Italian Lella Lombardi is unique in Formula One history as the first and only woman to score a championship point in the seventy-five years of the modern Formula One championship since 1950. (Rothmans 5000 European Championship, Mallory Park, England, October 13, 1974) Photo by Jeff Allison
Story and photos by Jeff Allison
Maria Grazia “Lella” Lombardi is the only woman to score points in a world championship Formula One race. In the seventy-five years of the modern Formula One championship, only five women have entered a Formula One race and only two have qualified and raced. Italian Maria Teresa de Filippis (1958-1959) was the first, and it would be fifteen years before another woman, Lella Lombardi, would qualify and race in Formula One.