A passion for high speed
Born in Frugarolo, a small town in the province of Alessandria, on 26th March 1941, Maria Grazia Lombardi, known by everyone as Lella, is the fourth daughter of a butcher and charcuterie producer. From an early age she showed her feisty and tenacious personality and did not hide her passion for speed. Always passionate about cars, she started driving at a very young age. At the tender age of 9, she took a steering wheel by the hand and never left it since.
At 18, she started working in the family’s small business, driving a van along the Ligurian Riviera to transport meat.
However, driving a van was not enough for Lella. The passion for cars and racing was still alive within her, like a constantly burning flame. And, with the aim of following this desire, after an initial debut in karts, she competed in the Formula Monza series for the first time in 1965. This first race revealed Lella’s strong determination, since she had worked hard to buy her racing car in instalments, in order to take part in the competition.
After this first major race, she participated in many smaller competitions, distinguishing herself for her drive and talent. In 1968 she came second in Formula 3, while in 1970 she won the title of Italian Formula 850 champion, taking home four out of ten races.
After two more category wins in 1971, at Monza and Vallelunga, she returned to F3 in 1972 and, with her Lotus 69 racing under the Jolly Club umbrella, finished 10th in the standings. She finished 10th again in 1973, taking second place in the race at Casale, driving a Brabham BT41 for Scuderia Italia. That year she also beat Maurizio Flammini’s March during a heat at Vallelunga. That was Lombardi’s breakthrough year. When she arrived in Monaco in early June, she had already achieved half of the six victories that would help her become the Italian champion of the Ford Escort
Mexico Challenge.
She ran that race impressing the international racing set by finishing 12th in the most prestigious F3 race. Drivers of the calibre of Tony Brise, Brian Henton, Alan Jones, Larry Perkins and Danny Sullivan had not even made it to the Monaco final. “That was the first time we saw her,” says John Webb, the most prominent UK promoter of the period. “She drove exceptionally well. We had just started the ShellSPORT Celebrity Series [for Escort Mexicos] and my wife Angela invited her to race at Brands Hatch in July. She won [starting from the third row, beating Jacques Laffite and Mike Wilds] and we became very close friends and stayed in touch.”
“Jackie Epstein ran a Formula 5000 team at Brands and we managed to convince him to let Lella try out that winter. She impressed him not only with her driving, but also with her mechanical knowledge and sensitivity. Towards the end of the test she stopped in the pits because she rightly thought a tyre was losing pressure; not badly, but enough to make a difference’. Lella Lombardi thus joined the ShellSPORT Luxembourg team for the Rothmans F5000 Championship in ’74 and her Lola T330 sported the number 208, recalling the frequency of Radio Luxembourg, the team’s sponsor.
Her teammate was the established series leader Ian Ashley. He remembers her this way: ‘She was the first woman driver to seriously impress me. Those weren’t easy cars to drive – basically a Formula 2 with a big, high hump stuck in the back – but she got faster and faster during the year”. During 1974 she participated in the ‘Race of Champions’, at the Brands Hatch circuit, and the BRDC International Trophy, at the Silverstone circuit.
Lella Lombardi and Formula 1
After all these years of dedication, passion and tenacity, spent pursuing her dream, Lella Lombardi made her Formula 1 debut on 20th July 1974 in the British Grand Prix. During practice for this first race, she did not score enough points to qualify, achieving only the 29th time.
In 1975 she participated in twelve of the fourteen world championship races. At that time she drove a March Ford Cosworth; with this car in the season debut at the Kyalami circuit she managed to qualify with the 26th time.
After the successes of Maria Teresa de Filippis (1958), no woman had ever again achieved such results in motor racing. Here Lella Lombardi once again managed to amaze everyone, break all limits and qualify for the Grand Prix. Unfortunately, due to technical problems she was forced to stop the race, and she could not aim to bring home the full result.
Now it was time for the Spanish Grand Prix at the Montjuic circuit, the race that we remember for having given Lella Lombardi the famous half a point in Formula One that has remained in history.
The race did not start in the best of ways; the first rehearsals were boycotted by the drivers who gathered to point out the really bad conditions of the safety barriers. In spite of this, at the last the race rehearsals were confirmed. Lella made her run at the wheel of a March 751, and with the Lavazza March team, she qualified with the 24th time. During the official race some drivers decided to retire, among them Emerson Fittipaldi, Wilson Fittipaldi and Arturo Merzario.
On lap 25, Rolf Stommelen’s Hill car lost its wing which ended up in the middle of the crowd, causing four deaths and numerous injuries. Following the incident, the race was immediately suspended.
At the time, Lella Lombardi was in sixth position, just two laps behind leader Jochen Mass.
This was how she scored her half a point in Formula 1.
Unfortunately, for the first time in Formula 1, the management decided to award half a point, as the drivers, due to the interruption of the race, had not been able to cover the minimum regulation distance for a Grand Prix.
However, she was the first and so far only woman to score points in F1.
She then participated in the Monaco Grand Prix but without qualifying, and then qualified in the next nine Grands Prix, but without any memorable results.
She managed to qualify at the last Grand Prix of the season, the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, but due to a fault she did not participate in the race.
Her Formula One career finally ended with the Austrian Grand Prix where Lella Lombardi finished in 12th place.
Between 1982 and 1984, Lella Lombardi concentrated on the European Touring Car Championship, bringing home numerous successes and satisfactions.
In 1988, she retired as a driver from motor racing, but wanted to stay and work in the industry she loved. She decided to found the Lombardi Autosport racing team, in which she was Team Manager.
With a total of 12 races in Formula 1, Lella Lombardi was not only the first and only woman to score half a point in Formula 1, but she also holds the women’s record for the number of Grands Prix disputed (from 1974 to 1976), surpassing even champion Maria Teresa de Filippis, who boasted participation in 4 Grands Prix in the 1950s.
Lella Lombardi died in Milan on 3rd March 1992, but what remains of her today is the drive, passion and tenacity that made her whole life devoted to her greatest passion.
We remember her as a strong, determined and courageous woman.
She did not let gender prejudices stop her. She did not allow herself to be influenced.
Nothing was stronger than tenacity and passion: she fought to realize her dream, to race cars, compete and challenge other drivers.
She used to say: "I have always fought with men and I have never posed the man-woman problem, only the antagonism between different riders. I repeat, under the helmet, women and men are completely equal."
She proved that even in motor sport, women drivers, if determined and strong in their boldness, can achieve great results.
She used to say to her friends:’ I’d rather have an accident than fall in love. That’s how much I love racing’.
Passion was the fire that drove her to overcome everything: prejudices, obstacles and difficulties.
