De Silvestro to quit Supercars

Simona De Silvestro has announced via social media that she will not continue as a full-time driver in Australia's Supercars series next season.

https://twitter.com/simdesilvestro/status/1192362448075911169?s=20

The IndyCar veteran has raced in the Australia-based touring series since 2015, driving full-time for the past three seasons. In September, De Silvestro was named as a factory development driver for Porsche's Formula E team, and although no plans have yet been revealed for her to race, the 31-year-old Swiss signaled that it is where she will be focusing the next stage of her career.

“I have a great opportunity with Porsche and I’m going to have some racing plans announced in December… but I can’t say what it is yet,” De Silvestro told the official Supercars website. “So for me it is just a really big opportunity and as a driver it’s always something you kind of work towards, to have a team and a brand hire you, so it’s pretty exciting times for me.”

De Silvestro acknowledged a little frustration with her results in Supercars, where she has struggled with Kelly Racing's Nissan entries, but is still happy to have gained the experience.

“I’m not disappointed; definitely I feel the three years have been great,” she said. “It has been really an awesome experience for me to race here and even though I feel like some boxes haven’t been ticked, that’s sometimes how racing is. You need to be in the right place and the right position, which I felt was maybe not so much the case this year especially.

“A bit frustrating but at the end of the day, everything happens for a reason and now I have this great opportunity with Porsche that has come around. For me it’s something that I need to take because that’s a really big chance for me and my career."