50 Years Since a Woman Last Started an F1 Race

Key Takeaways

The Last Grid With a Woman On It

The Austrian Grand Prix of 15 August 1976 was the last time a woman started a Formula 1 race, and fifty years have now passed without a repeat. Lella Lombardi took the grid for RAM Racing that afternoon, driving a year-old Brabham BT44B she had qualified 24th out of 25 cars. It was the 15th grand prix start by a woman since the championship began, and to this day it remains the final one.

The entry list that weekend was three cars smaller than it would otherwise have been. Niki Lauda, who had suffered near-fatal injuries in a fiery crash at the previous German Grand Prix on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, was absent from the Ferrari lineup, and Lombardi herself had failed to qualify for that same round two weeks earlier. The reduced field at the Österreichring gave her one more chance, and she took it.

Lella Lombardi’s Path to Formula One

Lella Lombardi is the most successful woman ever to race in Formula 1, with 12 of the sport’s 15 total female grand prix starts belonging to her. Her breakthrough season was 1975, when she became the first — and remains the only — woman to score championship points, taking half a point for finishing sixth in the shortened Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuich Park.

That same year she added a lesser-remembered seventh place at the German Grand Prix on the daunting Nürburgring, driving for Frank Williams’ team. Her 1975 campaign ended in disappointment at Watkins Glen, where her FW03’s clutch failed on the formation lap before the United States Grand Prix. Those results, uneven as they were, marked the high point of her Formula 1 career.

Race Day: 1976 Austrian Grand Prix at the Österreichring

Lombardi reached the chequered flag in the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix, four laps down on race winner John Watson but running to the finish in a season that had otherwise gone badly for her. She finished six laps ahead of RAM teammate Loris Kessel, who lost significant time in the pits while mechanics fixed a fault with a fuel union.

Simply getting to the start line was not guaranteed. Lombardi had failed to qualify at the previous round at the Nürburgring, and only the smaller 25-car entry at the Österreichring — down three cars following Lauda’s absence — created the opening she needed. It proved to be her final Formula 1 start.

A Career Cut Short

Lombardi’s 1976 season began at March before ending at RAM Racing, and neither stop gave her a stable seat. She started the year with March but the team replaced her after just one race when promised sponsorship failed to appear and Ronnie Peterson switched teams from Lotus, opening a seat March preferred to fill with him. Lombardi moved to RAM Racing, but the Austrian Grand Prix in August 1976 turned out to be the only round all season in which she managed to qualify.

It was an unfortunate way to close a career that had begun with genuine promise a year earlier. After 1976, no other race seat materialized, and the record she set that August afternoon — the last woman to start a Formula 1 grand prix — has now stood for five decades.

Fifty Years, One Name: Why No Woman Has Started Since

No woman has started a Formula 1 race since Lella Lombardi in 1976 because the handful of opportunities since then never converted into a grand prix seat. Maria Teresa de Filippis, the only other woman to start an F1 race, made three grand prix starts in the late 1950s before Lombardi’s run in the 1970s. Desire Wilson won a non-championship Formula 1 race at Brands Hatch but was given far less competitive machinery when she tried to break into the championship proper, and never qualified for a points-paying grand prix.

Fifty years on from that Austrian afternoon, the anniversary is a reminder of how narrow the window was and how long it has stayed shut. Teams across the current grid, including outfits such as the Williams operation Lombardi once drove for, continue to run junior and development programs, but the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix remains the last time a woman has taken a Formula 1 start.

FAQ

Q: When did a woman last start a Formula 1 race?
A woman last started a Formula 1 race on 15 August 1976, at the Austrian Grand Prix, when Lella Lombardi qualified 24th of 25 cars for RAM Racing.

Q: Who is Lella Lombardi?
Lella Lombardi is the most successful woman to race in Formula 1, with 12 of the sport’s 15 total female grand prix starts, and the only woman to score championship points, taking half a point for sixth place in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix.

Q: How many women have started a Formula 1 race in total?
Fifteen grand prix starts by women have been recorded in Formula 1 history, with Maria Teresa de Filippis making three of them in the late 1950s and Lella Lombardi making the remaining twelve.

Q: What happened to Lombardi at the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix?
Lombardi finished the race four laps behind winner John Watson and six laps ahead of teammate Loris Kessel, whose car lost time in the pits with a fuel union fault; it was her only qualifying appearance that season.

Q: Why did Lombardi’s F1 career end in 1976?
Lombardi’s career ended because her sponsorship at March failed to materialize after one race in 1976, prompting the team to replace her with Ronnie Peterson, and her subsequent seat at RAM Racing produced only one qualified start, at the Austrian Grand Prix.

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