Simona: Farewell to the V8 supercars

At Interview with the TV channel Fox Sports Simona de Silvestro talked about her retirement from Australia.

A few weeks ago, Simona de Silvestro was announced as a test and development driver in the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E team. As a consequence, she is now ending her full-time program with Australian V8 touring cars.

Simona de Silvestro: "For me, working with Porsche is a great task. Every driver works towards something like this, and now I get this chance, which I want to take advantage of."

But she's not quite finished with racing yet. There are plans, she smiles, that will be announced in December. But she's not allowed to talk about that yet. It's quite possible that she will return in January to the 24 Hours of Daytona, where she competed in 2018 in an all-female team on a Honda Acura NSX GT3.

Return in installments
Since 2017, the 31-year-old from Vaud has been the only woman to race in Australia's most popular racing series. Nissan Motorsport and main sponsor Harvey Norman opened the doors for her. At the end of 2018, Nissan withdrew from the factory. Her current team, Kelly Racing, is switching from four no-longer-very-competitive Nissan Altima V8s to two modern Ford Mustangs next season. Simona had to look for a new team.

But the Swiss doesn't want to say goodbye to this scene for good.

Simona de Silvestro: "I hope that next year I might be able to return for one or two endurance races or get a wildcard somewhere else. I think that's quite possible."

The best-known endurance race is the Bathurst 1000, where she took part as a guest driver in October in both 2015 and 2016 and made a lasting impression there that led to her three-year contract with Nissan Motorsport. This is now coming to an end.

Two more races
At the moment, Simona is still in 20th place overall. In her rookie season in 2017 she was 24th, and last year she improved by just one position. Her best ever finish this year was seventh in the 24th race of the season, the Auckland Super Sprint in Pukekohe, New Zealand.

Simona de Silvestro: "It's been three great years and a great experience. Of course it's a bit frustrating that we didn't get more out of it. But there are a number of reasons for that. I wasn't always in the right place at the right time. This year (after the withdrawal of Nissan, Red.) it was especially difficult. I hope to do well in the last two races at Sandown and Newcastle, where I like to race. I already have one or two scores to settle..."

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