{"id":398143,"date":"2026-01-09T10:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T10:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/398143\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T10:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T10:48:09","slug":"maria-teresa-de-filippis-f1s-first-ever-female-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/398143\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Teresa de Filippis, F1\u2019s first ever female driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this day 10 years ago, Maria Teresa de Filippis<\/a> passed away; she was Formula 1\u2019s first ever female driver.<\/p>\n

De Filippis entered five grands prix in the late 1950s, started three and took a 10th-place finish at Spa-Francorchamps, but her journey was bigger than that.<\/p>\n

The Italian was born in 1926 in the Naples area, the daughter of wealthy Conte de Filippis. Taunted by her older brothers, she won the Salerno-Cava dei Tirreni on her racing debut in a Fiat 500, in the late 1940s.<\/p>\n

As her brother Luigi failed to break into the new drivers\u2019 world championship \u2013 he hoped to compete in the 1950 Italian Grand Prix at Monza \u2013 Maria Teresa rose through the ranks; her parents did not oppose her endeavours.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father helped me, of course; he inspired me to succeed in whatever I chose to do,\u201d she told Motor Sport magazine in 2012. \u201cMy mother didn\u2019t object too much either \u2013 because I was winning. She liked that, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Filippis still defied sexism, though she told The Guardian in 2006 that she faced prejudice on only one occasion: \u201cThe only time I was prevented from racing was at the French Grand Prix. The race director said: ‘The only helmet a woman should wear is the one at the hairdresser’s.’<\/p>\n

\"Maria <\/p>\n

Maria Teresa de Filippis, Maserati 250F<\/p>\n

Photo by: Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from that I don’t think I encountered any prejudice \u2013 only surprise at my success.\u201d Of course, the definition of prejudice evolved over time, and De Filippis told Motor Sport that \u201cwhen things became too intense or too vulgar [with male drivers] then I would joke with them, make fun of them, and they would go away\u201d.<\/p>\n

De Filippis was the 1954 Italian Sportscar Championship runner-up; in 1956, she easily fought her way from the back of the grid to second place in a sportscar race in her home city of Naples, and in 1958, she made it to Formula 1, driving a Maserati 250F \u2013 the model Juan Manuel Fangio<\/a> took to the world title in 1957.<\/p>\n

De Filippis did not want to take orders from men, and that played a part in her decisions. \u201cThat is why I went to Maserati, and why I never wanted to go to Ferrari<\/a>,\u201d she told Motor Sport. \u201cWhy would I want to be at Ferrari? Just because I am Italian? No. At that time I did not want to be commanded by Mr Ferrari. I spoke to him and I told him I didn\u2019t want to drive for his team. In those days he would say one word and everybody jumped. That was not for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, I felt there was no real culture, no real depth to it all. At Maserati it was more a family concern, with more real people, and they were easier to talk to. And I could take my own car to the team, that was important for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Maria <\/p>\n

Maria Teresa de Filippis, Maserati 250F<\/p>\n

Photo by: LAT Photographic<\/p>\n

De Filippis\u2019 world championship debut coincided with Fangio\u2019s retirement, and the revered Argentine gave her \u201clots\u201d of advice. \u201cHe used to say: ‘You go too fast, you take too many risks.’ I wasn’t frightened of speed, you see, and that’s not always a good thing. He worried I might have an accident,\u201d she told The Guardian. She never crashed out of an F1 race, not even the non-championship events she also took part in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was never anxious, I didn\u2019t feel any fear,\u201d she explained to Motor Sport. \u201cThese men in F1, they were my heroes \u2013 Fangio, Ascari, Villoresi \u2013 and they were good to me. I never had any problems with the big drivers, only the smaller ones who didn\u2019t like it when I beat them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI admired Fangio, as a person and a driver, because he was a simple man and he worked very hard to achieve all the success he had. Nothing was given to him. On the track I called him my \u2018race father\u2019 because he treated me so well, so normally, and I admired him for that. He was a gentle man.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Filippis\u2019 career at the highest level turned out to be short-lived; she retired following Jean Behra\u2019s fatal accident on 1 August 1959 at Berlin\u2019s high-speed, treacherous AVUS track.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many friends had died,\u201d she told The Guardian. \u201cThere was a succession of deaths \u2013 Luigi Musso, Peter Collins, Alfonso de Portago, Mike Hawthorn. Then Jean Behra was killed in Berlin. That, for me, was the most tragic because it was in a race that I should have been taking part in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Maria <\/p>\n

Maria Teresa de Filippis, Maserati<\/p>\n

Photo by: Red Bulletin – Getty Images<\/p>\n

De Filippis went on to found a family, and though she stayed away from motor racing for two decades, she joined the former F1 drivers\u2019 international club in 1978, becoming its vice-president in 1997.<\/p>\n

In the 67 years since her retirement, however, only four women entered world championship grands prix, and just one made it to the starting grid \u2013 fellow countrywoman Lella Lombardi, in 1975 and 1976.<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day 10 years ago, Maria Teresa de Filippis passed away; she was Formula 1\u2019s first ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,168196,576,577,12625,168195,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-398143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-f1u2019s-first-ever-female-driver","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-juan-manuel-fangio","15":"tag-maria-teresa-de-filippis","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}