Fearless
Think of Formula One these days and no
doubt an image is conjured of sophisticated
engineering and drivers being guided
around a track by a series of computers.
It’s a far
cry from the cut and thrust of motor racing thirty
years ago let alone sixty years ago, which is when
Maria Teresa de Filippis became the first woman to
compete in Formula One.
De Filippis made her debut in the 1958 Belgian Grand
Prix at Spa, posting her best ever Grand Prix finish
of tenth, driving a Maserati 250F. Argentine racing
legend Juan Manuel Fangio had claimed his fifth
world championship the previous year driving an
identical car.
When interviewed in 2006 and asked what she
remembered most about racing in her first Grand Prix
championship? De Filippis answered: “It was fantastic
– I didn’t think about the result at all – but it wasn’t
a big step up. I’d been driving cars with progressively
bigger and bigger engines and in those days the top
drivers took part in other events - sports cars, hill
climbing, endurance races - so right from the start I’d
been competing against F1 drivers.”
The youngest of five children, Maria Teresa de
Filippis was born on November 11th 1926 in Naples
into an aristocratic family that owned the city’s 16thcentury
Palazzo Marigliano and the Palazzo Bianco
near Caserta. A keen horsewoman, she was inspired
to turn to four wheels after her brothers challenged
her to prove she could drive a car as fearlessly as
she could ride a horse. After training on the Amalfi
coast she entered her first race – the Salerno-Cava
dei Tirreni event, winning her class and finishing
second overall, driving a Fiat 500 and aged 22.
The Italians’ have a saying “Prendere la palla
al balzo”, which literally translates as “take the
ball at the bounce” – seize the opportunity. An
independent, almost bloody-minded character, de
Fillippis was soon winning races across Italy. In
1954 she f inished a s r unner-up i n t he Italian Sports
Car Championship, racing her own Urania-BMW, a
Giaur, then a Maserati brothers’ OSCA MT4.
Recognising her potential, Maserati employed de
Fillippis as a works driver, racing their cars. Her
car had to be adapted with special padding so that
the diminutive de Filippis, who stood at only 5ft 2ins
could reach the pedals. In 1956 behind the wheel of
a Maserati 200S she weaved her way from the back
of the grid to finish second in a race supporting the
Naples Grand Prix.
It was performances like this that won her many
friends, including the great champion Fangio.
During the same 2006 interview de Filippis recalled
Fangio telling her: “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.”
There were indeed a few occupational hazards that
required careful navigation, but not always on the
track. De Filippis’s distinction did little to change
certain attitudes within racing, as witnessed when, following her Belgian debut, she was prevented
from competing in the next race – the French
Grand Prix. The race director reportedly saying,
“The only helmet that a woman should use is the
one at the hairdressers.” This was the only race
that de Filippis was prevented from entering, mostly
it wasn’t prejudice she encountered only surprise at
her success.
Unlike today’s Formula One, there was camaraderie
between drivers, they travelled together and stayed
in the same hotels. It was the same kind of spirit
shown by Second World War pilots, as it was highly
possible that, as then, some of your friends might
not return. 1958 was a particularly tragic year in
Formula One claiming the lives of several drivers.
In 1959 de Filippis left Maserati to join the Behra
Porsche RSK team. Tragically, Porsche team leader
Jean Behra died whilst driving in the sports car
support race for the 1959 German Grand Prix at
Avus. De Filippis was due to compete in this race,
but handed the drive to the mercurial Frenchman
as it was his Formula 2 Porsche she was due to race
in, Behra was without a drive having been sacked by
Ferrari for punching their team manager.
De Filippis learned of Behra’s death over the radio,
devastated she decided on the spot to quit the sport.
Her Grand Prix career amounted to only five race
meetings, four in 1958 and one in 1959. At two of
those meetings she failed to qualify for the race. Of
the three races she started, she retired from two and
finished the other in tenth place.
Maria Teresa de Filippis died in January 2016 aged
89. She will be remembered as a pioneer in motor
racing, a sport dominated by men. It took nearly
two decades for another woman to sit behind the
F1 steering wheel. Fellow Italian Lella Lombardi
remains the only female to have finished a World
Championship Formula One race in a point-scoring
position. Three other women, Britain’s Divina Galica,
South Africa’s Desire Wilson, and Italy’s Giovanna
Amati have entered, but none has managed to reach
a place on the final grid.
In 2006 when asked if she was surprised more
women hadn’t followed her example de Filippis
replied: “A bit. Maybe they just don’t feel like it. Then,
of course, there is the question of money. Many
backers don’t believe that a woman can compete on
equal terms. It’s a shame because I think there would
be huge interest if a woman was given a chance in
Formula One.”