Giovanna Amati

Giovanna Amati (born 20 July 1959) is an Italian former professional racing driver. She is the most recent female driver to have entered the Formula One World Championship.

Brought up in a wealthy background, Amati was kidnapped in 1978 before being released on an 800 million lira ransom.

Amati started her racing career in Formula Abarth series, before moving up into Formula Three for 1985–86. An entry into Formula 3000 in 1987 brought little success but the following year, Amati improved her performances. She moved to Japan for 1989 but still had no success. A move back to Europe in 1990 saw better performances that continued into 1991. In 1992, Amati became the fifth and last woman Formula One driver when she signed for Brabham.

Early life Amati was born in Rome on 20 July 1959,

Kidnapping At the age of 18, Amati was kidnapped for ransom on 12 February 1978 Amati was forcibly removed from a car she was sitting in near her parents' villa in Rome and was taken away in a van. Her captors initially took her to a house near her parents' home, but moved her to a remote location after police called at the house. Amati was kept in a wooden cage for 75 days and was physically and mentally abused although Nieto occasionally comforted her. Amati's parents were able to pay the ransom by using box office receipts from the film Star Wars, selling family jewellery and borrowing money from their servants' life savings. though Amati herself denied those claims.

Career

Early career To improve her driving skills, Amati attended a motor racing school together with her friend, Elio de Angelis. She began racing professionally in the Formula Abarth series in 1981, winning several times over the next four years. In 1985–86, she moved up to Italian Formula Three, again running a successful campaign and scoring a few wins. In 1987, she graduated to Formula 3000. She entered three races, but only qualified once at Donington. Amati competed again in F3000 in 1988 with Lola and managed to secure two tenth places at Monza and Jerez. In 1989, Amati moved to Japan and competed for a brief period in the Super Formula Championship with little success. In 1990, she returned to Europe to the International F3000. Within the first four rounds, she raced with Roni Motorsports in a Reynard 90D Cosworth before moving to Lola for round five. Her final team change was to Cobra Motorsports for the five remaining races.

In 1991, Amati joined GJ Motorsports driving a Reynard 91D Cosworth for the entire season. She qualified for six rounds and managed to score a few non-point paying top-ten finishes, although she never scored any points. By the end of the year, Amati tested a Formula One car for the first time, completing 30 laps on a Benetton. In 1999, Amati raced in the SportsRacing World Cup driving a Tampolli SR2 RTA-99 for the Cauduro Tampolli team alongside Angelo Lancelotti in the SR2 class. She finished third in the SR2 class at the end of the year.

Following her retirement from motor sport, Amati worked briefly as a sport commentator, writing columns for Italian motorsport publications and providing television commentary.

Complete Formula One results (key) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 WDC Points Brabham Brabham BT60B Judd 3.5 L V10 RSA MEX BRA ESP SMR MON CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR JPN AUS NC 0