MOTORSPORT: Simona confirmed for Nissan

The first full-time female driver in the Supercars championship will race a factory Nissan for the next three years.

Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro, as expected, has signed with Nissan Motorsport after driving an Altima with Renee Gracie in a wildcard entry at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

Making way for her in the four-car squad is former development series champion Dale Wood, who spent only a single year with the team.

The deal was announced this morning, more than two months after it was confirmed she was joining the championship from 2017 with backing from Harvey Norman and the South Australian government.

De Silvestro, who has a creditable record in open wheel racing including Formula E and Indycars, was wooed by various Supercars teams because of her guaranteed budget and publicity she would attract.

Privateer Ford team, Prodrive Racing Australia, for whom she drove in her first wildcard outing at Bathurst with Gracie in 2015, was understood to be the runner-up in the race for her signature.

“In joining Nissan Motorsport, I think the biggest thing is being a factory driver,” de Silvestro said in a press statement. “It’s great to have the trust from Nissan Motorsport to give me the chance to drive for them.

“I really enjoyed driving for them at Bathurst, I really enjoyed the car, so there were a lot of things I really liked. And the team as well, it’s a great team, you see there’s a lot of potential in the team. So working with them hopefully will bring a lot of success.

“My expectations for next year in 2017: I think it’s going to be a pretty big challenge for me. Like I’ve said before, most of my career has been in open wheel. The Nissan Altima was feeling pretty great at Bathurst, so I’m sure at the other tracks I’m going to be able to adapt a lot quicker. Learning the tracks and working with the team will be a big challenge but looking forward to it.”

De Silvestro is the first full-time female racing driver to join this series in the modern era. Christine Gibson raced a full-time season for Alfa Romeo in 1975 in the old Australian Touring Car Championship.

Nissan Australia boss Richard Emery welcomed de Silvestro’s signing.

“It’s important that Nissan and the wider automotive sector promote our industry and our vehicles as well as motorsport beyond traditional male audiences,” he said.

“We want to encourage more women to choose our industry as a career and sporting pathway. And by having Simona on our team we hope to achieve not only greater speed and results on the track.”

De Silvestro’s decision is the next step in deciding the last few vacant seats for the 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

There are five seats in play with around seven drivers trying to fit into them.

The seats are one each at Garry Rogers Motorsport, Prodrive Racing Australia and Erebus Motorsport and two seats at minnow Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport.

The drivers in the frame are Garth Tander, Jason Bright, Wood, Chris Pither, Andre Heimgartner, Aaren Russell and development series stars Jack Le Brocq and James Golding.

Tander is the biggest name whose future is yet to be publicly revealed. He has been linked with both GRM – which is embroiled in a legal fight with Volvo to keep racing the S60 in 2017 – and more recently an enduro drive for Triple Eight Race Engineering combined with an Audi GT series program.

Golding is now favoured for the GRM seat alongside James Moffat.

Jason Bright and the Racing Entitlements Contract (REC) he owns are leaving Brad Jones Racing and look likely to end up in the fourth Falcon FG X at Prodrive, replacing the Kiwi-backed Super Black Racing entry that looks likely to dissolve.

Where the SBR REC lands is yet to be made clear, but BJR does currently find itself in the position of having a three-car program with only two RECs at the moment.

Wood, Pither and Le Brocq are all logical possibilities at Erebus Motorsport. All have the handy positive of bringing guaranteed backing.

Russell is looking to re-enter the championship after an abortive half-season at Erebus in 2016 and could end up either at LDM or leasing a REC from the team. Heimgartner seems a good chance to stay at LDM.