Giovanna Amati () (born 20 July 1959) is a former professional racing driver from Italy. 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. She started her racing career in 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, Amati 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, Amati became the fifth woman Formula One driver when she signed for Brabham. 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. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Nieto escaped prison in 1989 and remained a fugitive until he was arrested