Q  A with Simona de Silvestro

Simona de Silvestro

After qualifying second for today's Atlantic Championship Series season opener, Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro was asked a question she's probably heard too many times to count: How does it feel to be the only woman in the series?

"It feels OK when you have good results," she answered, drawing laughs from most in the room. "You're kind of considered a race car driver (instead of a female race car driver). When you don't do so well, they say, `Oh, she's just a girl.'

"But if you're up front, you're just like everyone else."

De Silvestro is a native of Thun, Switzerland, about halfway between the French and Italian borders on the country's west side.

But she's lived in the U.S. for three years, first in Indianapolis while in the Formula BMW USA series and now in Chicago, where Newman Wachs Racing is headquartered.

"I really like it," she said of living in the U.S. "I enjoy it," De Silvestro, 19, said she always enjoys her trips home to see her parents but knows it's crucial to live and work with her team in the U.S. to develop a strong relationship.

"It's important to establish a friendship with the team," she said.

The biggest culture shock for de Silvestro is the sheer size of everything in American life compared to that of Europe.

"Everything is big, everything is huge," she said. "The food is huge.

"Switzerland is so small," she continued, "like Lake Michigan." Long Beach Press Telegram