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De Silvestro chasing Olympic bobsleigh dream

Simona de Silvestro has taken up bobsleigh in a bid to fulfil a long-held dream to compete at the Winter Olympics.

Simona De Silvestro, Paretta Autosport Chevrolet

Simona De Silvestro, Paretta Autosport Chevrolet

Barry Cantrell / Motorsport Images

The accomplished racer took to social media over the weekend to reveal that she has spent the winter break for her motorised commitments training in a bobsleigh.

According to her post she chose that particular sport due to her motor racing background, and has set herself the lofty goal of competing at Olympic level.

"Since quite some time I always felt inspired watching the Olympic Games," she wrote on Instagram.

"A few years ago I started thinking how could I achieve this dream. I looked at all the sports and came to the conclusion that, with my racing background, bobsleigh could be the sport to get me there.

"So last summer I decided that if I wanted to achieve this dream I would need to give it a go this winter.

"Since December it has been a busy racing off season with getting the grips of sliding down the ice tracks before the racing season starts again."

 

On Sunday she made her first competitive start, finishing fifth in the monobob class at St Moritz in her native Switzerland.

"Fun first race outside of a race car," she posted. "Starts need some improvement. Sprint training here we come."

De Silvestro has enjoyed a diverse racing career to date, competing in IndyCar for several years in the early 2010s before moving to Australia to drive in Supercars for the factory-backed Nissan squad.

She spent three years down under before returning to Europe for the 2020 season as a factory Porsche GT driver, as well as Porsche's reserve driver in Formula E.

She also competed in last year's Indy 500 as a one-off start for Paretta Autosport.

 

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