12 replies to this topic

[Louis Mr. F1]

Again, this is from http://www.crosswind...jects/main.html , F1 Rejects

It includes her biography before and after entered F1, just for your information on some weired things happened in F1:

Born in Rome, Italy, Giovanna Amati's life has seemingly revolved
around adventure and danger. The daughter of a wealthy Italian
businessman, Amati is already unique in that she is part of the
elite club of five women to have tried their hand at F1.
However, chances are she belongs to an even more elite club,
being to our knowledge the only F1 driver who, as a child, was
kidnapped by thugs and held for ransom in a bid to extort
money from her father.

Now, we don't know if Mr Amati ever paid up, but the fact that
the Amatis were affluent enough to be such tragic targets,
would certainly help explain why Giovanna could afford to buy a
500cc Honda motorcycle at age 15. What's more, she kept it a
secret from her family for two years, leaving her helmet and
overalls in the garage. Furthermore, she even went a step
beyond that and attended a motor racing school with her friend,
the late Elio de Angelis.
1981-91

A winning
Italian F3
racer, makes
presence felt
(physically) in
F3000
After all that, she began to race in Formula Abarth in 1981,
continuing until 1984, clocking up some good wins. She stepped
up to Italian F3 in 1985-86, recording occasional good results
and the odd win. From 1987 to 1991 she drove in F3000 in
Europe and in Japan, managing some top-ten results and a best
placing of 7th in a race in 1991.

At Jerez in 1988, though, driving a Lola with a
Nicholson-prepared engine for the Colt team, she had the
distinction of finishing 10th, just behind Jean-Denis Deletraz,
with both Jean Alesi and Marco Apicella behind her! Tom
Prankerd also tells us that at a F3000 meeting in 1990, Amati
did the very ladylike thing of kicking a fellow competitor in the
stomach, after Giovanna claimed she had been blocked in
practice. My word, just imagine if she got kicked for every time
she blocked someone!
1992

Briatore
connections?
Takes the
Benetton for
a spin
No doubt that throughout all this time, dollar signs and not
necessarily driving ability kept her going. Some (not us, of
course!) might even dare to suggest that romance had
something to do with it. According to David Tremayne's book
Damon Hill: The Legacy of Speed, during this time she was
romantically involved with Flavio Briatore, later to become
Benetton supremo.

As a result, it is no surprise that, prior to 1992, so Tom
Prankerd tells us, Amati's only experience at the wheel of an F1
car came courtesy of a Briatore-arranged drive in a Benetton
191 for 30 laps. Not hard to understand when Flav owned the
team!
FORMULA ONE


Giovanna Amati at Kyalami trying desperately to get to grips with an F1
car.

1992
Brabham

Buys her way
into elite
group of
Grand Prix
women racers
Either way, the dollar signs certainly explain how Amati landed
an F1 seat with Motor Racing Developments, otherwise known
as Brabham, in 1992. In simple terms, she had money, Brabham
did not, put 2 and 2 together, and voila. Although admittedly
Brabham did originally seek out a driver with both money and
talent in the form of Japanese F3000 champ Akihiko Nakaya,
but the trouble was that the FIA didn't really recognise
Japanese F3000 as a stepping stone class. Thus Nakaya wasn't
granted a superlicence, but lo and behold Amati qualified for
one!

Towards the end of January 1992, it became more and more
likely that Amati would end up in the second Brabham. Now, a
woman in F1 naturally caused quite a stir. Amati was only the
5th to have raced in the World Championship, after Maria
Theresa de Fillipis, Lella Lombardi (who managed to score half a
point), Olympic skier Divina Galica and Desire Wilson.
1992

Rubbish on
the track -
although
there were
mitigating
circumstances
Signing for Brabham, as team-mate to Eric van de Poele, a mere
two weeks before the season kicked off in South Africa, she
spent no time acclimatising to the car. In fact, the mechanics
were still trying to make a seat for her after they got to
Kyalami, but they had a hard time pulling her away from all the
journalists and photographers. It was about as much publicity
as Brabham would get all year. Amati's inexperience with an F1
gear-shift and carbon fibre brakes meant she spun at least six
times in practice at Kyalami, and that was hardly surprising.

