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INDYCAR: De Silvestro Persevering, Looking For Positives
Simona de Silvestro and her HVM Racing team have had a year to forget, but she continues to press on despite being saddled with a down-on-power engine.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted August 25, 2012  
Simona De Silvestro's should be having her breakout season as an IndyCar driver, but thanks to Lotus, one of the series' brightest young stars will have to wait for 2013. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
One year ago, Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro was denied entry to the USA for the Sonoma race by customs agents, forcing her HVM Racing team to draft in Simon Pagenaud at the last minute to pilot the No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy-sponsored entry.

Based on how her 2012 season with Lotus power has gone, being barred from the States would have been a blessing in disguise, but for the talented 23-year-old, persevering through another uncompetitive weekend has become a familiar and frustrating routine.

"I think any season you go racing you want to be the fastest out there," she told SPEED.com. "You know, it almost seems like my IndyCar experiences are going from good to worse right now.

"I think the toughest part is just looking where other drivers are when you know you were kind of beating them or you were exactly with them a year ago."

Now in her third season with the respected HVM operation, de Silvestro and team owner Keith Wiggins had hoped their Lotus engines would offer some semblance of competitiveness, but with the manufacturer's late start on its engine, a general lack of testing and minimal funding supplied to its engine designers/builders at Engine Developments Limited, the team--and de Silvestro's presence--has been relegated to the tail end of the grid.
De Silvestro, who's earned the respect of drivers and team principals alike, hopes to get her career back on an upward swing as soon as possible. (Photo: LAT)

At a stage in her IndyCar development where de Silvestro expected to be fighting for top 10s, she's had to put her expectations on hold until the team can switch to either Chevy or Honda power next season.

"Now we're just in the back of the field, and that's a little bit annoying..." she said with a wry smile. "But maybe I can still learn things from where we're at now and just keep working at it. But, for sure, we want to show where we really should be in the results--where this team belongs."

With no realistic chance of running in the top half of the field, de Silvestro continues to receive a lot of support from the rest of the IndyCar drivers who know what she and the team can deliver.

"I think everybody feels pretty bad for me, put it that way," she said. "I think in the last two years I've earned the respect from everybody and that's a really cool thing--a really cool achievement for me.

"It's just frustrating that we can't be mixing it up with them, but it just is what it is. I'm lucky to be in an IndyCar when there’s so many drivers who aren’t here. I'm going to take the positive out of everything I can."

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, and covers the IndyCar Series. Before joining SPEED, Pruett worked in open-wheel racing for 20 years as a mechanic and engineer. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.
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