primotipo…

de Filippis in the cockpit of her Maserati 250F. Monza, Italian Grand Prix 1958…

de Filippis started racing Fiat 500s aged 22 after her brothers bet her she couldn’t drive fast. In 1954 she finished second in the Italian sports car championship and was scooped up by Maserati as a works driver.

In 1958, driving Maserati 250F chassis #2523 a ‘T car’ used by Fangio in 1957, she became the first woman to take part in a World Championship Grands’ Prix at Spa, Belgium finishing 10th. She missed the French Grand Prix when an official with Gallic charm and chauvinism suggested to her that ‘The only helmet a woman should wear is the one at the hairdresser’s.’

Jean Behra offered her a drive in his Porsche team in 1959. Behra’s death led to her reconsidering her future and she quit. ‘Too many friends had died,’ she told the Observer in 2006. ‘There was a succession of deaths – Luigi Musso, Peter Collins, Alfonso de Portago, Mike Hawthorn. Then Behra was killed in Berlin. That, for me, was the most tragic because it was in a race that I should have been taking part in. I didn’t go to the circuits any more. The following year I got married, then my daughter was born and family life became more important.’

Her GP results are; 1958 Syracuse Q8, DNF Belgium Q19 DNF, Italian Q21 DNF all 250F. 1959 Monaco Porsche 718 DNQ and BRDC Intl Trophy Silverstone 250F Q23 DNF.

de Filippis, Maser 250F, Spa 1958 (The Cahier Archive)

Credits…

The Cahier Archive, silhouet.com