The only woman in history to score in a Formula 1 Grand Prix – Lella Lombardi defied the odds. Raised by a butcher in rural Italy and racing boys on motorbikes, she became a beacon for women in motorsport. Today, 1.5 percent of all licensed motorsport drivers worldwide are female but change is on the horizon.
Women in Formula 1 – The Legacy of Lella Lombardi
“And Miss Lella Lombardi, are you just sort of like a pretty doll in this sport?” asked a TV reporter in an interview with Lela Lomabrdi at the 1975 Swedish Grand Prix, to which she replied, “No no. Me, no. If you want to judge me ok but I care about being a race driver and certainly not a doll.” With a smile on her face, Lombardi handled questions of this sort the same way she went about her whole career in motorsport: poised, professional and determined. It is safe to say that her gender did not intimidate her during a time when, what is still a male-dominated sport, racing was at its deadliest. Women in Formula 1 were not only overlooked in the competition, but were also seen as necessary accessories: We had the glamorous F1 wives in big sunglasses who timed their husbands’ laps, endured endless press attention and carried the potential burden of ending up a widow one day. And of course we also had the Grid-Girls who wore next-to-nothing, held up signs, promoted sponsors and whose primary criteria for employment was looking good.
Now times are changing – the Grid-Girls are a thing of the past in Formula 1 as of 2018, (but not in other competitions,) and female drivers like Michele Mouton in the 80’s, Jamie Chadwick and Sophia Flörsch today are continuing to be pioneers for women in motorsport. One thing however, has remained. Lella Lombardi is still the only woman in history to score a point in a Formula 1 Grand Prix – actually, it was a half-point.
The 1975 Spanish Grand Prix was cut short due to an array of issues, hence the half-point awarded to Lombardi who finished in sixth place. Like many of the icons in her sport, she died young – but it was breast cancer and not a car-crash which took her life at the age of 50.
Lombardi and her Italian colleague Maria Teresa de Fillippis are the only women to ever qualify for a Formula 1 race, although it is technically open to all genders. Not only was Lombardi free of intimidation, but she also did not find a sport which was normally done by men to be necessarily more challenging. When the Swedish interviewer asked if the circuits were physically difficult for her, she simply said that “For me, I race. I don’t feel tired or fatigued because it is a matter of training. The right training.”
Growing up in the Italian village of Frugarolo in Piedmont, she raced boys on motorbikes as a child before getting her first car, a beat up Fiat. She made her way up to Formula Monza and then on to the Italian F3 by 1968, finishing her first season as a runner-up. Among countless competitions, she was invited to try for the F5000 team and joined the ShellSPORT Luxemburg squad for the 1974 Championship, alongside lan Ashley. She placed fifth overall in the championship standings behind Bob Evans, Peter Gethin, lan Ashley and Teddy Pilette. In 1975 she made 10 Grand Prix starts and was racing on the March team managed by Robin Hird, who saw her the same way she saw herself: “That she was a woman was an irrelevancy to Lella. She was a racing driver first and foremost.” The 1975 Spanish Grand Prix in Montjuic Park was a spectacle. Drivers were refusing to practice while others retired after one lap. There was a nine-car crash at the first corner and multiple incidents until the leading car flew over the barrier killing four bystanders. The race ended early and half-points were awarded to the top six places with Lombardi making history at place six. She continued to race in Formula 1 Grand Prix’s as well as Les Mans four times, coming in second place in 1976, Nascar the German touring car championship, to name a few.
As Lombardi always preached, it was not about the skill-level which set women back in motorsport per se. A big issue aside from the social barriers is sponsoring and opportunity – racing in Formula 1 costs millions and teams as well as sponsors have to be the ones to invest in female drivers. The vicious cycle of sponsors predominantly committing to drivers whom they know will bring success, stops them from investing in women who haven’t made it to Formula 1 since the 70’s. With the W-Series which was implemented in 2019, women can compete free of charge, giving them the opportunity to practice competitively, get noticed, and eventually climb up in the ranks for sponsors and teams to give them a chance.
Extreme-E, the off-road electric motorsport competition which was launched in April of 2021 is not just about sustainability in racing, but the rules state that each team must have one female and one male driver in identical 500-bhp electric SUVs. W-Series winner Jamie Chadwick, Off-Road Truck Champion and X Games Medalist, Sara Price and Australian Rally Champion, Molly Taylor for example, are matched with the likes of Formula 1 Champion Jenson Button. The initiative FIA Girls On Track is also pushing more girls to join the sport either as drivers or engineers, hosting events around competitions and with the help of World Rally icon Michelle Mouton, brought 16 year-old Maya Weug as the first girl to join the Ferrari team.
Simply put, the more girls are given a chance to enter motorsport competitively at a young age, the more likely they are to make it up in the junior ranks and onwards. More sponsors and teams will pick them up, and the vicious cycle can reverse itself to one day break Lombardi’s record.