Maria Teresa De Filippis, the first woman to contest a World Championship Grand Prix, has passed away at the age of 89. F1’s traiblazing lady was born in Naples on Armistice Day in 1926 and made her competition debut aboard a Fiat 500 to satisfy a bet between her brothers as to how fast she could drive. She won that first race.
An avid equestrian in her teens, by the age of 21 she was suiting up for her Grand Prix debut at Spa — having previously failed to qualify her year-old Maserati 250F at Monaco — where she was the final classified finisher in 10th place. Later that year she qualified the Maserati for the Portuguese and Italian GPs, but retired from both events, though classified 8th in Italy.
She subsequently failed to qualify a Porsche for the next year’s Monaco GP, but later that year the death of her friend and team owner Jean Behra’s in a crash at Avus, as well as that of mentor Luigi Musso and several other friends, led to her giving up the sport.
She then married and devoted herself to her family and giving birth to a daughter, but generally stayed away from racing until 1979 when she joined the International Club of Former F1 Grand Prix Drivers, becoming the organization’s vice president in 1997. In 2004 she was also a founding member of the Maserati Club, later serving as its chair.
Maria is survived by her husband Theo K. Huschek and daughter Carola, to whom, along with her many friends in and out of the sport, Vintage Racecar extends its sincerest condolences.
