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List of female Formula One drivers


This is a list of female motor racing drivers who have taken part in the Formula One World Championship since the inception of the World Championship for Drivers in 1950.

Five women racing drivers have entered at least one Grand Prix, although only two of them ever qualified and started a race. The woman who competed in the most Grands Prix is Lella Lombardi, with 17 entries and 12 starts.

Desiré Wilson became the only woman to win a Formula One race of any kind when she won at Brands Hatch in the British Aurora F1 series on 7 April 1980. As a result of this achievement, she has a grandstand at Brands Hatch named after her.

The involvement of women in Formula One was pioneered by Italian Maria Teresa de Filippis who entered five races in the 1958 and 1959 seasons and started three scoring a best result of tenth position in the 1958 Belgian Grand Prix. In the following race in France, the race director denied his involvement, saying that "the only helmet that a woman should use is the hairdresser". Maria ended her career at the Monaco Grand Prix the following year.

After fifteen years without any women in the category, another Italian, Lella Lombardi, competed in three seasons, from 1974 to 1976. She entered seventeen races and started twelve having her best result in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix where Lombardi finished in sixth. With the race being stopped before three quarters of the scheduled race distance was completed, only half points were awarded. Lella became the first and so far only woman to score points in the World Championship.


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