Simona de Silvestro

Simona de Silvestro (born 1 September 1988) is a Swiss-Italian professional racing driver and bobsledder.^[3][4] She has raced in the IndyCar Series, Formula E and the Supercars Championship, having also served as test driver for the Sauber F1 Team and factory driver for Porsche. Since 2022 she has competed internationally in bobsleigh, where she reached the 2026 Winter Olympics.^[5][6]

De Silvestro 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 Grand Prix of Long Beach,^[7] making her the second woman to win in that series – after Katherine Legge – and providing NWR with its first win. She won four times during the 2009 season and led in points for most of the season, but 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 IndyCar Series test over 8–9 December 2009 at Sebring International Raceway, a joint effort between HVM Racing and Team Stargate Worlds.^[8]

De Silvestro competed full-time in the 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. Her team strongly criticized IndyCar Series safety officials for their response to that accident.^[9] For the season, de Silvestro started seventeen races, finished ten, and recorded two top-ten finishes, with a best finish of eighth at Mid-Ohio. She finished nineteenth overall in the series standings and was runner-up to Alex Lloyd for rookie of the year honors.

The 2011 season began with fourth- and ninth-place finishes at St. Petersburg and Barber; however the next race, at Long Beach, was not as successful: de Silvestro started eighteenth and finished twentieth. At the next race, the São Paulo Indy 300, an accident between her and Hélio Castroneves put her nine laps down, after the race was postponed to the next morning due to severe rain conditions. She started thirteenth and finished twentieth, nine laps down, but recorded the fastest lap of the race.

De Silvestro 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.^[10] The crash, which sent her car sailing into the catch fence before flipping and landing on its left tires, was caused by a 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 after experiencing dizziness and impaired vision. At the next race, in Iowa, she was not cleared to compete, due to continuing dizziness.^[11]

De Silvestro missed round 13 of the season at Sonoma, after being refused entry to the United States. De Silvestro said she did not know why she was turned away.^[12] She finished twentieth overall in the 2011 series standings.

De Silvestro returned to HVM Racing for the 2012 IndyCar Series 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 saddled 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 Indianapolis 500. For the season, de Silvestro qualified for all fifteen races on the schedule, started fourteen, and finished six. Her best finish was 14th at Detroit and Iowa. She finished 24th overall in the series standings.

On 30 October 2012, de Silvestro signed on with KV Racing Technology for the 2013 IndyCar Series 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.^[13] On 5 October 2013 at 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.^[14]

On 2 April 2015, de Silvestro announced she would drive the Andretti Autosport No. 29 Honda in the 2015 IndyCar Series season in an attempt to make the Indianapolis 500.^[15] De Silvestro finished fourth in the second race of the season, the Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana.

On 19 January 2021, Paretta Autosport announced they would make their IndyCar debut at the 2021 Indianapolis 500 with de Silvestro as the driver in the No. 16 Rocket Pro Chevrolet.^[16]

In February 2014, Formula One team Sauber announced that de Silvestro would join the team as an "affiliated driver" and would undergo a year-long training programme with the team, with the ultimate objective of racing in 2015.^[17] De Silvestro began testing with the team at the end of April 2014 at Fiorano Circuit.^[18] She had her first drive in the 2012 Sauber on 26 April, and completed 112 laps during the test.^[19] However, in October 2014, Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn stated that the team had suspended de Silvestro's driving chances due to contractual troubles.^[20]

On 15 June 2015, it was announced de Silvestro would drive for Andretti's Formula E team at the championship's double-header finale in London.^[21] She was confirmed with the team full-time for the 2015-16 season opposite Formula Renault 3.5 champion Robin Frijns.

In 2016, de Silvestro became the first female driver to score points in Formula E with a ninth place in the 2016 Long Beach ePrix.^[22] She finished the championship in eighteenth place with four points.

De Silvestro returned to the driving seat for Venturi Racing at the December 2018 Ad Diriyah test, where up to nine women took part. She placed tenth overall, fastest of all female drivers.^[23] Between 2019 and 2023, De Silvestro served as Porsche's reserve driver.^[24] In 2024, she participated in the all-female pre-season test held at Circuito del Jarama, joining new team Kiro Race Co.^[25]

On 19 August 2015, it was announced that de Silvestro would partner Renee Gracie at Prodrive Racing Australia in the Bathurst 1000 for V8 Supercars.^[26] Following an impact with the wall at Forrest's Elbow on lap fifteen for Gracie, the car underwent extensive repairs before being sent back out to finish 21st and forty laps down – one more lap lost and the car would not have been classified.

On 5 September 2016, it was announced that de Silvestro had signed a three-year contract as a full-time driver for Nissan Motorsport in the Australian Supercars Championship, beginning from the 2017 season.^[27][28][29] This followed another appearance at Bathurst alongside Gracie, this time with the Nissan squad, where the pair managed to stay out of trouble amid the chaotic final laps and finish in 14th place and two laps down.

De Silvestro suffered a tumultuous debut season, starting on the back foot when she was spun by James Courtney whilst entering the pit-lane in Adelaide.^[30] The Swiss then largely avoided a multi-car pile-up at the following round in Tasmania before being one of multiple drivers penalised for a controversial pit-lane infringement at Phillip Island.^[31] Having struggled with lacklustre form through the middle of the season, De Silvestro looked on course for a top-ten finish at the Bathurst 1000 before spinning off a wet kerb and crashing with less than ten laps remaining.^[32] Strong performances at the season finale in Newcastle also went unrewarded when she was fenced by Tim Slade in the first race and spun by championship contender Scott McLaughlin in the second, leaving her as the lowest-classified driver in the standings to complete every event.^[33]

The Swiss improved to 23rd in the overall standings in 2018, claiming her first top-ten finish in a fuel conservation race in Newcastle.

Following interest from Triple Eight Race Engineering to replace Craig Lowndes, De Silvestro remained with Kelly Racing for 2019.^[34] She picked up a best result of 7th in New Zealand following a safety car bungle, but otherwise struggled as the Kelly team had lost factory support for its’ Nissan Altimas at the end of the previous season.^[35] The Swiss confirmed her exit from the championship prior to the penultimate round at Sandown, finishing the season 19th in the standings.^[36]

De Silvestro made a cameo appearance in the 2023 Bathurst 1000 as a wildcard entry for Dick Johnson Racing; sharing a Ford Mustang with rookie Kai Allen, the pair finished a lap down in 20th.^[37]

In 2020, de Silvestro returned to Europe as a factory Porsche GT driver; contesting the 2020 ADAC GT Masters for Timo Bernhard's Team75 with Klaus Bachler.^[38] She finished 23rd in the championship with 41 points. The duo switched to Herberth Motorsport for the 2021 ADAC GT Masters.^[39]

In early 2022, De Silvestro announced that she had started training in the winter sport of bobsleigh, with a goal to compete for Italy at the 2026 Winter Olympics in monobob. Her first competitive event was the 2022 Swiss championships where she placed fifth.^[40] De Silvestro qualified for both the monobob and two-person disciplines through her results in the 2025–26 Bobsleigh World Cup,^[41][42] finishing 23rd overall in both.^[43]

De Silvestro is of Italian descent through her father and holds dual Swiss and Italian citizenship.^[44]

^† As de Silvestro was a guest driver, she was ineligible to score points.

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

* Podium (non-win) indicates second and third place finishes

** Top 10s (non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes

¹ The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11.

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

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

• Official website
• Simona de Silvestro career summary at DriverDB.com
• Profile on Racing Reference
• IndyCar Driver Page
• IndyCar 11 in '11 video