Maria Teresa de Filippis

Maria Teresa at speed
in 250F Maserati.
Maria Teresa de Filippis
The First Lady in Formula 1
– story by Eoin Young
– photos courtesy of
Terry Marshall Archive
The First Lady in the modern Formula 1
series, which began in 1950, was the Naplesborn Maria Teresa de Filippis. She started at
the top in 1958 with the 250F Maserati said
Maria in Behra-Porsche.
to have been raced by Manuel Fangio the
previous season.
Her first Formula 1 World Championship
Grand Prix was at Monaco in 1958 and after
first practice she was 16th but the engine
58
August 2013
• Victory Lane
They put up bets against each other and
before a race at Messina they bet that whoever
placed best, the other had to buy a gold watch.
As it turned out the watch didn’t get bought.
Maria Teresa crashed and was thrown out
on the third bend; Luigi crashed on the sixth
bend!
In 1955 Maria Teresa bought an A6GCS
2-litre sports-racer from Maserati and placed
second in the Italian sports car championship.
She now had a contract with Maserati, Ugolini
was her team manager and it was agreed that
if she over-revved and blew an engine she
had to pay for it, but if the blow-up was not
her fault, Maserati would pay. They divided
starting money and prize monies 50/50.
For 1958 she had graduated to a 250F
Maserati said to have been raced by Fangio
failed on the second practice day and she had
to withdraw.
Maria Teresa started racing aged 22, in a
little Fiat Topolino. It was 1948 and she was
just 20. Her three brothers had taken bets
that she couldn’t drive fast so she set about
proving them wrong and started a career that
would eventually see her into Formula 1. In
her first race she scored a class win
and in her second showing with the
baby Fiat she was second fastest
in the Sorrento-St Agata hillclimb
in the south of Italy. She still
has the silver steering wheel
trophy. In 1954 she finished
second in the Italian sports car
championship.
Then she moved up to a
750cc Taraschi with a BMW
motorcycle engine and raced it
in hillclimbs on circuits and she
either won or was on the podium.
Then came a 750cc Giaur with
a Fiat-based engine which she
raced until 1952 when she moved
up to an 1100cc Osca sports car
and was competing regularly
against Luigi Musso. The drivers travelled
together and stayed at the same hotels in
those days and soon Maria Teresa and
Luigi were an item, fiancées in love but
racing against each other at weekends.
Maria
and Sir Stirling Moss.
when he won the title in 1957. The chassis
number on the car sold to her was 2523 but
this was in the depths of Maserati’s uncertainty
about car pedigrees. Bertocchi brought
the 250F to the non-World Championship
Syracuse GP decked out with a light blue
ribbon, the Italian symbol of a baby being
christened! She finished fifth in her Formula
1 debut in a race won by Musso in an F1
Ferrari.
“They sold me the 250F as chassis number
2523.” Maria Teresa told me. “But the story
In 1959 she brought her Behra-Porsche to
Monaco and qualified 16th for the F-1 Grand
Prix, but then politics arrived in the pitlane and
Maria Teresa’s fastest lap was not accepted on
a flimsy reason – otherwise a Ferrari driver
would have been dropped!
The drivers travelled together as friends in
those days and it was the death of Jean Behra
that prompted her to give up racing. She
had travelled a lot with Behra and Scarlatti.
Maria Teresa drove a Lancia Aurelia on
the road between races and Scarlatti had a
Porsche.
Her achievements
are significant both
as a woman and as
an independent in
Formula 1. She was
the first woman to
compete in Formula 1
and she entered seven
Grands Prix, qualifying
for three of the five Maria Teresa de Filippis in later
of those that counted years
towards the title. She
retired in 1959 and
Maria Teresa confesses that she doesn’t like
started a family. Maria modern motor racing that much. “Success is
Teresa now has two based more on electronics or the speed of the
grandchildren and lives mechanics and less on the skill of the driver. In
Maria in A6GCS Maserati Sports Racer.
near Milan, enjoying a our day the drivers were friends. We travelled
resurgence of interest together, stayed at the same hotels. Today the
of the car is not very easy because despite in Grand Prix racing as secretary of the drivers don’t seem to go out together at all.
all the efforts we tried to make, there were Societe des Anciens Pilotes for past Formula The interviews are all too often predictable.
some situations within Maserati that a car is 1 drivers.
After a race they just jump back in their private
once declared as one particular...and later as
Sir Stirling Moss has been in the international planes. Very little remains of the sport as it
another....”
headlines recently with the 83-year-old was in our time.”
Wasn’t the 250F a difficult car for her to maintaining that women lack the mental
Sir Stirling stopped racing after a severe
drive, being of such a slight, ladylike build? toughness to succeed as a Formula 1 driver. crash at Goodwood in 1962 and he will surely
“Fantuzzi in Modena worked for Maserati Maria Teresa believes that women can agree with Maria Teresa at the way the sport
and he prepared a special seat cushion for compete with men, “but only a very few of has changed from the drivers being a group of
my 250F which brought me up to a normal them. The physical strength needed is not a competitive mates to dedicated professionals
driver’s position.” Did she have the strength feminine characteristic. Those bullnecks, for earning huge fees to race and win. He still has his
and stamina for a Grand Prix? “It became very instance...not a pretty sight.”
fond memories of racing against Maria Teresa.
tough on the forearms in a race but once the car
was moving, it wasn’t that difficult.”
She came to Monaco in 1958 with the 250F
and qualified 16th after the first practice
session but her engine blew on the second day.
They had no spare or chance to rebuild, so she
had to withdraw. Another driver who failed to
qualify in that race was one Bernard Charles
Ecclestone in his Connaught.
Next race was the Formula 1 European GP
at Spa and she finished 10th. Brooks won in
a Vanwall. Between GPs they raced sports
cars. Maria Teresa had an Osca racing against
drivers like Fangio. She thinks this was why
there was such an evolution of driving then
because they raced against each other in
different categories every week.
Her best Formula 1 result was 5th in the
non-title race at Syracuse. In the 1958 Italian
GP, she was up to 5th place again when the Maria Teresa de Filippis, centre, as secretary of the Anciens Pilotes
engine blew. “I was the only Italian in the race club, seated beside Sir Stirling Moss. Howden Ganley stands behind
that year! Can you imagine?”
Maria Teresa.
www.victorylane.com
Victory Lane
• August 2013
59