Maria Teresa de Filippis

Maria Teresa de Filippis was the first woman to ever race in a Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix, blazing a trail through motorsport’s most exclusive boys’ club with speed, grit, and zero tolerance for being told what she couldn’t do.

EARLY YEARS

Born on November 11, 1926, in Marigliano near Naples, Italy, Maria Teresa was the youngest of five children—her father an Italian Count, Serino Francesco De Filippis, who ran successful companies and electrified large areas of rural southern Italy, and her mother a Spanish noblewoman. Growing up in privilege didn’t make her delicate; it gave her the confidence to chase whatever caught her attention. And what caught her attention first wasn’t cars—it was horses and tennis. She was competitive from the start, just not yet with an engine.

That all changed when she was 22. Her brothers made a bet with her, likely assuming their little sister would back down. They were wrong. She didn’t just accept the challenge—she won her very first race in 1948, a local 10-kilometer hillclimb called the Salerno-Cava dei Tirreni, driving a Fiat 500B. She won her class and finished second overall. The bet was settled. The racing career had begun.

OTHER INTERESTS

Before motorsport claimed her, Maria Teresa was a passionate equestrian and tennis player. Her first love was horses, and she approached both sports with the same intensity she’d later bring to the racetrack. But once she got behind the wheel, there was no going back. Speed on four wheels beat anything on four legs.

EARLY SUCCESS

Maria Teresa quickly proved she wasn’t a one-race wonder. After her debut win in 1948, she climbed through the ranks of Italian motorsport, racing in hillclimbs and endurance events with increasing success. Her most notable victory came at the Catania-Etna hillclimb, where she set a record that stood for three years. In 1955, she finished second in the 2000cc class championship, cementing her reputation as a serious competitor.

But success came with risk. In 1955 at Mugello, she slid off the road in a Maserati A6GCS and crashed into a ravine. A tree stopped the car from tumbling all the way down—saving her life but costing her hearing in her left ear and a potential championship. Emergency services found the Maserati dangling precariously over a cliff. She walked away. And kept racing.

While racing an OSCA, she met and fell in love with rival driver Luigi Musso, who competed for both Maserati and Ferrari in Formula 1 between 1953 and his death in 1958. They were engaged, driven by the same passion for speed, but never married. Their relationship was one of mutual respect and shared recklessness—two racers who understood each other in a way few others could.

Maserati noticed. They signed her as an official driver, making her one of the rare women in motorsport history to carry a factory contract. In 1958, she made her Formula 1 debut at the non-championship Syracuse Grand Prix, finishing eighth. Then came the big one: on May 18, 1958, at the Monaco Grand Prix, Maria Teresa de Filippis became the first woman to qualify for and enter a Formula 1 World Championship race. History, made.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 1948: Won her class and finished second overall in her debut race, the Salerno-Cava dei Tirreni hillclimb, driving a Fiat 500B.
• 1955: Finished second in the 2000cc class championship.
• 1955: Set a record at the Catania-Etna hillclimb that stood for three years.
• 1958: Made history as the first woman to compete in a Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix at Monaco.
• 1958: Finished 10th at the Belgian Grand Prix, her best World Championship result.
• 1958: Finished fifth at the non-championship Syracuse Grand Prix after starting eighth—the highest finish by a woman in a major open-wheel race at the time.
• 1997: Appointed Vice-President of the International Club of Former F1 Grand Prix Drivers.
• 2004: Became a founding member of the Maserati Club and later served as its chair.

INSPIRATIONS

Her relationship with the legendary Jean Behra was one of the most important in her career. The two became close friends and colleagues, mutual supporters in a brutal sport. Behra’s death on August 1, 1959, during a sports car support race at the German Grand Prix, shattered her. She had lent him her car right before the race. Watching him die in it was more than she could take. She retired from racing immediately after, at just 32 years old.

She also had a memorable encounter with Juan Manuel Fangio, the five-time World Champion. He told her, bluntly, that she drove too fast—that she should try to go a little slower. It’s unclear whether she took his advice. Given her record, probably not.

REPUTATION

Maria Teresa de Filippis was fearless, fast, and unapologetic. “I was either courageous or reckless, or foolhardy, call it what you want,” she once said. “I just liked to go at full speed.” She never crashed out of a Formula 1 race—not even in the non-championship events. “I was never anxious, I didn’t feel any fear,” she said. That composure, combined with raw speed, earned her respect even from those who didn’t think women belonged in racing.

Not everyone welcomed her. At the 1958 French Grand Prix, race director Robert Boeuf refused to let her practice, declaring that “the only helmet a woman should wear is the one at the hairdresser.” She didn’t get to race that day. But she kept showing up, kept proving herself, and kept making it impossible to ignore her.

Even the great Tazio Nuvolari stood up for her. When officials disqualified her after a grueling drive in wet conditions during the Mille Miglia, Nuvolari protested: “You made a girl drive over one thousand kilometers on wet roads only to then disqualify her.” The protest didn’t change the result, but it showed the kind of respect she commanded from racing’s old guard.

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

Maria Teresa de Filippis passed away on January 9, 2016, at the age of 89 in Scanzorosciate, Italy. She lived long enough to see more women attempt what she started, though none matched her achievement of racing in a World Championship Formula 1 Grand Prix for nearly five decades. Around 1960, she married Theodor Huschek, a chemist, and they started a family. She stayed away from racing for many years before joining the International Club of Former F1 Grand Prix Drivers in 1979. Her legacy as a pioneer remains untouchable. No woman has raced in Formula 1 since Lella Lombardi in 1976. Maria Teresa opened the door. The fact that so few have walked through it since says more about the sport than it does about the women who’ve tried.

REFERENCES

The first woman in Formula 1: Maria Teresa de Filippis | FinM
10 Fast Facts About Maria Teresa De Filippis – HotCars
On this week #2: Maria Teresa de Filippis | Pirelli
Maria Teresa de Filippis | Henry Ford Museum
Maria Teresa De Filippis Became The First Woman To Race In Formula One – Jalopnik
Matt Bishop: Maria Teresa de Filippis blazed trail for women in lethal F1 but just wanted to race – Motor Sport Magazine
Maria Teresa de Filippis Facts for Kids
Maria Teresa de Filippis – Wikipedia
La Signorina F1: The Story of Maria Teresa de Filippis – The Gearhead Girl
Maserati Pays Tribute To F1 Pioneer Maria Teresa de Filippis – The Autopian
Maria Teresa de Filippis obituary and F1 career appreciation – Autosport
Maria Teresa de Filippis: “Fangio told me I drove too fast” – Motor Sport Magazine
A tribute to F1’s first female racer – ESPN
F1 Drivers: Maria Teresa de Filippis – Salracing
Maria Teresa de Filippis: Shaping History on the Track with Maserati – Sports Car Digest
Maria Teresa de Filippis, F1’s first ever female driver – Motorsport.com
Maria Teresa De Filippis (1926-2016) – Supercars.net
Maria Teresa De Filippis – Motorsport Memorial