Maria Grazia "Lella" Lombardi (26 March 1941 – 3 March 1992) was an Italian racing driver who participated in 17 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix from 1974 to 1976. Lombardi was the second female driver to qualify for Formula One, after Maria Teresa de Filippis, and is the only female driver who finished within the points in Formula One, having scored half a point in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. Lombardi was also the first woman to qualify and compete in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, and raced in sports cars. She won the 1979 6 Hours of Pergusa, the 1979 6 Hours of Vallelunga and the 1981 6 Hours of Mugello, and finished 2nd in her class at the 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Lombardi's story has impacted generations of racers. Her experience has shaped the involvement of women in racing and how people perceive women in the racing industry.

Early life Lombardi was born in Frugarolo, a small town in Piedmont Italy on 26 March 1941. She was the youngest child of three; her father was a butcher, who gave Lella her first job as a delivery driver for the family's shop. At first, Lombardi’s father initially found her passion for racing hard to accept, but he embraced it once she finished runner-up in a 1968 race.

Career Early career After a brief experience with karting as a child, Lombardi bought her first car in 1965, which she raced in the Formula Monza series. She moved on to Formula Three in 1968, and in 1970 won the Italian Formula 850 series. In 1974, Lombardi was signed to drive the Shellsport-Luxembourg Lola in Formula 5000 and finished fourth.

Formula One In 1974, Lombardi tried, unsuccessfully, to qualify for Formula One with a privately entered Brabham racing car supported by the Automobile Club d'Italia. The car was sponsored by Radio Luxembourg broadcasting on 208 meters mediumwave, which inspired the selection of 208 as Lombardi's Formula One racing number. That winter, she met an Italian nobleman, Count Vittorio Zanon, who sponsored her entrance into Formula One. In 1975, Lombardi was invited to join Vittorio Brambilla and Hans-Joachim Stuck on the March engineering team, racing the full season with Zanon's Lavazza Coffee Company’s sponsorship.

At the opening race of the campaign in South Africa, Lombardi became the first woman since Maria Teresa de Filippis in 1958 to successfully qualify for a Grand Prix. 1975 would prove to be an eventful season for the March Team, as Lombardi scored half a Championship point in the Spanish Grand Prix. This was because the race only lasted 23 laps until Lombardi was forced to retire with a fuel system problem, while the race suffered a major tragedy when the rear wing on Rolf Stommelen's Embassy Hill broke, sending him into the barrier. While trying to avoid Stommelen's car as it bounced back and crossed the track, Carlos Pace crashed. Four spectators were killed by Stommelen's flying car. The race continued for another four laps, resulting in Lombardi’s sixth-place finish and, with the race being stopped before three-fifths of the scheduled race distance was reached, all points were halved. Lombardi also successfully performed at other races, including the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, where she finished seventh. At the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, Lombardi had a one-off drive for Williams. However, she was prevented from starting the race due to an ignition problem.

In 1976, Lombardi was confirmed at March Engineering alongside Brambilla and Stuck. She finished 14th at the Brazilian Grand Prix that year, and subsequently, the team decided to replace her with Ronnie Peterson. Then, Lombardi briefly moved to RAM Racing, her best result being 12th at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Race of Champions In 1974, Lombardi was the first female racing driver to qualify and compete at the Race of Champions in Brands Hatch. She raced a Lola-Chevrolet Grand Touring Prototype-class car and finished 14th. In the 1975 event, she was once again able to qualify and compete with a March-Ford car. She retired after 20 laps.

Sports cars Lombardi later raced in sports cars. In 1979, she won the 6 Hours of Pergusa and the 6 Hours of Vallelunga; in 1981, she won the . She competed four times at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where she finished 20th overall (and second in the GTP class) in 1976 in a Lancia Stratos Turbo. She also finished with podium places in a number of other European endurance races: third at Casale, 1974; third at the Imola 250 kilometers, 1977; second at Wunstorf, 1979; second at Ulm, 1979; second at the Monza 1,000 kilometers, 1981; second at the 6 Hours of Pergusa, 1981; and third at the Donington 500 kilometers, 1981.

Lombardi also raced in the Firecracker 400 NASCAR race at the Daytona International Speedway in 1977. There were two other female drivers in the field: American Janet Guthrie and Belgian Christine Beckers. Lombardi finished 31st.

