When will Simona get her credit due?

[ASRF1000]

Once again, Simona de Silvestro is out performing Danica Patrick on the streets of Brazil. When will she get all the credit due to her. No longer is Danica the only female driver on the circuit and Simona is showing her true talent.

Nothing against Danick, but watch this girl.

I recognized her talents back in the 2006 Formula BMW USA Championship. She very closely could have won the Championship (if it hadn't been for her car running out of fuel in qualifying for the last race of the season). She's a go-getter and a true driver.

Go Simona! Show 'em what you've got!

[rickb99]

Janet Guthrey and Lyn St. James NEVER received half the attention that Danica gets. They just drove their cars fast. Sorta like Simona

[Brian]

Danica is getting ignored these days in Indycar, except when she does something good as in the long beach race where she basically just didn't get hit, didn't hit anything, and had a decent finish. Simona has to do the same, should be qualifying better than she has been, and needs to show some quality. We need to see a step up from where she was last year.

First start, first corner in Brazil wasn't that hot, in a highly predictable manner.

Brian

[Steve Demeter]

Remember that Danica has spent her entire career with very first tier teams.

Simona is with a not so first tier team and is beating the pants of Danica.

She is the real thing.

Let's see: Danica came up through FF and FA and her weak spot is road courses.

Face it, she has already peaked about 2008.

[Brian]

It has to be embarrassing for the Danica camp right now. Being out-qualified by most of the rookies (Hinchcliffe is doing amazing I think), and really not racing well. Kinda sucks when your strategy is run at the back and try not to get lapped, and wait for all the racy guys to take each other out to get into a top-10 finish.

I agree with you on Simona. I think she is driving well, racing well, but I still think they have to step up and get some better finishes. Hard to do.

Brian

[problemchild]

As the TV coverage wrapped up yesterday .... they announced the continued coverage would start at 1 pm Monday. I tune in at 1 pm to see fishing in Iceland. When I go online to find out whats goin on, I find out the race is over. These clowns deserve what they are getting in terms of respect, coverage, and exposure

Fortunately the fly-fishing in Iceland was quite interesting

[KevinFirlein]

greg, I just read they are re airing it 5pm eastern tonite on versus if that helps

[problemchild]

Thanks. Don't care very much .... just background noise in the shop. I just thought it was funny that they bothered to announce a time that was wrong. Had they not announced the time, I may have looked for it.

They weren't very lucky with the weather but did not seem to be doing much right. Yesterday, Dario had to explain to operations chief BB that puddles and standing water were the same thing.

[rickb99]

....Danica came up through FF and FA and her weak spot is road courses.....

Bobby Rahal took her to a road coarse to do a formal "test" for the short lived Formula Renault series here in the states.

She FAILED the test. Deemed not ready for road racing at that level.

[Steve Demeter]

Has not changed has it?

[Offcamber1]

I was at Indy in 94 for qualifying. At the time my hero was RED #5, and Lynn St. James outqualified Nigel who was the current CART champion, and only one year removed from his F1 World Championship. She put one of Dick Simon's 5 cars (think resources are spread thin at Andretti?) on the outside of row 2, and she was in her mid 40s at the time.

Lynn was also ahead of her time in putting the business side of things together. IMHO, she paved the way for Danica, Simona, Sarah, and the rest.

My hat is off to the lot of them, Danica included.

[mousecatcher]

Once again, Simona de Silvestro is out performing Danica Patrick on the streets of Brazil. When will she get all the credit due to her.

When she starts throwing tantrums?

[Ty_Handke_83]

When she starts throwing tantrums?

That will never happen though, she's not like that.

I've been on track with both of them in the past (Danica; Barber Dodge '02, and Atlantic testing '03, and Simona; FBMW testing '06 and Atlantic testing '07/'08)
From my perspective, Danica got less competitive as the cars got faster in the corners. If anything, I think the Indy Cars are actually easier to drive compared to Atlantics, and Danica is lucky that it is the case. If Indy Cars had tons of Ground Effects, she wouldn't stand a chance as I think that is her downfall, but I could be wrong.
When I first drove against Simona, I could tell she had natural skill and talent, and would go far. She didn't seem as aggressive or cut throat as most European drivers are, and I think that probably helps her over here. I've followed here career closely, and haven't been disappointed, I just wish she could get a chance in a top notch car, so she can really show what she is more than capable of.

[rickb99]

...... Simona...... I just wish she could get a chance in a top notch car, so she can really show what she is more than capable of.

Curious about the way the Euro women are treated over here. I thank the same thing is true of Katherine Legge. A GREAT talent in Atlantics but couldn't find the next level ride. Went back to Europe and races DTM. She's also cute but doesn't take her clothes off on TV.

[captaineddie1975]

I must have been not paying attention. What ever happened to Milka Duno?

[KevinFirlein]

Simona had a chance had a very good car this year until Michael Cannon ran for the hills the week of the 1st race. Keith Wiggins is a good team manager and they bought a brand new chassis for this season. they have 3 years full funding ( though to be fair, full is a relative term). But losing on of the best engineers in the paddock right before race 1 is a deep blow to recover from. I am not claiming a penske / ganassi oval beater but they would have been on par with the rest. Hopefully Keith can find a decent pay second driver for next season so they can make more progress in practice. Right now being in the top 10 hurts as they lose friday test time.

She and Keith really need to work on their oval program. Given their best place to shine is on the road courses I might well be inclined to run the back up chassis on the ovals to protect the new tub

[R. Pare]

I would say that after what she went through this weekend, she gained a lot of both respect and fans.

[Offcamber1]

It would appear that she is pretty fearless. Upside down and on fire on Thursday, in the field on Saturday. And there were some heavy hitters that did not make it in Saturday, including a certain high profile female driver.

BTW, nice to see Davey Hamilton make the show this year.

[dc]

I still think she's the most talented and personable female driver in the field. Great work by her this weekend—and great luck to her next weekend. I'll be rooting for her.