreni. In 1954 she finished second in the Italian sports car championship, and Maserati took her on as a works driver. She also competed in hillclimbs and endurance races.

In 1958 she became the first woman to race in the Formula One World Championship. At Monaco she failed to qualify her Maserati 250F. At the Belgian Grand Prix she was classified tenth and last, which remained her only finish. In Portugal her engine failed after six laps. At her home race at Monza she started from last place and retired with engine trouble after 57 of the 70 laps, still classified eighth. In 1959 she again failed to qualify at Monaco, this time in a Behra-Porsche. In total she made five entries and three starts, and scored no points.

After the death of her team leader Jean Behra in a sports car race in August 1959, she retired from racing. In 1979 she joined the International Club of Former F1 Grand Prix Drivers, and in 1997 she became its vice-president. In 2004 she was a founding member of the Maserati Club and later served as its chairperson. The next woman to compete in Formula One was Lella Lombardi in 1974. Maria Teresa de Filippis died on 9 January 2016.

Source: Wikipedia, “Maria Teresa de Filippis”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.