SINCE joining the Supercars series full-time this season Simona De Silvestro has received good support – but she’s still not satisfied.
While she has been embraced by fans and media alike, not to mention her Nissan Motorsport team, De Silvestro wants more in terms of results.
As an open wheeler racer De Silvestro’s talent saw her as an affiliated driver for Formula One team Sauber in 2014.
But switching to a Supercar means she has had to learn how to be fast all over again.
“It’s been a bit of a tough year results wise. I think it should be a little bit better, but it just shows how hard this series is,” the Swiss native said.
“I think from the other drivers, the response has been pretty good, but I think for sure we need to get onto the next gear to getting some better results and moving up a little.
“It was definitely quite a big challenge, but we knew going in because that’s why also I am lucky to be here for the next two years as well because when you come from an open wheel background, the car is completely different.
“Everything you know you can’t really apply to it and that makes it really hard. It’s also been frustrating because you know you’re fast, but all of a sudden what you’ve done to be fast in the past doesn’t work in this car.”
Having driven at Mount Panorama as a one-off wildcard entry in 2015-16, this year De Silvestro has got a full-time seat.
She had to learn each track as well as the nuances of the Nissan Altima, but she feels like she is improving.
“It was kind of starting a little bit from scratch and it’s taking some time to get use to it, but I feel like we are getting close,” she said.
“Now we are within a few tenths of the others, which is always the hardest ones to fight.
“I think the progress has been pretty good, but as a team we’ve been struggling a little bit. Hopefully these last few rounds the new pieces we have in the car are going to really help us move forward on the grid as well.”
At Mount Panorama this week she will finally get to compete on a track where she has done previous laps.
De Silvestro, who will share her seat with experienced co-driver David Russell, will also benefit from having done the Sandown enduro prior to the Great Race.
Her two previous Bathurst 1000 campaigns she was ranked amongst the finishers, placing 21st and 14th alongside Renee Gracie.
Not surprisingly, her goal is to finish the renowned enduro once more.
“Hopefully we keep that one going,” she said.
“Hopefully we’re all going to have a pretty good result and I think that’s what everyone in the team has been working hard at the last few weeks, to really get there.”
