In the last five years, the international profile of European motorsports, particularly Formula One, has skyrocketed. However, with its rising popularity follows a growing critique. Where are the women in Formula One?
Other racing series like NASCAR and IndyCar can boast numerous women racers, but F1 remains dominated by a grid of twenty men. The series has tried to respond, highlighting women like Bernie Collins – former Red Bull Racing Strategy Engineer and current analyst for Sky Sports. Indeed, in 2023, Jessica Hawkins became the first female F1 test-driver in five years since Tatiana Calderon in 2018. 2023 is also the inaugural season of the all-women's F1 Academy, directed by Susie Wolff, who herself made history when she participated in a free practice session for Williams Racing. The Academy started racing this year with an all-female grid of drivers supported by the 10 major F1 teams. It is a huge step in the development of women’s motor sports, and it could lead to a woman re-joining the grid for the first time since 1992 when Giovanna Amati tried and failed to qualify for three races in a row.
Yet many new fans have no idea that women ever raced in Formula One at all. History has forgotten the women who blazed new paths in motorsports. This article remembers one of those women, Lella Lombardi who in 1975 became the first and only woman to ever score points in a Formula One Grand Prix.
Lella’s story has always stood out to me. Maybe it’s because she was, in today’s terms, queer, supported throughout her career by her partner, Fiorenza. Maybe it’s because the era she raced in was so incredibly dangerous, with drivers literally risking their lives every race for the thrill of speed. Maybe it’s because scoring points is such an incredible accomplishment in F1, and Lella did it in the second race she qualified for! There are men who have raced for years without ever reaching this achievement which used to come from placing within the top six of a race. There are undoubtedly other stories to tell – that of Maria Teresea De Fillippis, the first woman to drive in F1 in 1958, and Desiré Wilson, the first woman to win a Formula One event in the British Aurora Series in 1980. All of these women faced the same question Lella did: what is your point? Even after De Fillippis’s trailblazing races, the world of motorsports was sure a woman could not find any real success in racing, so why even try? What was the purpose of pouring money into women pilots? Lella answered - her point was to prove that women could not only enter the world of motorsports, but succeed. Lella’s name deserves to be remembered for consistently flouting social scripts to achieve something no woman has since.
Chasing a Dream
Lella Lombardi’s unique career in Formula One starts with her upbringing. F1 has never been a cheap sport, it requires either immense personal wealth or sponsorships to build a career. As such, most drivers have historically come from privileged backgrounds, but Lella did not have this advantage. Lella was born Maria Grazia Lombardi on March 14th, 1941. Her parents were butchers from the village of Frugarolo, Italy, and she spent much of her childhood working at her family’s shop. The Lombardi family did not own a family car and neither of Lella’s parents drove in her youth. It was only when Lella was injured in a handball game as a young teenager that she first rode in a car when her coach took her to the local hospital. She became enraptured by driving and after this saved money to pay for lessons and practiced in any vehicle she could. She even convinced her parents to let her drive the business delivery van!
Eventually with the help of her older brother, Lella bought a car of her own and immediately started looking for racing opportunities. But being a woman trying to break into the boys’ club of motorsport was no easy feat. Lella would have to rely on her male connections to support her early career. Early on, Lella was introduced to a rally car pilot who she impressed with her sheer determination to race. He took Lella onto his team, assigning her menial tasks like timing laps and changing tires. But Lella could not be dissuaded, eventually convincing him to let her become his navigator and then his co-pilot before finally piloting a race herself. Having worked her way up the ranks, Lella found quick success in rally racing, and soon she was setting her sights on single seaters. Single seaters are a different type of car,
lower to the ground, exposed, and much more rigid, in turn requiring a different style of racing. There is no one there with the pilot, just the driver and the hunk of metal under them careening around corners, knowing that if they misjudge by a centimeter, it could mean not only the end of their race, but their lives. It was and remains today, for many, the pinnacle of motorsport. Lella knew the increased risk of single seaters, just like she would have known that finding success in these series would be even more of a challenge than getting her start in rally racing.
