Giovanna Amati

Giovanna Amati

Born	20 July 1962 (1962-07-20)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1992
Teams	Brabham
Races	3 (0 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1992 South African Grand Prix
Last race	1992 Brazilian Grand Prix

Giovanna Amati (born 20 July 1962 in Rome) is a former professional race car driver from Italy. She is best known as the last female driver to have entered the Formula One World Championship.

Career

Born to wealthy parents, Amati had a colourful childhood, including being kidnapped for ransom, and buying a Honda motorcycle when she was 15, managing to hide it from her parents for two years. She began racing professionally in 1981, winning several times over the next four years in Formula Abarth before moving up to Italian Formula Three in 1985-86, again scoring a few wins. By 1987 she had moved up to Formula 3000, but by 1992 had recorded a best result of only 7th place in six seasons in both Europe and Japan.

Amati landed the second seat at the dying Brabham Formula One team for the 1992 Grand Prix season. Although she was an aggressive racer, with her previously mediocre results in a 1991 GJ Motorsports Reynard 91D Cosworth Formula 3000 car in which she posted 7 starts with 3 DNQs for GJ team owners and brothers Graham and Jim Warren, then Brabham using a barely changed version of their 1991 car and Amati's only previous Formula One experience being a test in a Benetton (courtesy of her then-partner Flavio Briatore), it was perhaps unsurprising that in three starts she failed to qualify. Following the Brazilian Grand Prix, she was dropped in favour of Damon Hill as her financial backing had not materialised.

Since then, Amati went on to carve out a respectable career in sportscars, placing 3rd overall in the SportsRacing World Cup SR2 class championship in 1999. She has also moved into media, writing columns in Italy for motorsport publications and providing television commentary.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1987	BS Automotive	Lola T87/50	Ford Cosworth	A	SIL	VAL	SPA	PAU	DON 16	PER DNQ	BRH	BIR	IMO DNQ	BUG	JAR	–	0
1988	Colt Racing	Lola T88/50	Ford Cosworth	A	JER 10	VAL Ret	PAU DNQ	SIL DNQ	MNZ 10	PER 12	BRH DNQ	BIR DNQ	BUG	ZOL	DIJ	–	0
1990	Roni Motorsport	Reynard 90D	Ford Cosworth	A	DON Ret	SIL DNQ	PAU DNQ	JER DNQ								–	0
		Lola T89/50							MNZ DNQ
	Colin Bennett Racing	Reynard 90D	Mugen Honda							PER DNQ	HOC 15	BRH DNQ	BIR DNQ	BUG DNQ	NOG
1991	GJ Motorsports	Reynard 91D	Ford Cosworth	A	VAL DNQ	PAU Ret	JER DNQ	MUG 14	PER Ret	HOC 9	BRH 19	SPA DNQ	BUG 7	NOG Ret		–	0

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
1992	Motor Racing Developments Ltd.	Brabham BT60B	Judd 3.5 L V10	RSA DNQ	MEX DNQ	BRA DNQ	ESP	SMR	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN	AUS	NC	0

See also

• List of female Formula One drivers

External links

• Giovanna Amati Biography at F1 Rejects