Remembering that Nigel Mansell's eventual pole time was
1:15.486, Amati got down to a 1:25.176 in first timed practice,
but could only manage 1:25.942 in first qualifying. She improved
to a 1:23.345 on Saturday morning, but her best time that
afternoon was only 1:24.405. This was almost 9 seconds off
Mansell, nearly 4 seconds from Van de Poele, close to 3
seconds from Stefano Modena's Jordan which was 29th
quickest, and Amati was bog last, 30th, with a nice DNQ on
debut.


Giovanna was 3 seconds off the pace of her teammate van de Poele come
the second round in Mexico.

1992

Makes history
for Brabham in
Mexico and
slips further
off the pace
With no funds to organise any testing, Brabham scraped
together just enough to make the trans-Atlantic flight to Mexico
for round two. Here Mansell's pole time was 1:16.346. On Friday
morning all Amati could manage was 1:27.623, and she failed to
record a time in first qualifying. The next morning she did a
1:24.306, but, as in South Africa, she went slower in qualifying,
recording a 1:25.052. This was once again the slowest time out
of 30, and she was almost 3 seconds off Van de Poele in 29th.
It was the first time in their history that neither Brabham had
qualified.

And so to Brazil. Not only did things not improve, but Amati's
performances got infinitely worse. Here Mansell was on pole
again with a 1:15.703. Amati did a 1:26.810 on Friday morning,
lost 4 seconds (!) to record 1:30.420 in Friday qualifying, dipped
back down to a 1:26.882 the next morning, and finished with a
1:26.645 as her best qualifying time.
1992

Brabham gives
her the
shove, as
rumours
spread
Marginal improvement, to say the least. Not surprisingly it left
her in 30th spot again, with Van de Poele once again 29th, but
this time just about 5 seconds faster. Now she was merely
attracting attention, not for her ability (or lack thereof) to
drive, but for the fact that, according to Tremayne's book once
again, she was flirting with none other than Niki Lauda.

But more important to Brabham than her romantic liaisons, was
the fact that she wasn't delivering any money any more. If they
were going to have someone in the car who wasn't going to
pay, they might as well go for someone who was half-decent.
So for the fourth round in Spain, Amati was booted out and
replaced by Damon Hill.

He didn't qualify either.

[Force Ten]

If I remember correctly, Hill still actually made the damn thing to qualify for a couple of times that season...

[DangerMouse]

He actually finished GPs twice in the awful Brabham Hungary and Silverstone. At Silverstone he wasn't even last finishing ahead of Morbidelli's Minardi!!

[Louis Mr. F1]

so, has anyone heard about her affair with Briatore?

i think what i remember about Amati was an image from the 92 review video, she was busy putting on makeup while she was sitting in the car, using the rear view mirror to do it.

how professional or dedicated she really was? huh?

btw, the mexican track must be really tough for her considering it's very bumpy nature.

[Force Ten]

Originally posted by Louis Mr. F1
btw, the mexican track must be really tough for her considering it's very bumpy nature.

Are you referring to her... ummm... frontal area?;)

[Ivan]

I remember the makeup part as well. That told me she was going to suffer that year. And if you can remember all she did in her 30 second interview was complain!

There have been 15 not 5 women in F1 since 1950.

[Louis Mr. F1]

quote from ForceTen:

"Are you referring to her... ummm... frontal area?"

haha, i didn't realize that, btw, which frontal area are you referring to, her nose??

[Force Ten]

It perhaps went a bit further down than that...

I don't think we should get in too specific discussion about this subject...

[mhferrari]

Damon Hill did qualify the magenta Brabham on at least two occasions I am sure, Britain and Hungary I believe.

[Kuwashima]

Ivan:

There have been 15 not 5 women in F1 since 1950.

Ahhh...care to name all 15??

I think you'll find it is actually 5.

(p.s. BAR in 1999 does not count as a team of women).

[MacFan]

Amati was also "romantically involved" with Niki Lauda after her F1 career ended. It was said at the time that she thought Lauda's influence could get her back into F1. Obviously she wasn't good enough...;)

[Sean L]

So do we reckon that that's the largest qualifying differential ever? 5 seconds is more than a lifetime in F1

[DangerMouse]

I remember Amati complaining that the car she used to qualify and race in wasn't the one she tested in etc etc.

There has only ever ben one world class Woman racing driver (in a decent series) - Michelle Mouton. She was awesome. Fast, Smooth - as good as anyone.