Simona de Silvestro

Simona de Silvestro ( born September 1, 1988 in Thun) is a Swiss automobile racing driver. From 2007 to 2009 she went to the Atlantic Championship at the start and finished the last season on top of the third championship course. De Silvestro went from 2010 to 2013 in the IndyCar Series to. Your best individual placing in this series was a second place.

  • 2.1 Career stations
  • 2.2 Individual results in the IndyCar Series

Career

Karting and formula first classes

De Silvestro began her motorsport career in karting in 2002, where she was active until 2004. In 2005 she moved to the Formula racing and went in the Italian Formula Renault at the start. She was 20th overall. In 2006, de Silvestro in the U.S. and launched in the U.S. Formula BMW. Although she decided not a race for themselves, they took on the end of the season fourth overall.

Atlantic Championship

2007 joined de Silvestro in the Atlantic Championship for Walker Racing. She did not with her ​​teammates Ryan Lewis and took the end of the season 19th overall. In 2008 she moved to Newman wax Racing and was teammate of Jonathan Summerton. On the first race weekend de Silvestro celebrated her first victory in the Atlantic Championship. In the rest of the season they are no longer held with with buzzer and finished at the end of the season in eighth place overall. In 2009, she played her third season in the Atlantic Championship for Team Stargate Worlds. She scored four wins and five podium finishes. A race before the end led de Silvestro to the Championship, but was overtaken on the last race of the later champion John Edwards and Summerton in the standings. At the end of the season thus they finished third overall. She finished every race in the top ten pilots.

IndyCar Series

In 2010 she competed in the IndyCar Series for HVM Racing. Already in its first race in the IndyCar Series they led the field to thanks to a different strategy. On the basis of brake problems they finished the race only in 16th place. Racing in Fort Worth she made a fire accident, after which she still sat around for 30 seconds in her burning car, hit the headlines. With slight burns to her right hand she survived the accident almost uninjured. After the Ninth for the first time reached a place among the top ten in Toronto, she scored in Lexington with an eighth place their best season placement. At the end of the season they finished 19th overall. She was also the second-best rookie behind Alex Lloyd, who had participated in three IndyCar races before the season.

2011 remained de Silvestro at HVM Racing. Already at the season opener in Saint Petersburg, it achieved a fourth place her until then best IndyCar result. She had in the duel with Tony Kanaan until the last lap the chance of a podium place. In the fourth race in São Paulo drove de Silvestro, where she scored the fastest lap of the race, once again in the spotlight. However, since they lagged by a collision at the start nine rounds, she could not put into a position in front of the field their performance. In training for the Indianapolis 500 de Silvestro had a serious accident. She lost control of her car, slammed into the barriers and stopped after a rollover are on the track. The vehicle caught fire while. De Silvestro left the car on its own. During the subsequent investigation in hospital second degree burns were diagnosed on their hands. She took part in the race anyway, but did not finish. After an accident in West Allis her doctors refused permission to take the race following one. In Sonoma they had to skip another race after she had been denied entry into the United States. The season she finished in 20th place in the drivers' standings.

2012 denied de Silvestro another IndyCar season. Your team has been supported in this season factory Lotus and Lotus HVM Racing was called. De Silvestro was given the opportunity to test first the new IndyCar chassis, the Dallara DW12, with a Lotus engine, which was produced by Engine Developments. Since the Lotus engine was significantly weaker than the IndyCar engines from Chevrolet and Honda, she was not able times to drive within the 105- percent rule, so she was taken after ten laps of the race at the Indianapolis 500. After this race there was next de Silvestro no further driver with Lotus engines more. Although Lotus have been several improvements to the engine allows, de Silvestro and HVM Racing were unable to keep up with the other teams. De Silvestro was thus with a 13th place as best result 24th in the driver standings.

After the 2012 season, de Silvestro participated in test drives for KV Racing Technology. One day after these tests, awarded at the team signed a contract for the IndyCar Series in 2013. De Silvestro took her two main sponsors Entergy and Areva with their new team. At the season opener in Saint Petersburg, she reached her until then best starting position with a third place in qualifying. In the closing stages of the race, de Silvestro was back in third place. Since their tires faded stronger than that of their competitors, they fell in the last two laps back to the sixth position. After they had reached in the first four races three times the top 10, she managed this in the following ten races, just one more time. In the last five races they always came in the top 10. In Baltimore, she was fifth. In the subsequent event in Houston de Silvestro was achieved with a second place in race her first IndyCar podium placement. So it was after Sarah Fisher and Danica Patrick to the third woman who had achieved an IndyCar podium placement. De Silvestro finished the season in 13th place overall. With 362 to 397 points, she succumbed to her teammates Kanaan, who won the Indianapolis 500.

After de Silvestro had lost their 2014 IndyCar cockpit at KV Racing Technology, she was presented by the Formula 1 team Sauber Affiliated Driver, with the goal for 2015 to get a Formula 1 Super License.

Statistics

Career stations

  • 2002-2004: Karting
  • 2005: Italian Formula Renault ( 20th place )
  • 2006: American Formula BMW (4th place )
  • 2007: Atlantic Championship ( 19th place )
  • 2008: Atlantic Championship ( 8th place)
  • 2009: Atlantic Championship ( 3rd place)
  • 2010: IndyCar Series ( No. 19 )
  • 2011: IndyCar Series (No. 20)
  • 2012: IndyCar Series (No. 24)
  • 2013: IndyCar Series (No. 13)

Individual results in the IndyCar Series

( Legend)

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