Ok, here we go. This is gonna be a ride, so buckle up.
Alright, so 1975. The year Niki Lauda and Ferrari were on fire. Seriously, they were winning left and right. Lauda snagged five wins and wrapped up the world championship pretty comfortably. But that’s not all—something else happened that year that stuck with me. Not sure why, but here it is: a woman scored points in F1 for the first time. Yep, you heard it right.
Enter Lella Lombardi. She’s from Italy, and get this, her dad was a butcher. She started out driving delivery trucks—imagine going from meat delivery to F1! She caught the racing bug with karting, then moved on to Formula 3 in 1968. Fast forward to 1974, she’s in European F5000. But what’s really wild is her leap into F1 with a Brabham. Didn’t qualify though. Still, her passion (or maybe her stubbornness?) got her into March Engineering in ’75.
Now, picture this: South Africa, third race, the vibe was electric. After years, a woman qualifies for a Grand Prix! Unfortunately, her car’s fuel system was like, “Nah, we’re not doing this.” An early exit for her. Bummer.
Then there’s the Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuïc. Total chaos, accidents everywhere—tragically some fatal. The race got cut short, just 29 laps instead of 75. Lella? From 24th to 6th! Can you imagine? That took guts. She gets half a point, but who’s counting? She made history, man.
There’s a picture of her in the race—driving like she owned it, even if the standings didn’t show it. Ah, those were the days.
Germany? Narrowly missed the points in the Grand Prix, ended up seventh. Tried again the next year but, ugh, racing politics—lost her seat to Ronnie Peterson. Seriously, racing can be brutal like that. She tried NASCAR in ’77, even raced at Daytona. Then sports cars where she actually rocked it. Won some pretty epic races at Pergusa and Vallelunga.
Eventually, Lella hung up her helmet and started Lombardi Autosport. A team manager! Sadly, she passed away in 1992 from breast cancer. Someone needs to tell her story more—she’s an inspiration, especially now with the all-female F1 Academy aiming to open more doors for women in racing.
And that’s Lella, a real trailblazer who left her mark. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll see more following in her tire tracks.
