Giovanna Amati
| Born |
20 July 1959 Rome, Italy |
|---|---|
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| Nationality |
 Italian |
| Active years | 1992 |
| Teams | Brabham |
| Entries | 3 (0 starts) |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Career points | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| First entry | 1992 South African Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 1992 Brazilian Grand Prix |
Giovanna Amati (Italian pronunciation: [dʒoˈvanna ɑ.mɑ.ti]) (born 20 July 1959) is a former professional racing driver from Italy. She is the last 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.
She 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 woman Formula One driver when she signed for Brabham.
Amati was born in Rome on 20 July 1959, to actress Anna Maria Pancani and industrialist film owner Giovanni Amati who were both wealthy. Amati had a colourful childhood. She had bought 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 by three gangsters in a group led by Jean Daniel Nieto, who had allegedly raped her and then romanced.
Amati had been taken out of a car she was sitting in near her parents' villa and was taken away in a van. Her captors took her into a house located near to her parents' home but was moved when police came searching for Amati. She was kept in a wooden cage for 75 days and was physically and mentally abused but Nieto comforted her. Amati was released on an 800 million-lira ($933,000 in 1978) ransom on April 27 using box office receipts for the film Star Wars and her mother sold some of her jewellery and managed to get into her life savings to pay the ransom. Magistrates ordered that all of the assets belonging to the Amati family would be frozen to prevent payment.
Nieto, a French citizen, was later 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.
To increase her skills in order 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 three 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 1990, Amati was involved in a crash with British driver Phil Andrews, in which she ran him off the road during a test session prior to the Brands Hatch race that year. She would never score any points during her tenure in Formula 3000.
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