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De Silvestro far from done in Supercars

3 minute read

She's entering the final year of her Supercars deal but Simona de Silvestro says she's far from finished with her Australian adventure.

Race winner CRAIG LOWNDES driver of the #888 Autobarn Lowndes Racing Holden Commodore ZB celebrates after race 2 for the Supercars Tasmania SuperSprint in Hobart, Australia.
Race winner CRAIG LOWNDES driver of the #888 Autobarn Lowndes Racing Holden Commodore ZB celebrates after race 2 for the Supercars Tasmania SuperSprint in Hobart, Australia. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

By her own admission the past two years have been the worst of her motorsport career, but Simona de Silvestro says her Supercars adventure is far from over.

The Swiss driver was announced to much fanfare in late 2016 as the first female full-time driver in Australian motorsport's elite championship for nearly 40 years.

In two seasons behind the wheel for Kelly Racing, de Silvestro has struggled to match that impact on the track however with a 10th-place finish in last year's penultimate race of the season in Newcastle her best finish.

The 30-year-old remains committed to her Australian dream heading into next week's season opening Adelaide 500.

"It's definitely, I would say, the worst two seasons I've ever had in my career," de Silvestro told AAP.

"It just shows it's a really tough championship and you really have to be on top of everything in each race weekend to be right there because it's so close.

"I wouldn't have come here just to come and do three years.

"I think it was a big step for me in general to leave Switzerland and move down here and I really committed to this. For me, I definitely see a long-term thing here."

De Silvestro also had to endure pit lane speculation she was being targeted by powerhouse Triple Eight Race Engineering as their replacement driver for retiring veteran Craig Lowndes.

With Kelly Racing set to lose Nissan factory support from 2019 onwards, a move to the Holden-backed Triple Eight looked a no-brainer.

In the end, however, de Silvestro will be behind the wheel of her Nissan Altima for a third consecutive season and she believes the loss of factory backing won't have too much impact on her team.

"Losing the Nissan backing is maybe not so great but it's a bit different in Australia compared to anywhere else in the world," she said.

"The Nissan backing is usually just a monetary support and I think the team has great sponsors on board at the moment ... but for sure we're competing against the Triple Eights, the Penskes, and things like that.

"They're really big teams who really put a lot of effort into it so our team has to do the same and us drivers as well. Come with our A-game every time we go to the track."

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