Maria-Teresa de Filippis, Italy 1926-11-11 - 2016-01-09

F1 Career: Monaco 1958 - Monaco 1959

Races Wins Pole Podiums FastLaps Points

3 0 0 0 0 0

% Wins % Poles % Podiums % FastLap Points/Race

0,00% 0,00% 0,00% 0,00% 0,00p

She started racing at the age of 22 when her brothers taunted her she could not drive fast. Six years later she was a works driver for Maserati. In 1958, driving the car in which Juan Manuel Fangio had won the previous year's drivers' title, she became the first woman to take part in a World Championship Formula One grand prix in Belgium, where she finished tenth. Once she she was barred from competing at the French Grand Prix where an official told her: "The only helmet a woman should wear is the one at the hairdresser's." Retired from racing after Jean Behras death 1959. In 1979, after two decades away from the racing world, she joined the International Club of Former F1 Grand Prix Drivers. She became the club's vice-president in 1997 (and would eventually be made honorary president in the 21st century.) and was also president of the Maserati Club.