Giovanna Amati

**Giovanna Amati** (born 20 July 1959) is an Italian racing driver. She is the most recent 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.

## Early life

Amati was born in Rome on 20 July 1959, to actress Anna Maria Pancani and theatre-chain owner Giovanni Amati. As a child, she displayed a passion for cars and expressed the wish to attend a motor racing academy when older.

### Kidnapping

At the age of 19, Amati was kidnapped for ransom on 12 February 1978 by three gangsters in a group led by Jean Daniel Nieto. Amati was forcibly removed from a car she was sitting in near her parents' villa in Rome and was taken away in a van. Her captors initially took her to a house near her parents' home, but moved her to a remote location after police called at the house. Amati was kept in a wooden cage for 75 days and was physically and mentally abused although Nieto occasionally comforted her. Amati was released on an 800 million-lira ($933,000 at the time) ransom on 27 April 1978 after two months of captivity. As the Italian authorities had introduced a policy of freezing the assets belonging to the families of kidnapped people in an attempt to fight organised crime by preventing ransom-payments, Amati's parents were able to pay the ransom by using box office receipts from the film *Star Wars*, selling family jewellery and borrowing money from their servants' life savings.

Nieto, a French citizen, was later arrested after a meeting with Amati arranged by the police. When he was released, newspapers published stories detailing Amati's Stockholm syndrome and the strong emotional relationship between her and her captor, though Amati herself denied those claims. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Nieto escaped prison in 1989 and remains a fugitive.

## Career

### Early career

To improve her driving skills, Amati attended a motor racing school together 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. In 1985–86 she moved up to Italian Formula Three, again running a successful campaign and scoring a few wins. In 1987 she graduated to International Formula 3000. She entered three races, but only qualified once at Donington. Amati competed again in F3000 in 1988 with Lola and managed to secure two 10th places at Monza and Jerez. At Jerez, she finished behind future Formula One driver Jean Alesi. In 1989 Amati moved to Japan and competed for a brief period in the All-Japan Formula 3000 Championship with little success. In 1990, she returned to Europe to 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 five remaining races. In 1990, Amati was involved in a crash with British driver Phil Andrews, when they collided during a test session prior to the Brands Hatch race that year. They both reported minor injuries.

### Formula One: Modena (1991)

This section is incomplete. If you'd like to help, please add the relevant information.
## Personal life

Amati has had a string of relationships with high profile men in motorsport. In 1991, whilst Amati was allegedly dating Benetton boss Flavio Briatore, Briatore found Amati in bed in his Milan apartment with Joey Davies. She was later pictured with Niki Lauda, leading to speculation of a potential courtship.

## Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Giovanna Amati. oldracingcars.com. Retrieved on November 18, 2012.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Patrick Nathanson (13 November 2015). Giovanna Amati: The remarkable story of F1's last female driver. BBC. Retrieved on November 2, 2021.
3. ↑ Sequestrò Giovanna Amati nel '78, arrestato dopo 22 anni di latitanza - Corriere della Sera (it). Retrieved on August 27, 2018.
4. ↑ A Disillusioned Italian Kidnap Victim Discovers That Home May Not Be Where the Heart Is.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 How "Star Wars" Once Saved a Grand Prix Driver. formula1blog.
6. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Man arrested on date with girl he kidnapped". *The Montreal Gazette*. 26 May 1978.
7. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Tearful reunion with victim brings kidnap confession". *The Montreal Gazette*. 29 May 1978. p. 6.
8. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Love leads to French gangster's arrest". *The Modesto Bee*. 26 May 1978. p. C6.[*dead link*]
9. ↑ The Kidnapping of Giovanna Amati. F1 Rejects.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Giovanna Amati Biography (Before Formula One). F1 Rejects. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved on March 5, 2016.
11. ↑ Smith, Sam The Amati-ville Horror: Surviving an 160mph F3000 crash *Motorsport*. January 4, 2016

## External links

* Giovanna Amati: The remarkable story of F1's last female driver