Giovanna Amati

Giovanna Amati (20 July 1959 - Present): Italian racing driver from Rome who became the last woman to compete in Formula One, attempting to qualify for five races in 1992. Born into a wealthy Roman family, began racing in the early 1980s after watching a Formula Three race. Competed in Italian Formula Three during the mid-1980s before progressing to Formula 3000 in 1987. Raced in Formula 3000 from 1987 to 1991 with modest results, demonstrating sufficient speed to attract Formula One interest.

Signed with the Brabham team in January 1992 to partner Eric van de Poele, becoming the first female driver to enter a Formula One race since Desiré Wilson in 1980 and only the fifth woman ever to attempt F1. Attempted to qualify for the first five races of the 1992 season but failed to qualify for any of them, struggling with the uncompetitive Brabham BT60B-Judd. At the 1992 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami, spun six times during practice and set a qualifying time nine seconds slower than pole-sitter Nigel Mansell and four seconds slower than teammate van de Poele, unable to make the 26-car grid. At the 1992 Mexican Grand Prix, failed to qualify again, lapping more than 10 seconds slower than Mansell's pole time, highlighting the massive performance gap.

Her final attempt to qualify came at the 1992 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos where she and van de Poele lapped respectively 10 and 6 seconds slower than Mansell, both excluded from the race. Brabham replaced Amati with Damon Hill for the Spanish Grand Prix onwards, ending her Formula One career after just three qualification attempts. However, Hill also struggled badly with the hopelessly uncompetitive Brabham, failing to qualify for the next five consecutive races until finally making the grid at the 1992 British Grand Prix, vindicating Amati's struggles and highlighting that the car rather than the driver was primarily responsible for the team's failures. The Brabham BT60B proved one of the worst cars in Formula One history, and the team's financial collapse later that season confirmed its terminal decline.

As of 2025, Amati remains the last female driver to have attempted to qualify for a Formula One Grand Prix, a distinction she has held for over three decades. After Formula One, continued racing in sports cars and touring cars through the 1990s. Her brief F1 career has been reassessed in recent years, with many acknowledging that she was given an impossible task with catastrophically uncompetitive machinery during Brabham's death throes. Amati's story represents both the challenges women have faced entering Formula One and the harsh reality that even talented drivers cannot overcome fundamentally flawed racing cars.