Simona de Silvestro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Simona de Silvestro

Simona de Silvestro in May 2010.
Nationality   Swiss
Born (1988-09-01) 1 September 1988
Thun, Switzerland
2014 IZOD IndyCar Series
Debut season 2010
Current team KV Racing Technology
Car no. 78
Former teams HVM Racing
Starts 65
Wins 0
Poles 0
Fastest laps 1
Best finish 13th in 2013
Previous series
2007–2009
2006
2005
Atlantic Championship
Formula BMW USA
Formula Renault 2.0 Italia
Awards
2010 IndyCar Series Tony Renna Rising Star Award

Simona de Silvestro ("de" pronounced with a long E; born 1 September 1988) is a Swiss race car driver from Thun, Switzerland. She is currently competing for KV Racing Technology in the IZOD IndyCar Series. One nickname which has been applied to her is "The Iron Maiden".[1]

Racing career

de Silvestro at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2010.

She raced for Newman Wachs Racing's Nuclear Clean Air Energy/Entergy team in the Atlantic Championship in 2008 and for Team Stargate Worlds in 2009. She won the Atlantic race at the 2008 Long Beach Grand Prix, making her the second woman to win in that series and providing NWR with its first win.[2] She won four times during the 2009 season and led in points for most of the season. She ultimately finished third in the standings after retiring on the first lap during the season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

De Silvestro participated in an IRL IndyCar Series test on 8 December and 9, 2009 at Sebring International Raceway, a joint effort between HVM Racing and Team Stargate Worlds.[3]

2010

De Silvestro competed full–time in the IZOD IndyCar Series for HVM Racing for the 2010 season. On 22 May 2010, she qualified in the 22nd position for the 2010 Indianapolis 500. She finished the race in 14th position, and earned Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors. She suffered a burned right hand after a fiery crash at the Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway on 5 June 2010. HVM Racing strongly criticized IndyCar Series safety officials for their response to that accident.[4] For the season de Silvestro started 17 races, finished ten, and recorded two top-10 finishes, with a best finish of 8th at Mid Ohio. She finished 19th overall in the series standings and was runner-up to Alex Lloyd for Rookie of the Year honors.

2011

The 2011 season began with promising fourth and ninth place finishes at St. Petersburg and Barber; however the next race at Long Beach was not as successful: she started 18th and finished 20th. At the next race, the São Paulo Indy 300, an accident between her and Helio Castroneves put her nine laps down, after the race was postponed to the next morning due to severe rain conditions. She also received criticism from broadcasters during the race as she raced hard against the leaders even when she was several laps down, rather than letting them pass. She started 13th and finished 20th, nine laps down, but recorded the fastest lap of the race.

She received second degree burns on her right hand and superficial burns on her left hand in a crash during practice for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 on 19 May.[5] The crash, which sent her car sailing into the catch fence before flipping and landing on its left tires, was caused by mechanical failure in the left rear of her No. 78 Dallara/Honda. On 21 May, using her backup car, she qualified 24th for the race with a four-lap average of 224.392 mph.

After a crash at the Milwaukee Mile during qualifying, de Silvestro was cleared to drive in the race. but withdrew from the race after experiencing dizziness and impaired vision. At the next race in Iowa, she was not cleared to compete due to continuing dizziness.[6]

De Silvestro missed Round 13 of the season at Sonoma, after being refused entry to the United States. She finished 20th overall in the 2011 series standings.

2012

De Silvestro returned to HVM Racing for the 2012 IndyCar season, piloting the No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy sponsored Dallara/Lotus. The entry was one of five cars to start the season powered by the new Lotus engine. The Lotus proved to be significantly underpowered compared to the Chevrolet and Honda engines used by the rest of the field. By the end of May, all entrants other than de Silvestro's No. 78 had abandoned the Lotus powerplant and switched to either Chevy or Honda. De Silvestro was saddle for the entire season with the inferior Lotus. The underpowered engine made it impossible for de Silvestro to be competitive, resulting in consistently poor qualifying and race results. On several occasions the car was black flagged for failing to maintain the minimum safe speed, including the 2012 Indy 500. For the season, de Silvestro qualified for all 15 races on the schedule, started 14, and finished 6. Her best finish was 14th at Detroit and Iowa. She finished 24th overall in the series standings.

