Scuderia Centro Sud was aprivateer racing team founded inModena by Guglielmo "Mimmo" Dei and active inFormula One andsports car racing between 1956 and 1965.
Dei had been an amateur driver in the 1930s. In the early 1950s he opened aMaserati dealership inRome. Keen on maintaining a relationship with motorsport, in 1956 he founded his own team. The name "Centro Sud" refers to the parts of Italy where his adoptive and native cities are (Modena and Rome).
Over the course of nine seasons, Scuderia Centro Sud entered a total of 49 World Championship rounds, with cars such as theMaserati 250F, various Maserati-poweredCoopers and, in the 1960s, aBRM P57. After a very promising start (they scored their first points at their debut withLuigi Villoresi), Centro Sud went on to earn a further total of 24 points, mostly withMasten Gregory andTony Maggs. But they never won a race: Gregory's third place at the1957 Monaco Grand Prix was the team's best result.
Centro Sud was the onlyItalian racing team that took part in theTasman races inAustralia andNew Zealand during the winter of 1961-1962.[1]
One of their most notable feats was to be the first team in the history of Formula One to run a female driver, whenMaria Teresa de Filippis (who had already raced as aprivateer in the1958 Belgian Grand Prix a few weeks earlier) competed in the1958 Portuguese Grand Prix as a Centro Sud team driver.[2] Future1963 24 Hours of Le Mans) and 196724 Hours of Daytona winnerLorenzo Bandini made his Formula One debut with the team at the1961 Belgian Grand Prix.
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* After retiring his Scuderia Centro Sud-entered car, Shelby subsequently took over Masten Gregory's car, entered by Temple Buell, finishing fourth.[3]