One of the reasons Lella felt energized to enter the world of single seaters was she had the support of her partner, Fiorenza. While little is publicly known about the foundation of the women’s relationship, Fiorenza was clearly very supportive of her partner’s career. Indeed, Fiorenza’s emotional and financial support was integral to Lella’s start in single-seaters, helping her to enter the Formula 875-Monza series in 1968. This was one of the many junior Formula series Lella would work her way through. In 1970, Lella entered and came in third in the Italian Formula Ford Championship while simultaneously competing in the smaller Trofeo Italiano Formula 850 series. The next year, Lella entered Formula Three, competing across three seasons in various cars. The victory that propelled Lella to dedicate herself to Formula One success, however, came in 1973 when she raced in and won the first ever Italian Ford Escort Mexico Challenge. This was a celebrity racing series, and it brought Lella to the attention of many big names in the racing world. Lella had once again proven herself worthy to the right people.
Proving a Point
In 1974, Lella’s single seater career took off. She tested a Formula One car for Jackie Epstein, a man who ran several successful racing teams, and impressed him enough to gain a place on Fransisco Mir’s US F5000 team. Her teammate in this series was future 1976 F1 champion James Hunt, remembered today for his fierce rivalry with Niki Lauda. Race after race, Lella consistently matched the future star.
After months of stellar results, Lella made the jump into Formula One for the first time. Driving a car loaned from Bernie Eccelstone, owner of the Brabham racing team, Lella entered the British GP at Brands Hatch in July driving for Hexagon of Highgate. Unsurprisingly, Eccelstone had little interest in lending his opponents a competitive car, and Lella struggled to match the rest of the field’s pace with her engine’s minimal power. In the end, it was a driveshaft malfunction that dashed her dreams of qualifying. She missed out on a racing position by just .9 seconds. Lella was not given another opportunity in F1 that year. However, she would finish fifth in the 1974 US F5000 series.
Lella was persistent, continuing to make inroads in the racing world. Her enthusiasm for the sport was clear, and she had slowly gained the respect of many on the grid. Interviews from her time as a F1 driver give insight into why so many loved Lella Lombardi on and off track. When asked by a Swedish journalist if she was “just a nice doll in this sport?” she responded by saying, “No, No, for sure not me. You could judge me like this, but I really care to be seen as a pilot and not as a doll.”
Lella simply refused to take any flack about her gender, reminding everyone that she was on track as a racing driver who happened to be a woman, not the other way around. Her confidence and results impressed many, and, in the winter of 1974, she charmed one of the biggest bankrollers in the racing world with her skills, knowledge, and determination. Count Vittorio Zanon was known for financially supporting the careers of many successful drivers including Ronnie Peterson and Michele Albereto. Businessmen like Zanon were essential for drivers like Lella who did not come from independent means. If you could not secure stable sponsorship, your career could not be sustained. Lella knew this, yet, in the end it was a woman who was central to securing Lella a permanent seat in F1. Jean Mosely, the wife of March’s owner Max Mosely, had been pestering her husband for months to consider Lella, after Lella impressed her with her Brands Hatch drive. After watching Lella race and meeting the driver in person, Mosley folded. By the start of the 1975 season, Lella was signed to the March Formula One team.
In South Africa at the third race of the 1975 season Lella finally qualified for her first Formula One race, becoming the second woman after De Fillippis to do so. The competition Lella faced on track was fierce. Ferrari’s rising star Niki Lauda would go on to win his first of three world championships that year after overcoming the challenge of 1974 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi. Lella’s former teammate James Hunt had also joined the F1 grid. But unlike Lauda and Fittipaldi who were part of large and well-funded racing teams, the March F1 team had been facing financial difficulties since the early 1970s. As a result, the team could not afford to produce new F1 cars, so they started racing modified Formula Two cars. Lella’s car could not match the power or reliability of Lauda’s Ferrari or Fittipaldi’s McLaren. This disadvantage was clear in South Africa when Lella suffered a fuel system break, forcing her to retire in the twenty-third lap of the race. Similarly, her teammate, Vittorio Brambilla, retired in the sixteenth lap due to overheating. But Lella wasn’t done making history, quickly turning her sights to the next race weekend where she did what no woman had done before or has done since.
