INDYCAR: De Silvestro Tests With KV Racing At Barber

IndyCar

INDYCAR: De Silvestro Tests With KV Racing At Barber

Promising Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro turned her first laps on Monday at Barber Motorsports Park using Chevy power during a test with KV Racing.

Marshall Pruett | Posted October 29, 2012

Simona de Silvestro was ecstatic to have a Bowtie logo over her shoulder and Chevy's championship-winning engine at her disposal for the first time during Monday's test. (Photo: KV Racing)

Promising Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro turned her first laps on Monday at Barber Motorsports Park using Chevy power during a test with KV Racing, and told SPEED.com it was everything she was hoping for after being saddled with the uncompetitive Lotus powerplant during the 2012 IndyCar Series championship.

“It was a lot of fun, especially here at Barber where there’s a lot of elevation and you can go up the hill pretty quick and don’t have to push it like last year,” she said. “The Chevy engine is pretty awesome. I learned a lot today and I think it was just a lot of fun to get back in a real race car.”

De Silvestro spent the entire season with the down-on-power 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 Lotus, but managed to impress on occasion--especially on the street courses--once the Engine Developments Limited-built motor received a number of concessions to increase its competitiveness.

With little hope of fighting for meaningful results, de Silvestro and her HVM Racing team focused on improving chassis setup on the No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy entry. The 24-year-old worked with veteran open-wheel engineer Gerald Tyler at HVM, forming an effective partnership which could continue next year.

“I think what we had to do last season helped a lot,” de Silvestro explained. “We started with [KV driver] Tony Kanaan’s setup he used at Barber during the race, which was a lot different than what we used here so we learned a lot. Me and my engineer clicked last year and really worked well from Detroit on. Having a winning engine will help a lot, so from that point of view, I look at what we did [with the Lotus] and think we learned a lot that will help me now.”

As one of the most positive drivers in the paddock, de Silvestro’s spirit and resolve was tested repeatedly during the 15-round championship, but as she shares, it only took a few laps in KV’s Dallara DW12-Chevy to put a tough 2012 season to rest.

“Today I really felt like a little kid and had so much fun,” she said. “You push the car and know a lap time was going to come out of it. Last year, we never had that. You’d drive the wheels off the car and you’d still be 20th. That’s a big confidence boost. Today, I just took it all in. It was like it was the first time I ever drove an Indy car.”

In addition to KV’s two cars for de Silvestro and Kanaan, Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Charlie Kimball tested at Barber, along with Dale Coyne Racing’s Justin Wilson. Lap times weren’t released, but de Silvestro felt confident about her relative pace.

“I think we can be happy with our speed today,” she remarked. “With the setup we had, I think we can do more to make it how I like it, but it was very good. Tony did a lot of work on dampers and it really feels like a lot of progress is already being made in just one day.”

An announcement regarding de Silvestro's plans for 2013 is forthcoming.

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.