Giovanna Amati

Giovanna Amati

Born	(1962-07-20) 20 July 1962 Rome, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1992
Teams	Brabham
Entries	3 (0 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1992 South African Grand Prix
Last entry	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.

Early Life

Amati was born on July 20, 1962 to actress Anna Maria Pancani and industralist film owner Dear John who were wealthy. Amati had a colourful childhood. She had brought a Honda motorcycle when she was 15, managing to hide it from her parents for two years. She had been kidnapped for ransom on 12 February 1978 and was released on a 800 million lira ransom. Her kidnapper, Daniel Nieto was the leader of a gang of Marseilles. Nieto was arrested after a meeting with the former kidnapped. When he was released, newspapers published stories detailing the strong emotional relationship between Nieto and Amati. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Nieto escaped prison in 1989 and remained a fugitive until he was arrested in April 2010.

Career

Early Career

To increase her skills to prepare her for Motor Racing, Amati attended a motor racing school 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 before moving up to Italian Formula Three in 1985-86, again scoring a few wins. By 1987 she had moved up to Formula 3000 racing four times, but only qualified for the race at Donington. Amati competed in F3000 for 1988 with Lola and managed to secure two 10th places at Monza and Jerez. At Jerez, she finished behind future Formula One drivers Jean-Denis Deletraz, Jean Alesi and Marco Apicella. Amati moved to the Japanese F3000 for 1989 but she had no success. In 1990, Amati 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 last five rounds.

In 1991, Amati joined GJ Motorsports driving a Reynard 91D Cosworth for the entire season. She qualified for seven rounds and managed to finish a few times. By the end of the year, Amati tested for Benetton driving for 30 laps.

Formula One

Amati signed with the dying Brabham team in January 1992 to partner Eric van de Poele after the team was unable to sign Japanese F3000 driver Akihiko Nakaya because he was not granted a superlicence due to the FIA not recognising the Japanese F3000 series as a stepping stone in Motor Racing. The announcement of a female driver gained publicity for the Brabham team. Before the first round in South Africa, Amati had little experience in driving Formula One machinery as mechanics were still working on her car.

At South Africa, Amati's inexperienced showed on the track after spinning six times during practice. During Qualifying, she was unable to qualify after setting a time that was nine seconds slower than pole sitter Nigel Mansell and four seconds slower than team-mate van Poele.

At Brazil, Amati again failed to qualify for the race having a time 11 seconds slower than Mansell in Friday qualifying. Saturday qualifying saw a slight improvement but Amati still did not qualify. Soon after the race, Amati was sacked by Brabham and was replaced by Damon Hill.

Post Formula One Career

Amati went into the Porsche SuperCup for 1993 to win the Women's European Championship. From 1994 to 1996, she raced in the Ferrari Challenge and was consistent in the series. She left the series for a sabbasctial for 1997 before returning in 1998. Once again racing in the Ferrari Challenge with a Ferrari 355 and also raced in the International Sports Racing Series driving a Alfa Romeo Giudici Gaiero SPN. Amati raced in the Sebring 12 Hours in a BMW M3, driving alongside Craig Carter and Andy Petery but retired due to clutch trouble. She also raced the 1000km of Monza racing alongside Loic Depailler and Xavier Pompidou but were unable to start but came 11th at Le Mans during a 2 hour race alongside Guido Knyca and Giovani Gulinelli. In 1999, Amati raced in the SportsRacing World Cup driving a Tampolli RS2-RTA99 for the Cauduro Tampolli team alongside Angelo Lancelotti in the SR2 class. She was placed third overall in the SR2 class championship in 1999. Amati 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