to increase her skills in order to prepare her for motor racing, amati attended a motor racing school 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 before moving up to italian formula three in 1985–86, again scoring a few wins. by 1987 she had moved up to formula 3000 racing three times, but only qualified for the race at donington. amati competed in f3000 for 1988 with lola and managed to secure two 10th places at monza and jerez. at jerez, she finished behind future formula one drivers jean-denis délétraz, jean alesi and marco apicella. amati moved to the japanese f3000 for 1989 but she had no success. in 1990, amati returned to europe to the 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 last five rounds. in 1990, amati was involved in a crash with british driver phil andrews, in which she ran him off the road during a test session prior to the brands hatch race that year. she would never score any points during her tenure in formula 3000.