LELLA LOMBARDI’s F1 Half-Point: 50 Years Later, When Will Another Woman Score?

April 27, 2025

by Owen Bellwood // from www.motorsport.com

• Fifty years ago today, LELLA LOMBARDI made F1 history by becoming the only woman to score championship points, earning half a point for sixth place at the chaotic 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. The Italian driver had worked her way up through Formula Monza, Formula 850 (where she won 10 races and claimed the championship), and Formula 3 before reaching F1, proving she belonged at motorsport’s highest level through pure merit and determination.
• While Lombardi remains one of only two women to actually race in F1 (alongside Maria Theresa de Filippis), the current landscape shows promising signs of change. JAMIE CHADWICK holds a Williams development role and believes F1 teams are “secretly desperate to find a future female superstar,” while all 10 teams now back F1 Academy squads – a tangible investment in developing female talent rather than just paying lip service to diversity.
• The F1 Academy pipeline is already delivering results we can actually point to: 2024 champion ABBI PULLING is moving up to GB3 for a full season, while inaugural winner MARTA GARCIA has tested Formula E and debuted in GT racing with Iron Dames. Add Laura Mueller breaking barriers as F1’s first female race engineer at Haas, and Sebastian Vettel backing additional support schemes, and we’re finally seeing systemic change rather than tokenism.

all-female f1 academy, formula 1, spanish grand prix, williams f1