The 1975 Formula 1 season is widely remembered for the dominance of Niki Lauda and Ferrari, who won five races together as the Austrian cruised to his first world championship title by a comfortable margin. But that season a half-century ago also included a notable achievement that has not been matched since — the first world championship points finish scored by a woman.
That woman was Italian racer Lella Lombardi. The daughter of a butcher, Lombardi took the first steps toward her then-unusual career choice as a delivery driver for her family’s business. After catching the racing bug in karting, Lombardi made her way into Formula 3 in 1968 and European F5000 by 1974 before trying to advance into F1 with a privately entered Brabham. She didn’t qualify, but her efforts won her sponsorship and a chance to join March Engineering for the ’75 season. At the third race of the year in South Africa, Lombardi became the first woman to qualify for a Grand Prix since Maria Teresa de Filippis in 1958, although she was an early retirement after a fuel system failure in her March-Ford.
Next up was Spanish Grand Prix, then held on the Montjuïc street circuit. The accident-strewn race was marred by tragedy, as debris from Rolf Stommelen’s crashing Hill resulted in the deaths of one spectator, a fireman and two journalists, and the race being shortened to 29 of the scheduled 75 laps, with only half points being awarded. Lombardi, who had moved up from her 24th-place starting position into sixth in the chaotic race, therefore earned half a point and her place in the history books, as F1 at that time awarded points to the top six finishers.
Lella Lombardi and her March 751 Ford en route to sixth place in the Spanish GP at Montjuïc on April 27, 1975. Ercole Colombo/Studio Colombo/Getty Images
It would prove Lombardi’s best career F1 result, although she narrowly missed another point in the German GP later that season, where she finished seventh. Lombardi returned with March the following year but lost her seat to Ronnie Peterson at mid-season and, after a brief stint with RAM Racing, the Italian opted to move on to other forms of motorsport. She even tried NASCAR in 1977, racing in the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, before shifting her focus to sports cars. It was here that Lombardi would achieve her greatest success, sharing victories in six-hour races at Pergusa and Vallelunga in 1979.
After retiring from driving, Lombardi formed the Lombardi Autosport race team, for which she served as team manager. She passed away in 1992 at age 50 after succumbing to breast cancer, but her legacy remains an inspiration, with the all-female F1 Academy support series at Formula 1 races striving to improve opportunities for women to join Lombardi in the grand prix record book.
