Maria Teresa de Filippis has Died

[cosworth151]

Maria Teresa de Filippis, the first woman to race in F1, has died at the age of 89.

De Filipps drove a Maserati 250F in her F1 starts.  She started in sportscar with impressive results. She moved up to a 2 liter Maserati. She drove that to a second place finish in an undercard race at the 1956 Naples GP. The finish was even more impressive by the fact that she started from the back of the grid for missing quali.

At the 1958 Monaco GP, she put up a better time than some fellow in a Connaught: Bernie Ecclestone.

She returned to the sport in 1984 as the secretary general of the Club International des Anciens Pilotes de Grand Prix. Elected vice president of the organisation for retired drivers in 1997, she became its honorary president in 2011

R.I.P., Signora de Filippis. You were a true pioneer of the sport we love.

http://www.racer.com/more/viewpoints/item/125069-de-filippis-an-appreciation

[Irisado]

It was disappointing that there was so little media coverage about her death, as she's an important figure in this history of Formula 1.  They did feature her on the national radio news though, so at least the radio news writers noticed.

My favourite fact about her is that she outperformed Ecclestone.  Ecclestone actually set the slowest time of all in qualifying for that race.  He was some six minutes off the pole time (and failed to qualify).  According to him it 'wasn't a serious attempt'.  Well, he can say that if he likes, but I love the fact that he was thrashed by everyone, including de Filippis.

I agree that she has been a pioneer and it's just a shame that more women haven't been able to follow in her footsteps.  She'll always be remembered as the first female driver, and I get the impression that she was much better than her results suggested.