A history of F1 firsts for women: From the first driver to Haas F1’s new race engineer

Maria Teresa de Filippis was the first woman to race in Formula 1.
Countless records and firsts have been recorded in Formula 1’s 75-year tenure, but it took Haas F1 to make history.
The team is the first to hire a woman to serve as a race engineer; in 2025, the highly experienced Laura Mueller will fill that role for Esteban Ocon. In honour of that, we’re taking a look at some of the most notable firsts for women throughout F1 history.
First woman F1 driver: Maria Teresa de Filippis
Italian racer Maria Teresa de Filippis became the first of just two women to compete in a Formula 1 Grand Prix, making just three starts between 1958 and 1959 behind the wheel of a non-works Maserati.
De Filippis began racing after World War II, when she was 22 years old — in part because her brothers claimed she’d be slow. Her first events were hillclimbs before she progressed to endurance racing and then, in 1958, to Formula 1.
In three starts, de Filippis scored a best finish of 10th and earned the distinction of being told she was driving too fast by none other than Juan Manuel Fangio.
Her career would have perhaps been longer, but in 1959, after joining Jean Behra’s race team, Behra was killed. Having witnessed several friends die already in the sport, she retired. She remained the only woman to compete in F1 for 15 more years.
First woman to score a point in F1: Lella Lombardi
The second and only other woman to start a Grand Prix was another Italian racer, Lella Lombardi. Between 1974 and 1976, Lombardi started 12 different Grands Prix driving for March, RAM, Williams, and Brabham.
She remains the only woman to score any points in the sport. When the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix was ended early as a result of a crash into spectator area, Lombardi was sitting in sixth position. During that era, that was the final points-paying position on the field.
Since then, no other woman has started a Grand Prix.
Critically, Lombardi was a trailblazer in yet another sense: She was one of the first openly queer drivers to compete in the top level of motorsport.
First woman to stand on an F1 podium: Ginny Williams
At the 1986 British Grand Prix, Virginia “Ginny” Williams made history by becoming the first woman to stand on a Formula 1 podium.
Wife of Frank Williams, Ginny Williams served as backbone of the Williams outfit after Frank was involved in a car accident that rendered him tetraplegic. In 1986, he was still in the throes of recovery, leaving his wife to not only care for him and their three young children but to run the race team in his absence.
That she was invited to hoist a trophy for Williams was a critical recognition of the role she played in keeping the team afloat, particularly because her husband opted against discussing her experience of his accident with her.
More on women in Formula 1:
??‘Like riding a buffalo’ – The chaotic story behind Lella Lombardi’s NASCAR debut
??75 days of hell: F1’s last woman driver has a shocking story to tell
First woman to test an F1 car: Sarah Fisher
As Formula 1 became more formalised and testing more controlled, the drivers behind the wheel were all men — until 2002.
An American racer competing in American open-wheel racing, Fisher was on hand during Formula 1’s 2002 United States Grand Prix for a demonstration run behind the wheel of McLaren’s MP4-17.
Though it wasn’t a test with an eye on securing a race seat, it did kick off the 2000s with a woman behind the wheel of an F1 car.
First woman team principal: Monisha Kaltenborn
In 2013, Monisha Kaltenborn became the first woman to officially serve in the capacity of team principal for Sauber. She had joined the team in 2000 to head their legal department and remained with the team throughout multiple personnel changes.
Kaltenborn served as team principal from 2013 through to mid-2017, after which point she moved on to found the KDC Racing junior team.
First woman to serve as race engineer in F1: Laura Mueller
On January 21, 2025, after 75 years of Formula 1, Haas F1 made history by promoting Laura Mueller to serve as Esteban Ocon’s race engineer — the first woman to hold that role.
Mueller first joined Haas in 2022 after working in various racing series around the world for a decade. Initially brought in for simulator work, she was promoted to performance engineer and now will become the first woman to speak to a Formula 1 driver over the radio during a race.
Why women matter in Formula 1
Time and again, when a woman’s accomplishments are praised in the world of motorsport, someone inevitably asks, “Why does it matter? Surely gender shouldn’t matter; it’s all about hiring the best person for the job.”
That’s absolutely correct. Unfortunately, “best” is a deeply subjective term, particularly when acknowledging that women have often been actively barred or socially discouraged from pursuing a role in traditionally male fields.
A young girl who expresses interest in a role in F1 will face more pushback against that decision than a male counterpart, and she will be guided toward more socially appropriate career paths. Should she persevere, she’ll run into plenty of barriers, ranging from general skepticism in her abilities all the way to harassment, all of which make it more challenging for her to secure key roles and move up in her career.
It’s a vicious cycle; without women in F1 roles, it’s difficult to imagine that such a role is possible for a woman. It can create a limiting worldview that sees highly talented female engineers, drivers, mechanics, and more opt to pursue a career elsewhere, because it simply doesn’t seem possible in F1.
Of course, one woman in a visible role in F1 won’t change the world — but it’s certainly promising to see so many teams hiring qualified women to senior roles within their organisation.
Read next:?Haas announce long-awaited F1 first in Ocon race engineer confirmation