Lella Lombardi left us at only 50 years old but is in F1 history

At the age of 18, she began working in the family’s small business, driving a meat truck and falling in love with speed.
Maria Grazia Lombardi, known to everyone as Lella, is the fourth child of a butcher and charcuterie producer.She was born in Frugarolo, a small town in the province of Alessandria, on March 26, 1941, at the height of World War II. At the age of 18, he began working in the family’s small business, drove a meat transport van, and fell in love with speed, although he obviously preferred cars to the vehicle made available to him at home: in 1965 he competed in the Formula Monza series for the first time.

His career is well underway: in 1968 he finished second in Formula 3, while in 1970 he won the title of Italian Formula 850 champion by crossing the finish line first in no fewer than four of the ten races put on the calendar. After two more category wins in 1971, at Monza and Vallelunga, she returned to F3 in 1972 and, with her Lotus 69, finished tenth overall. Again tenth overall in 1973, she also scored a second place in the Casale race, driving a Brabham BT41 for Scuderia Italia. When she arrives in Monaco in early June, she has already put half of the six victories in her pocket, which then lead to her becoming the Italian champion of the Ford Escort Mexico Challenge. Lella then joins the ShellSPORT Luxembourg team for the ’74 Rothmans F5000 Championship. It was a magical year because she made her Formula 1 debut on July 20 in the British Grand Prix, although unfortunately she failed to qualify for the race.

In 1975 he participates in twelve of the fourteen world championship races. He does so at the wheel of a March Ford Cosworth: with this car in the season debut on the Kyalami circuit he qualifies with the twenty-sixth time but in the race he stops due to technical problems.
Comes the Spanish Grand Prix at the Montjuich Circuit, tragic and historic at the same time. Lella takes the track at the wheel of a March 751 and qualifies with the 24th time. The race starts and on lap 25 the Hill of German Rolf Stommelen loses its wing, which ends up in the crowd, causing four deaths and numerous injuries. The race is immediately suspended, when Lella occupies the sixth position in the race headed by Jochen Mass.

Aldo Seghedoni

This is exactly how Lombardi won his half point in Formula 1: the management decided to award a half score, for a race that lasted only 42 minutes, 53 seconds and 700 thousandths. On a very sad day, the Piedmontese is the first and so far only woman to win points in Formula 1. Lella later entered the Monaco Grand Prix but failed to qualify, and then competed in the next nine Grands Prix, but without memorable results. She manages to qualify at the last Grand Prix of the season, the U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, but due to a fault does not show up on the grid. His Formula 1 career finally ends with the Austrian Grand Prix where he finishes in twelfth position.

With 12 total races in Formula 1, the driver is not only the first and only woman to score a half point in Formula 1, but she also holds the female record for the number of Grand Prix races run (from 1974 to 1976), even surpassing champion Maria Teresa de Filippis, who ran four in the 1950s. Fate, unfortunately, soon went sideways: Lella Lombardi died in Milan on March 3, 1992, at not even 51 years old, from the consequences of a terrible illness.