Giovanna Amati

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Giovanna Amati
Nationality	Italian
World Championship Career
Active years	1992
Team(s)	Brabham-Judd
Races	3 (0 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1992 South African Grand Prix
First win	—
Last win	—
Last race	1992 Brazilian Grand Prix

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

Born to rich 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.

It was mainly for financial reasons (and something of a publicity stunt) that Amati landed the second seat at the dying Brabham Formula One team for the 1992 Grand Prix season. With her mediocre results in Formula 3000, 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 attempts she failed to qualify. Following the Brazilian Grand Prix, she was dropped in favour of Damon Hill as her backing had not materialised.

Since then, Amati has carved out a respectable, if unspectacular, 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.