Bianca Steiner

Bianca Steiner is an Austrian driver who has competed across Europe in almost all categories of single-seaters. 

She began racing in 2004 in Hungary, in the E-2000 Championship for 2000cc single-seaters. Despite being only fourteen years old at the time, she came fourth, driving a Formula Renault. 

She was ninth in 2005, and that year, she branched out into Formula Junior in Italy, driving for the Hungarian Szsasz team. At that time, Italian Formula Junior was a Formula Renault 1600 series. This arrangement continued in 2006, and she was tenth in the championship. As well as the Italian Junior series, she entered a Formula Renault Winter series. Never scared of ccs or horsepower, she even did a few Italian Formula 3000 races with the Coloni Rookies team. She was ninth and tenth at Misano, the closing rounds of the season.

For 2007, her programme was more focused, and she now had her own team. She drove to a disappointing 31st place in Italian Formula Renault, and made a few outings in the Eurocup at the Hungaroring. 

In 2008, she moved to the Northern Europe Championship, but did not fare much better. 

After four races back in the Italian championship in 2009, with a best finish of fourth, she appears to have left the series. She also did some hillclimbing in a Formula Nippon car in 2009. She had borrowed the car from a French driver called Lionel Regal, who died in 2010.

A long time on the sidelines followed while Bianca and her family saved money for a more powerful and better car.

In 2018 she made a comeback in the BOSS GP series for major single-seaters. She drove an ex-Timo Glock Dallara GP2 car in five rounds and scored one podium, a third at the Red Bull Ring. From the very beginning of the season she had been on the pace, finishing fourth in only her second race. She was eleventh in the championship. 

In the same car, she did the first two rounds of the 2019 Maxx Formula series at Zandvoort, finishing fourth and third. She had followed her Top Speed team-mate Veronika Cicha to the new championship.

Her 2020 plans were affected by the coronavirus crisis, but she did manage one outing in BOSS GP. Her GP2 car took her to a eighth place at Brno. She entered the first two 2021 BOSS rounds but had to withdraw, then missed the rest of the championship.

In 2022, she returned for the first four rounds, again competing in the Formula Car class in the GP2 car. Her best finish was fifth at the Red Bull Ring and she was eighth in the championship.

(Image copyright noen.at)

Women Drivers in International Formula 3000

Giovanna Amati

Formula 3000 was the official second-level single-seater championship, below Formula One, from 1985 until 2004. For most of its history, it was considered the final stepping stone to F1.

Even fewer women drivers have raced in Formula 3000 than in Formula One. By the time F3000 was established, racing even in the lower formulae was becoming professional. Numbers of women racing single-seaters internationally were falling, although sportscar and touring car racing continued to include several female drivers.

Below is a list of the women who raced in Formula 3000, with a basic resume of their performance.

1986

Cathy Muller (Lola T86/50-Cosworth/March 86B Cosworth) – unplaced (8 races, qualified for 5)

1987

Giovanna Amati (Lola T87/50-Cosworth) – unplaced (3 races, qualified for 1)

1988

Giovanna Amati (Lola T88/50-Cosworth) – unplaced (8 races, qualified for 4)

Cathy Muller (Ralt RT20-Cosworth) – unplaced (1 race, did not qualify)

1990

Giovanna Amati (Reynard 90D-Cosworth/Mugen) – unplaced (10 races, qualified for 2)

Ellen Lohr (Lola T90/50-Cosworth) (1 race, did not qualify)

1991

Giovanna Amati (Reynard 91D-Cosworth) – unplaced (10 races, qualified for 7)

(Image copyright dpa Picture-Alliance)

Cathy Muller

Cathy in 1985

France's Cathy Muller had a promising start to her racing career. She competed, mainly in single-seaters, between the ages of twelve and 33, and showed that she had the talent to go far.

Her first victory came in the European Karting Championships in 1979. She remained in karting for a further year before switching to cars in 1981, when she raced first a Renault 5 and then a Volant Elf single-seater. After a learning year, she carried on the Renault connection and drove in French Formula Renault. She scored her first win at Le Castellet that season, as well as four podium positions.

Cathy continued to progress up the motorsport ladder rapidly. Moving up to Formula 3 with David Price Racing and Ecurie Elf, she jumped straight into the European championship. Her best result was a fourth place, at Le Chatre, and she also achieved seventh places at Magny-Cours and Zeltweg. She attempted to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix support race, but could not make it. In November she was eleventh in the Macau Grand Prix race, one of only a handful of women to have ever taken part.

