Motorsport has always been one of the most stubbornly male worlds on the planet. The grandstands are full of women. The pit garages, mostly, are not. And yet, every few years, a woman pulls on a helmet, climbs into a car, and rewrites the rulebook on what was supposed to be possible. Some of them have stood on Formula 1 podiums. Some have crossed the Sahara faster than anyone else alive. One of them won an actual Dakar Rally outright. Another finished second in the entire World Rally Championship in a car so brutal that it was eventually banned. We have gathered the 20 most remarkable female racing drivers in history — the pioneers, the rebels, the world record holders, and the modern champions still rewriting the sport one race weekend at a time.
Maria Teresa de Filippis — The First Woman to Ever Start a Formula 1 Race
The Italian noblewoman from Naples broke the most important barrier in motorsport in 1958, becoming the very first woman to start a Formula 1 World Championship race. She had spent years winning amateur events against her own brothers, and Maserati eventually noticed. Her debut at Monaco that May ended in a failed qualification attempt — but at Spa-Francorchamps weeks later, she crossed the line in tenth place, the first ever female finish in F1 history. Five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio personally mentored her between races. She retired after a close friend was killed in a crash. By then her place in the history books was permanent.