The weekend of the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix started well. Lella was bringing a brand-new car to the track, a March 751–Ford she obtained with funds from Zanon’s Lavazza sponsorship. Though she qualified, starting 24th at the back of the grid certainly wasn’t what she was hoping for in her new outfit. What’s more, during qualifying the drivers noticed guardrails around the circuit were broken, and after qualifying, they agreed in a joint press conference that they would not race unless this was fixed. Engineers and mechanics from across the grid pitched into the effort which finished just before the race’s start. But not all the rails were properly checked before the race got underway. Nonetheless, Lella lined up on the grid at Montjuïc Park on the 21st of April 1975 ready to race. From the start, there was chaos on track. Four drivers retired after an opening lap accident caused by Lella’s teammate Brambillo. Mechanical failures and accidents continued to occur throughout the race and by the 25th lap only 8 of the starting 25 drivers remained on track. Lella drove incredibly well in what was one of the toughest races of the season, managing to avoid the fallout from each accident as she made her way up the grid.
What happened next is the reason most people remember the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. In the 26th lap of the race, Rolf Stommelen’s rear wing detached from his chassis. The car ricocheted off a barrier, leaving it in the middle of the track just as Carlos Pace rounded the corner. Pace hit Stommelen’s car with enough force to launch it over the guardrail on the other side of the track and into a crowd of spectators. Meanwhile, the race coordinators were in chaos, failing to stop the cars for another five laps while they tried to get a handle on the situation. In the end, four spectators were left dead and Stommelen suffered serious injuries. It still stands as a stark reminder of the dangers of motor racing. While the attention paid to such a tragedy is undoubtedly justified, what has unfortunately been lost in the story of that fateful day is what Lella Lombardi achieved. When the race directors finally ended the Grand Prix, Lella had secured sixth place. She became the only woman to score points in a Formula One event. Because the race ended before full race distance but with over 2/3rds of the event completed, half points were awarded. While the disastrous race end created significant controversy over the race results, Lella still walked away with half a point in the driver’s championship.
Lella completed the rest of the 1975 season with March. Though she did not manage to score points again, she came exceedingly close, finishing 7th at the Nürburgring track in Germany. This result was perhaps even more impressive than her race in Spain, as she picked up a puncture early in the race. Lella fought her car lap after lap just to stay on track, and she still managed to almost score points again! Towards the end of the season, Lella was growing increasingly frustrated with the March team. She was consistently complaining about the car’s handling, struggling with understeer that made navigating high-speed corners difficult. Max Mosely later admitted to ignoring Lella’s concerns despite knowing the car was difficult to drive, having little interest in advancing her career. Finally, after consistently struggling to find adequate race pace, the team stripped back Lella’s March to find that one of the rear bulkheads had cracked earlier in the season. Lella could have easily walked away from the series. She had been consistently mistreated by her teams, and she had other racing opportunities in sportscar series. Her teammate at Le Mans, Marie-Claude Beaumont, remembers Lella telling her in 1975 that “Formula 1 was very important for her and her friend Fiorenza. She would just say to me, ‘Marie, I have to do Formula 1.’” Lella had no interest in leaving after fighting so hard for her dream, and with the support of her partner, she felt she had more to give. So, at the start of 1976, Lella decided to abandon the March team.
Lella moved to Williams Racing in 1976 which looked like a promising decision on paper. While Williams was still a relatively small team, they had recently signed a lucrative new funding partner, which though short-lived, would make them much talked about going into the season. But she found little luck in 1976. On her debut Williams drive at the United States Grand Prix, she faced ignition problems that forced her to drop out of the race before the start. Ever determined, Lella tried to race her teammate, Jacques Latiffe’s Williams, as Latiffe also dropped out of the race with an eye infection. However, Latiffe was much shorter than Lella who was too tall to fit into his cockpit. Lella then failed to qualify in the next two races, and after the Brazilian Grand Prix, the team dropped her for Ronnie Peterson, a man with multiple grand prix victories. Desperate not to lose the opportunity she worked so hard for, Lella tried one last time to race in F1 for team RAM. Her car, however, was a year older than the rest of the fields, and she would only qualify for one grand prix that year where she finished far off the pace in 12th. By the end of 1976, Lella was exhausted after scraping and clawing for over three years just to drive some of the worst cars on the grid. At the end of 1976, she exited the series to look for opportunities elsewhere.
