Alfa Romeo is celebrating International Women's Day by highlighting some of the women who have raced its cars over the past century. They collectively achieved a long list of impressive achievements on and off the track. One of the earliest-known women that raced an Alfa Romeo professionally is Maria Antonietta d’Avanzo, an Italian baroness who started competing shortly after World War I.

Her career spanned several decades, during which she competed against numerous pilots, including an ambitious young man named Enzo Ferrari who would have a profoundly important effect on Alfa Romeo's image and success on the track. He was a mediocre racer, by most accounts, but he proved to be a brilliant manager and was soon put in charge of the carmaker's racing efforts.