Maria-Teresa de Filippis and her fellow Maserati driver Luigi Villoresi enjoy themselves at a GPDC event.
By Graham Gauld
*Photographs provided by the collection of Maria-Teresa de Filippis
Farewell Maria-Teresa
After being involved with automobile racing for over sixty years one often feels inured to the passing of older drivers who you saw in action many years ago. However, Saturday last week was particularly difficult day as I was told the sad news that Maria-Teresa de Filippis had died. Theo Huschek, Maria-Teresa’s husband of fifty years, gave me the news.
The actual announcement came not as a surprise. Maria-Teresa had been suffering from a debilitating illness for a few years, but up until about a year ago you would never have known it. Just two months ago she celebrated her 89th birthday which was an achievement in itself, but her health went downhill sharply in the past weeks.
Maria-Teresa de Filippis started racing in Italy in 1948 after her brothers joked with her about becoming a racing driver. She entered her Fiat 500 Topolino in a hill climb and immediately won her class. She felt this would happen. She told me that a year before she had visited a fortune teller who told her that she would win a motor race and so it came to pass.
Maria-Teresa photographed at the Targa Vesuvio in 1949 with her Camen-Fiat.