Giovanna Amati was born on July 20, 1959, in Rome, Italy, and is a former professional racing driver from Italy. She started her racing career in the 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, she 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, she became the fifth woman Formula One driver when she signed for Brabham Motor Racing Developments Ltd. a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. To increase her skills in order to prepare her for Motor Racing, she 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, a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. She competed in F3000 for 1988 and managed to secure two tenth places at Monza and Jerez. At Jerez, she finished behind future Formula One drivers Jean-Denis Délétraz, Jean Alesi and Marco Apicella. She moved to the Japanese F3000 for 1989 but she had no 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 last five rounds. In 1990, she 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. In 1991, she joined GJ Motorsports driving a Reynard 91D Cosworth for the entire season. She qualified for six rounds and managed to finish a few times. By the end of the year, she tested for Benetton Formula Ltd. driving for 30 laps. She signed with the Brabham team in January 1992 to partner Eric van de Poele after the team was unable to sign Japanese F3000 driver Akihiko Nakaya, who was not granted a super-license 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, her inexperience 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 teammate Van de Poele. In Mexico, she had failed to qualify for the second consecutive race having setting a time more than 10 seconds slower than Mansell. In Brazil, she once again failed to qualify for the race having a time eleven seconds slower than Mansell in Friday qualifying. Saturday qualifying saw a slight improvement, but she still did not qualify. Soon after the race, she was sacked by Brabham and was replaced by Damon Hill. She 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 sabbatical 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 an Alfa Romeo Giudici Gaiero SPN. She raced in the Sebring twelve Hours in a BMW M3, driving alongside Craig Carter and Andy Petery but retired due to clutch trouble. She also raced the 1000 km of Monza racing alongside Loic Depailler and Xavier Pompidou but were unable to start but came eleventh at Le Mans during a two-hour race alongside Guido Knyca and Giovani Gulinelli. In 1999, she raced in the Sports-Racing 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. She has also moved into media, writing columns in Italy for motorsport publications and providing television commentary. Some information gathered from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanna_Amati