2013

On 30 October 2012, de Silvestro signed on with KV Racing Technology for the 2013 IndyCar Season, driving the No. 78 Dallara/Chevrolet with sponsorship from Nuclear Clean Air Energy. De Silvestro joined veteran driver Tony Kanaan to make KV Racing Technology a two-car team for the 2013 season.[7] On 5 October 2013 in the Grand Prix of Houston, de Silvestro finished second in the first race for her first podium finish, joining Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher as the only women in IndyCar history to record a podium finish.[8]

Motorsports career results

Career summary

Year Series Team Car No. Races Wins Poles FLaps Points Position
2005 Formula Renault 2.0 Italy Cram Competition 17 0 0 0 16 20th
2006 Formula BMW USA EuroInternational 14 1 0 2 113 4th
2007 Champ Car Atlantic Walker Racing 5 12 0 0 0 69 19th
2008 Atlantic Championship Newman Wachs Racing 34 11 1 0 0 167 8th
2009 Atlantic Championship Team Stargate Worlds 78 12 4 4 1 176 3rd
2010 IZOD IndyCar Series HVM Racing 78 17 0 0 0 242 19th
2011 IZOD IndyCar Series HVM Racing 78 15 0 0 1 225 20th
2012 IZOD IndyCar Series Lotus-HVM Racing 78 14 0 0 0 182 24th
2013 IZOD IndyCar Series Chevrolet-KV Racing Technology 78 19 0 0 0 362 13th

American open-wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Atlantic Championship/Champ Car Atlantic

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points
2007 Walker Racing LVG
17
LBH
28
HOU
15
POR1
16
POR2
16
CLE
11
MTT
7
TOR
18
EDM1
13
EDM2
22
SJO
10
ROA
22
19th 69
2008 Newman Wachs Racing LBH
1
LS
10
MTT
9
EDM1
8
EDM2
19
ROA1
9
ROA2
18
TRR
4
NJ
11
UTA
5
ATL
4
8th 167
2009 Team Stargate Worlds SEB
5
UTA
1
NJ1
2
NJ2
1
LIM
1
ACC1
3
ACC2
2
MDO
2
TRR
1
MOS
10
ATL
2
LS
10
3rd 176
Years Teams Races Poles Wins Podiums
(Non-win)**
Top 10s
(Non-podium)***
Championships
3 3 35 4 5 5 10 0
** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.
*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

IndyCar Series

Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Rank Points
2010 HVM Racing Dallara Honda SAO
16
STP
16
ALA
21
LBH
17
KAN
21
INDY
14
TXS
24
IOW
21
WGL
24
TOR
9
EDM
22
MDO
8
SNM
13
CHI
23
KTY
25
MOT
23
HMS
23
19th 242
2011 HVM Racing Dallara Honda STP
4
ALA
9
LBH
20
SAO
20
INDY
31
TXS1
26
TXS2
27
MIL
25
IOW
DNS
TOR
10
EDM
24
MDO
12
NHM
16
SNM BAL
12
MOT
14
KTY
25
LVS1
C
20th 225
2012 Lotus-HVM Racing Dallara DW12 Lotus STP
24
ALA
20
LBH
20
SAO
24
INDY
32
DET
14
TXS
DNS
MIL
24
IOW
14
TOR
24
EDM
23
MDO
23
SNM
17
BAL
22
FON
26
24th 182
2013 KV Racing Technology Dallara DW12 Chevrolet STP
6
ALA
18
LBH
9
SAO
8
INDY
17
DET1
16
DET2
24
TXS
16
MIL
24
IOW
21
POC
11
TOR1
10
TOR2
14
MDO
11
SNM
9
BAL
5
HOU1
2
HOU2
10
FON
8
13th 362
* Season still in progress
1 The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11.
Years Teams Races Poles Wins Podiums
(Non-win)**
Top 10s
(Non-podium)***
Indianapolis 500
Wins
Championships
4 2 50 0 0 1 12 0 0
** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.
*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500

Year Chassis Engine Start Finish Team
2010 Dallara Honda 22 14 HVM Racing
2011 Dallara Honda 24 31 HVM Racing
2012 Dallara Lotus 32 32 Lotus-HVM Racing
2013 Dallara Chevrolet 24 17 KV Racing Technology

References

  1. Pruett, Marshall (2011-06-21). "INDYCAR: Milwaukee Rewind". speedtv.com. Retrieved 9 July 2011. 
  2. ATLANTIC: de Silvestro Becomes Second Winning Woman, speedtv.com, 20 April 2008
  3. "HVM Racing Testing De Silvestro at Sebring". HVM Racing Press Release (HVM Racing). 2009-12-07. Retrieved 2009-12-07. 
  4. HVM criticises safety crew over fire
  5. "De Silvestro in massive Indy crash". racer.com. 2011-05-19. Retrieved 9 July 2011. 
  6. De Silvestro, Simona (2011-06-30). "Auto Racing – In The Cockpit: Simona De Silvestro, Iowa". auto-racing.speedtv.com. Retrieved 9 July 2011. 
  7. Fryer, Jenna (6 October 2013). "Simona Joins Patrick, Fisher as Podium Finishers". ABC News. Retrieved 6 October 2013. 

External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Alex Tagliani
Indianapolis 500
Rookie of the Year

2010
Succeeded by
J. R. Hildebrand
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.