Remembering Lella
The end of Lella’s F1 career was far from the end of her racing career, as she moved into sportscar racing. Indeed, outside the world of Formula One, Lella found herself interacting with more and more female racing drivers. She raced in Le Mans with teammate Marie-Claude Beaumont, though a fuel issue forced them to retire in the race’s eighth hour. She made a singular NASCAR appearance, driving alongside Christine Becker and Janet Guthrie in the 1977 Daytona Firecracker 400. Lella would team up with Becker again at the 24 Hours of Daytona that same year, but the team would crash out in the 78th lap. They would finish Le Mans that year together in 11th, an impressive feat considering an electrical problem delayed their start. It would be Lella’s best result in any of the 24 hours races she competed in. Lella would continue to alternate between racing sports cars and touring cars for the next ten years, securing several impressive results. She won the 6 Hours of Mugello with teammate Giorgio Francia and pickied up multiple podium finishes.
In the late 1980s, Lella started to struggle with her health and found herself unable to race.
Lella was eventually diagnosed with breast cancer. Still, she would not walk away from motorsport, starting “Lella Lombardi Motorsport”, a touring-car team. Her niece remembers that Lella was incredibly happy during this time, thrilled to have a team of her own despite her worsening illness. She lived long enough to see them test their first touring car, a Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth. She passed away just after her 50th birthday on the 3rd of March 1992 in Milan, Italy.
Lella Lombardi left behind a legacy that is hard to comprehend. Beyond her incredible racing achievements, she opened the doors for even more women in motorsport. What’s more, throughout her career she lived unabashedly as herself, shattering gendered stereotypes along the way. She kept her hair short and always travelled with her partner Fiorenza, living quite openly as a lesbian despite never publicly pronouncing her sexuality.
When asked in a 1975 interview why she chose motorsport despite being a girl, Lella replied simply “Because I love it! I love motoring, I love racing cars. I love the feeling of driving.” Lella did not let anything stand in the way of that love. She fought tooth and nail for every opportunity, every start, every seat at the table. She knew she was not welcome, yet her skill and determination slowly impressed driver after driver, businessman after businessman, until she earned the racing community’s respect. She should be remembered for her spirit, her fortitude, and her love for the sport she dedicated her life to. Lella had a point to prove: to show everyone women could find success in F1, and she did so spectacularly. Her legacy lives on in the women today who continue to fight for their chance to add their name next to Lella’s in the history of motorsport.
Further Reading
2023. "1975 F1 World Championship." MotorSport Magazine. Accessed 10 10, 2023. https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/database/championships/1975-f1-world-championship/.
Dietrich, Nanni. n.d. "Lella Lombardi: 1941-1992." Motorsport Memorial. Accessed 10 10, 2023. http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/LWFWIW/focusLWFWIW.php?db=LWF&db2=ms&n=273.
2020. Beyond Driven. Directed by Riyaana Hartley and Vincent Tran. Performed by Giovanni Amati, et al.
Jenkins, Aimée. 2023. "The Legacy of lella Lombardi." Along the Racing Line. 06 01. Accessed 10 10, 2023. https://www.alongtheracingline.com/the-legacy-of-lella-lombardi/.
n.d. "March." ESPN. Accessed 10 10, 2023. http://en.espn.co.uk/march/motorsport/team/375.html#Profile.
Resteck, Hilary, and Casey Schuster. n.d. "Lella Lombardi." The Henry Ford Women in the Winner Circle Foundation. Accessed 10 10, 2023. https://ophelia.sdsu.edu:8443/henryford_org/09-09-2013/exhibits/racing/wiwc/bios/trailblazers/LellaLombardi.pdf.
Tremayne, David. 2022. "Trailblazing Racer Lella Lombardi Remembered, 30 Years On From Her Death ." Formula1. March 03. Accessed 10 10, 2023. https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.trailblazing-racer-lella-lombardi-remembered-30-years-on-from-her-death.6zz9pupcxc97yy5SEL1kkR.html.
2023. "Williams." MotorSport Magazine. Accessed 10 10, 2023. https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/database/teams/williams/.