By 1984, she was challenging for wins in Euro F3. Driving first for the Scuderia dei Longobardi team, then MC Racing, she finished the season tenth. Her season had begun well, with a seventh at Donington, and she qualified for the Monaco race this time, finishing in eighth place. Her best championship finish was another fourth, at Knutstorp, but she was comfortably in sixth or seventh for most of her races. Her best finish of the year was due to a guest appearance in the French championship, at Albi, where she won.

She also had her first taste of major sportscar racing, driving a BMW-powered Gebhart JC843 at Sandown Park in Australia. Her team-mates were Margie Smith-Haas and Sue Ransom.

At that time, the British F3 championship was the place to be for aspiring stars, so she decamped to England for a year to drive for David Price Racing in 1985. Although she did not achieve any top-three places, she was still ninth overall. Among her results, which are hard to find, she was seventh at Zolder, ninth at Spa and did not finish at Zandvoort. A trip to the Monaco F3 race ended in another DNF.

Feeling she had learned enough from F3, Cathy climbed the next rung in 1986 and moved into Formula 3000, the last step before Formula One. However, the swift hike in budgetary requirements hit her hard. She could only muster the funds for a part-season with three different teams, with no testing. In her first race at Spa, she came 17th. She was also 17th at Mugello and Le Mans, retired at Imola and failed to qualify for the other four races she entered.

Perhaps disheartened by her experiences, she went back to Formula 3 the following year. Back with MC Motorsport in the French championship, she started her season with a tenth at Nogaro. It took her a while to get back up to her usual pace, having missed out on a lot of racing in 1986, but towards the end of the season, she was back in the top five. Her best finish was fourth, at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit, and she was fifth twice, at Nogaro and Lédenon. 

Cathy also entered one race in Germany, and drove a Porsche 962C in a round of the World Sports Prototype Championship at the Nürburgring 1000km. She, Bernard de Dryver and Jurgen Lassig were seventh.

She had another stab at F3000 in 1988, resulting in a DNQ at Jerez. It was time for a different challenge now, so she went to America and drove in single-seaters there for two seasons, as well as competing once more in French F3. She entered nine Indy Lights races between 1989 and 1990 and four of these ended in top-ten finishes. The best of these were two fifth places at Meadowlands and Toronto in 1990.

This led to a drive at Le Mans in 1991. She shared a Spice Ford with Desiré Wilson and Lyn St James, but the team crashed out early on. She also tried ice-racing, in the Andros Trophy.

After a season's break, Cathy entered the Peugeot 905 Spider Cup in 1993. This was a popular one-make sportscar series in France. In her first season she was fifth, but in her second, she was the runner-up, winning three times.

Remaining with sportscars, Cathy took part in the Ferrari Challenge in 1995 and continued her winning streak. She finished the season in second. It was on this high that she decided to retire from racing and start a family.

Motorsport was not forgotten completely: in 1998, she tested a Ferrari for her old team, to still whether she could still handle it as a mother. It turned out that she could, but after over 20 years, Cathy did not wish to race any more. She was now content managing her own team, and acting as her brother Yvan Muller's manager.

In 2010, she made a partial return, taking on two guest races in the SEAT Leon Supercopa, at Magny-Cours. She was fourteenth and fifteenth. In 2011, she also ran in two rounds of the Andros Electric Trophy, at the Pau event. She was eighth in one race, and did not finish the other.

She is now involved in motorsport management once more, for a WTCC team. She is also a member of the FIA's Women in Motorsport Commission, working as a talent scout.

Giovanna Amati

Giovanna in 1992

Much like the Wacky Races heroine Penelope Pitstop, Giovanna was a wealthy girl who was once the victim of a kidnapping plot. Like Penelope too, she had an adventurous streak from an early age. At fifteen, she used her allowance to purchase a 500cc motorcycle and secretly ride it around the streets of Rome at night, although she was not old enough to hold a licence.

It was not many more years before she got herself a racing licence and was competing in Formula Abarth, Italy's junior single-seater series. She stayed with Abarth for four years, before moving up to Formula Three in 1985. Here, she proved herself to be an able and quick competitor; she was described as having won a race outright in 1986, but further details are not forthcoming. Her Coperchini '85-spec Dallara was a regular presence on the Italian F3 grid and although she experienced some problems in qualifying, she was a regular top-ten finisher in a strong field.