Lombardi retired from racing in 1988. In 1989, she founded her own racing team, Lombardi Autosport.

Personal life and death Journalist Phil Pash reported that though Lombardi viewed racing as a masculine sport, she succeeded regardless because of her 'competitive spirit.'

Lombardi was one of the first female racers openly in a same-sex relationship. Lombardi died of breast cancer in Milan on 3 March 1992. She was 50 years old and was buried in Frugarolo. She was survived by her partner, Fiorenza. Lombardi is commemorated by a sculpture in her birthplace, Frugarolo.

Legacy Women have competed in motorsport (and Grand Prix racing in particular) since the birth of the sport. Some notable examples are Camille du Gast, Maria Antonietta Avanzo, Elisabeth Junek or Hellé Nice, all of them in the 1900-1940 period. Lombardi’s racing career has influenced the perceptions of subsequent generations of women in racing; she is credited with making Formula One accessible to women. Lombardi is considered a Formula One trailblazer, after which women have increasingly joined Formula One in many capacities aside from race driving, including as test drivers and development drivers, engineers and strategists. Lombardi is considered one of the reference points for women in racing; NYT Archived copy Lombardi and de Filippis are the only two women to have started in world championship Grands Prix races, with Lombardi the only one to have achieved a point-scoring finish.

There have been three subsequent female Formula One drivers: Divina Galica (during 1976, Lombardi's third and final season in Formula One), Desiré Wilson (1980) and Giovanna Amati (1992).

Film In 2020, the film "Beyond Driven" was made by directors Riyaana Hartley and Vincent Tran, providing essentially a dramatised documentary-style biographical account of Lombardi's life.

It features Patrizia Lombardi (Lella Lombardi's niece), Tatiana Calderon, Amna Al Qubaisi, Vicky Piria, Alice Powell, Giovanna Amati, Carmen Jorda, and Beitske Visser.

Racing record

Complete European F5000 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pts 1974 ShellSPORT Luxembourg Lola T330 Chevrolet 5.0 V8 BRH MAL SIL OUL BRH ZOL THR ZAN MUG MNZ MAL MON THR BRH OUL SNE MAL BRH 5th 88

Complete Formula One World Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pts 1974 Allied Polymer Group Brabham BT42 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 ARG BRA RSA ESP BEL MON SWE NED FRA GBR GER AUT CAN ITA USA NC 0 1975 March Engineering March 741 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 ARG BRA RSA 21st 0.5 Lavazza March March 751 ESP MON BEL SWE NED FRA GBR GER AUT ITA Frank Williams Racing Cars Williams FW04 USA 1976 Lavazza March March 761 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 BRA RSA USW ESP BEL MON SWE FRA NC 0 RAM Racing with Lavazza Brabham BT44B GBR GER AUT NED ITA CAN USA JPN

Formula One non-championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 1974 ShellSPORT Luxembourg Lola T330 Chevrolet 5.0 V8 PRE ROC INT 1975 Lavazza March March 751 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 ROC INT SUI

24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1975 Elf Switzerland Marie-Claude Charmasson Renault-Alpine A441 S2.0 20 DNF DNF 1976 Aseptogyl Christine Dacremont Lancia Stratos-Ferrari GTP 265 20th 2nd 1977 Inaltera Christine Beckers Inaltera LM-Ford Cosworth S+2.0 279 11th 4th 1980 Scuderia Torino Corse Mark Thatcher Osella PA8-BMW S2.0 157 DNF DNF

Complete Shellsport International Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Pts 1976 Team P R Reilly Shadow DN1 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 MAL SNE OUL BRH THR BRH MAL SNE BRH THR OUL BRH BRH 42nd 2

Complete British Formula One Championship results (key) (note: results shown in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Pts 1979 Team Agostini Williams FW06 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 ZOL OUL BRH MAL SNE THR ZAN DON OUL NOG MAL BRH THR SNE SIL NC 0

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series NASCAR Winston Cup Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Pts Ref 1977 Charles Dean 05 Chevy RSD DAY RCH CAR ATL NWS DAR BRI MAR TAL NSV DOV CLT RSD MCH DAY NSV POC TAL MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT CAR ATL ONT N/A 0

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Pts 1984 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6 ZOL HOC AVU AVU MFA WUN NÜR NÜR NOR NÜR DIE HOC HOC ZOL NÜR NC 0

See also List of female Formula One drivers

References

External links