Lella Lombardi The Tigress of Turin

"I have always raced against men, and I have never considered the male-female issue, only the competitiveness that exists between different drivers. Under the helmet, women and men are completely equal." (Lella Lombardi)

Lella Lombardi is best remembered as the only woman to date to have finished in a points-scoring position in a Formula 1 World Championship race, but there was so much more to her than this ground-breaking, but career- defining, statistic. Many racing enthusiasts know of Lella, but few know very much about her. A self-taught driver and racer, she was a gutsy and gritty competitor who was Italian National Champion in Formula 850 and in Ford Escort Mexico saloon cars. She was a front runner in Formula 5000 and at international level she won races in the World Sportscar Championship. Later in her career she was the mainstay of Alfa Romeo’s European Touring Car Championship squad, where she was a regular class winner. After retiring from competition in 1988, she set up her own racing team before succumbing to breast cancer at the tragically young age of 50. Never one to use her gender to promote her racing career, Lella kept her oP-track life entirely separate and away from the media spotlight, mainly to protect the privacy of her life partner Fiorenza. Her life was focussed on competition and she was described by some as being “wedded to her sport.”