Giovanna always looked to push herself forward in her motorsport career, and with a win under her belt in Formula Three, it was time to prove herself at the next level. Her debut year in Formula 3000 was not a success; she found sponsorship for four races but only managed to qualify for her first one, at Donington. She finished sixteenth out of twenty.

There was more disappointment to come in 1990. Giovanna raced for three different F3000 teams and used two different chassis types, but still only made two starts out of ten entries.

Things began to look up in 1991. again, she entered ten F3000 rounds, but she qualified for seven of them this time, and scored her best ever finish, at Le Mans. She was seventh after starting second from last. Her ninth place at Oulton Park was also impressive. At this time, she was rumoured to be in a relationship with Benetton team principal Flavio Briatore, and the thirty-lap test she undertook in one of their Formula One cars was put down to this.

However, at the beginning of 1992 she became a bona fide Formula One pilot, after receiving her Superlicence. She was hired by the dead-in-the-water Brabham team to drive alongside Eric van der Poele, mainly as a publicity exercise. Rather embarrassingly, she failed to qualify for the three races she entered: South Africa, Mexico and Brazil. In fairness, van der Poele did not qualify either, but Giovanna's appalling lap times and multiple spins made more headlines than his. She was promptly replaced by Damon Hill, and it took several engine changes and other improvements, plus more seat time, before the future World Champion was able to qualify the Brabham either. The team folded at the end of the season.

Giovanna as a Brabham driver

Giovanna's single-seater career ended there. Perhaps if she had allowed herself more time to progress through the ranks, or stayed with an F3000 team long enough to learn the car, she would have stood a better chance of a decent F1 drive. She was now rather maligned as a spoiled little rich girl playing at being a racing driver, and lurid rumours flew around about her alleged relationships with a number of important men in the sport.

Putting her F1 debacle behind her, she took refuge in the Porsche Supercup in 1993 and began to carve out a new career as a sportscar driver, like many F1 has-beens before her. Between 1994 and 1996 she raced in the Ferrari Challenge and in some international GT races in a Corvette. She took a break from motorsport in 1997 and started to commentate on races for Italian TV. However, she could not stay away for long and was back in sportscars for the 1998 season. Her racing programme took in the Ferrari Challenge, and some International Sports Racing Series in a Giudici Gaiero Alfa Romeo, and an Alfa-powered Lucchini. She did not finish the Misano race in the Gaiero, but was eleventh, third in class, in the Lucchini, driving with Giovanni Gulinelli and Guido Knycz.

Her biggest challenge was probably the Sebring 12 Hours, in which she shared a BMW M3 with Carter and Petery. They did not finish. She was also involved in the Women's Global GT Series in America.

1999 was a year in which she proved some of her doubters wrong. She was driving the works Tampolli prototype in the FIA Sportscar Championship with Angelo Lancelotti. They were eleventh at Barcelona, sixth at Monza and tenth (first in the SR2 class) at the Nürburgring, after three non-finishes due to technical difficulties. In the last race of the season, at Kyalami, they were fifteenth. Giovanna also drove a Pilbeam-Nissan for a different team in the Magny-Cours round and was a superb fourth overall, with Hennie Groenewald and Nicolas Blomm.

It was here that Giovanna's full-time racing career came to a close, thankfully on a high. In 2000 she was offered a seat as a reserve driver for the works Cadillac team at Le Mans, but declined. She took up TV work full-time and remains a sports presenter on Italian screens.

Until now, she remains the last woman to have attempted to qualify for a Formula One race.

In 2014, Giovanna made a small comeback, accepting a drive in the Italian GT Championship, with GDL Racing. She made a guest appearance at Misano, driving a Mercedes SLS AMG, and finished twelfth and eleventh in the GT3 class. Her team-mate was Gianluca de Lorenzi. At the time, she was almost 55 years old.

In November 2015, she commented on the retirement of Susie Wolff, describing the frustrating nature of life in top-line motor racing, and its physical difficulties, for female drivers. She also announced that she would be returning to the circuits, although she did not say which series she would be joining. As of the end of 2016, this does not seem to have happened.

(Image copyright Sutton Images)