De Silvestro, who raced the 2021 Indy 500 for Paretta, opened her 2022 account at a road course — the first time she had raced an IndyCar at a road course in seven years. Being Road America and lacking any pre-race testing, it was a tough refresher course.

Beth Paretta’s “women front” team is this year run in partnership with Ed Carpenter Racing (as opposed to last year’s outing with Penske), so De Silvestro’s most obvious points of comparison were Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly. Unfortunately, it was a tough weekend overall for the ECR team.

In early practice, De Silvestro was 3.1 seconds off the fastest time, 1.8 seconds behind Daly and only a second less than the struggling VeeKay, while in FP2 the gaps were similar to the first. place and his main teammate.

That deficit increased significantly in Q1 – 3.5 seconds from the top, 2.4 seconds behind Daly – and as De Silvestro was hard on herself for not exploiting the extra grip offered by Firestone’s alternate compound tires , her efforts were cut short by a passing penalty for accelerating into the pit lane, so she missed the sweet spot on her reds.

In the race, his fastest lap was 3.3 seconds behind Josef Newgarden’s best, 2.1 seconds behind Daly and just 1.1 seconds behind VeeKay. She would return on the 21st.

“It was good to be back in an IndyCar, I was really happy about it,” she told Motorsport.com, “but for sure in terms of results there is still some work to be done. way to go. I never thought I could be back, so I’m very excited about it.

De Silvestro, who last raced at Road America in the Atlantic Championship in 2008, admitted it was a stunning venue for his return to IndyCar.

“On the one hand it’s a really fun track,” she said, “but on the other, without testing first and getting back in an open-wheel car [on a road course] after seven years, it definitely impressed me. The speeds are so much higher. my engineer [John Gentilozzi] just sent me a speed comparison between a GT car and an IndyCar… It’s a big, big difference!

“So on Friday when I got in the car it was fast. It takes a little while for things to get back to normal at that speed, and in the race it was starting to feel like that again – not as fast – so that’s a good sign.

“We have a test day this week [Thursday] on the Indy road course, and it will be really positive for me. Now I know what to expect and I can really start working on the things I know need the most work.

De Silvestro said trusting in the downforce and extra grip offered by Firestone’s alternate compound tires had been the toughest parts of his weekend.

“Rolling a car with downforce again, I hadn’t done that for so long,” said the 33-year-old Swiss. “It takes a lot of commitment and confidence in the car.

“I had to work so hard to learn how to drive a GT car fast, and now I have to unlearn that again! I have some bad habits that I picked up while driving a GT car that I have to clean up to drive an IndyCar , things I have to relearn.

“And as you say, exploit the red tires. We had a set on Friday, but at that time I was still trying to figure it out everything to be back in an IndyCar. So I didn’t use them very well. And then the next time I tried them was in qualifying, when you really have to push hard and be on the limit straight away to get the best lap time while the tires are at their maximum grip. It’s been a while since I’ve ridden in a series that needed it, so again, now I know what to expect and I’ll work to adapt faster.

De Silvestro said while simulator time was helpful, there is no substitute for “real” cockpit miles.

“I have to be in the car, comparing myself to everyone who has already been in the car for half a season,” she said. “It’s also important for fitness: you get ‘driving fit’ by being in a real car, better than being in the gym. And I think being in the car is also how your brain gets used to going fast again.

“It’s like Indy, the first few days the car feels really fast, but then you get used to it. That’s what I felt at Road America – on Friday and Saturday it felt like the car was really fast, then on Sunday it was normal because my brain was tuned back in.

“There was quite a lot of rust to remove, and it was also really my first time working with this team, so there was really a lot to go through. The engineer and I only had a few days to try things out.

“So in terms of the setup I definitely leaned on Conor and Rinus a bit throughout the weekend. For the race we made some pretty positive changes and the car we had for the long stints was pretty good. There’s still a few things to try, things that I might like, so hopefully we can do that in the test. I think going to Mid-Ohio after doing everything a race weekend and then a day of testing, things will be a bit more normal for me, we can start working on the smaller things that will ultimately make a difference.

The crew that Paretta Autosport team members have integrated with for its three outings at Road America, Mid-Ohio and Nashville, includes the same staff that runs Ed Carpenter in the #33 ECR-Chevy on the ovals. With the arrival of De Silvestro in the #16 Paretta car, Carpenter chose to call it strategy.

De Silvestro with Carpenter

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt/Motorsport Images

“Oh yeah, that’s great,” she enthused. “I’ve known Ed for a very long time and when I got out of the car I asked him if he was going to be on my radio at every race, and he said yes, and I’m really happy about that. I really liked working with Ed: he’s a runner, and that makes things a little easier.

“He’s super calm – that’s great for me, because at the stage I’m at, with so much to do, and having to push myself to really pick up speed and be out of my comfort zone, having it on the radio was a big help.

De Silvestro agreed that the venue for the third (and likely last) IndyCar race on his 2022 schedule, the streets of Nashville, was a daunting prospect, but stressed that for a driver and team hoping to go full-time in the short in the medium term, having the feeling of a temporary course would be a great help.

“I think for us it was important to go to a street course,” she said, “and it was important for Beth that Paretta Autosport tick another box this year.

“Also, a street course can be chaotic at times, and you can look pretty good after that if luck smiles on you!”

Photo by: Geoffrey M. Miller / Motorsport Images