Simona de Silvestro is a real racer. The 37-year-old Italo-Swiss driver has competed in Australian Supercars, the 24 Hours of Daytona, FIA Formula E, plus the IndyCar Series and six entries in the Indianapolis 500. Not born into a wealthy family, de Silvestro had to earn her spot on the grid. And she wasn’t some ‘bikini girl’ gimmick like her teammate Renee Gracie in Supercars (see image, bottom-right).
With her open-wheel racing career in the rearview mirror, Simona de Silvestro now has her sights set on Olympic glory. After years of training and preliminaries, Simona has now qualified as a bobsledder for the Winter Olympics in Milan starting on February 6th. She is set to compete as a driver in both the 1-person ‘monobob’ and two-person bobsleigh events for Italy, her father’s homeland.
The speed, momentum and the precise driving skill necessary to compete in a race car are transferable skills for bobsleigh. Plus, take a look at the bobsleigh which de Silvestro will pilot down the track. The shape is basically an open-wheel race car minus the wheels and tires.
Many race fans follow bobsleigh at the Olympics as it’s sometimes called ‘Formula One on Ice‘.
Very interesting! Thanks for this story!
Make sure to tune in to NBC Wild World of Sports next weekend to see Simona compete
That is awesome. I love watching the winter Olympics.
Totally. Winter Olympics have such obscure sports like that skiing and shooting one. But bobsled is SO cool.
Can’t wait to see the competition!
So much fun!
Only one week to go!
What a cool crossover! I wish her good luck.
Yeah, I do too. I really hope she does something amazing during the Olympics. I expect that in Monobob (not the 2-woman) she will do really well. That’s strictly a test of smooth driving skill, not human horsepower.
Driving skill she has! Such a cool backstory.
A Swiss woman, who raced in the Indianapolis 500 and will now be an Olympian in an Italian bobsled. That’s cool!
She’s bobbing along. I she wins Gold.
I just hope she doesn’t crash!
You never know. Bobsledding is wild driving.
I wonder if Ferrari is building the Italian sled. I know Honda of America is building the US sled (Acura branded).
https://demaras.com/2025/08/04/honda-developing-olympic-bobsled/
You would think they would. A Ferrari sled would be super cool. Alas, ChatGPT couldn’t find any secret Ferrari sleds in the making. Which means, no Ferrari sleds or the sleds are super secret, and would be a big reveal at the games in a couple of weeks.
Maybe it’s a SUPER secret Ferrari sled.
Ill watch regardless.
Lots of nice behinds to watch at the starting line of the sledding.
I suspect that’s also why it’s a popular spectator sport!
Very cool!
Oh.. I get it. Cool, because it’s winter.
Ok that too lol