{"id":336458,"date":"2023-10-05T05:57:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T05:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=336458"},"modified":"2023-10-05T07:01:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T07:01:27","slug":"the-horrifying-story-behind-motorsports-best-nickname","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=336458","title":{"rendered":"The horrifying story behind motorsport's best nickname"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simona de Silvestro<\/a> has arguably one of the best nicknames in world motorsport.<\/p>\n

In the early days, she was known as the 'Swiss Miss'. It doesn't take Einstein to work out where that came from.<\/p>\n

But then during practice for the 2011 Indianapolis 500, she suffered second degree burns to her hands in a fiery crash.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW LIVE:<\/strong> Bathurst 1000 day one highlights<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

EAD MORE:<\/strong> Bizarre reason this photo was wiped<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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She would take part in the 500 only days later with her hands heavily bandaged.<\/p>\n

And she became the 'Iron Maiden'.<\/p>\n

\"Simona<\/p>\n

"I like that much more \u2013 it fits my character way better," she told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

De Silvestro is making her return to the Supercars<\/a> grid at this weekend's Bathurst 1000<\/a> for the first time since 2019, in a Dick Johnson Racing-prepared Ford Mustang alongside Kai Allen.<\/p>\n

She said she was open to a making a full-time return to the grid.<\/p>\n

"I never say never," she said when asked if she was open to a full-time return.<\/p>\n

"I think that's something that reflects in my career \u2013 I've been a little bit all over the world and lucky to have driven a lot of different cars.<\/p>\n

\"Simona<\/p>\n

"But for sure, at the moment we're really focused on the job we have to do this weekend, and hopefully we do the job good enough, we might get a call back again for next year."<\/p>\n

The Swiss-born de Silvestro is one of only two drivers on the grid from outside Australia or New Zealand. Frenchman Kevin Estre is driving alongside Matt Payne at Grove Racing.<\/p>\n

De Silvestro said the Bathurst 1000 is on the bucket list of many international drivers, but said calendar clashes are the biggest hurdle.<\/p>\n

"I think if you ask any driver on the planet, it's something they look into because the track here is just amazing," she said.<\/p>\n

"A lot of drivers, when I say I do Bathurst, they're all a little bit jealous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

"There's opportunities there for sure, but scheduling-wise, most drivers are in two different championships so that makes it a little bit tricky."<\/p>\n

Since her last appearance in the category, De Silvestro has enjoyed stints in Formula E and GT as a factory driver with Porsche.<\/p>\n

She also returned to IndyCar in 2021 with the female-led outfit Paretta Autosport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

De Silvestro said she had received a warm welcome back from up and down pit lane, and revealed it was the pandemic that stopped her from returning earlier.<\/p>\n

"I always wanted to come back, it was always a goal to maybe be a co-driver or something like that," she said.<\/p>\n

\"Simona<\/p>\n

"COVID kind of made everything a little bit more complicated, (but) when this team called, I think it was the perfect way to come back.<\/p>\n

"They're such a renowned team and for them to just call me as well to come and drive their car, I think it's pretty special."<\/p>\n

De Silvestro is also relishing the opportunity to work with renowned Supercars engineer Ludo Lacroix, who was Scott McLaughlin's engineer for each of his three-straight Supercars championships.<\/p>\n

"I looked up to (Lacroix) when I was racing here, so it's nice to be on that side of the garage," she said.<\/p>\n

De Silvestro eased herself into the weekend, and was slowest of the 28 cars on the grid.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simona de Silvestro has arguably one of the best nicknames in world motorsport. In the early days, she was known as the 'Swiss Miss'. It […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":336460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=336458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336468,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336458\/revisions\/336468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/336460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=336458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=336458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=336458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}