Simona de Silvestro is heading back to Italy this month with a very different kind of helmet on her mind — and a very different kind of stopwatch.
The 37-year-old, once a familiar name on IndyCar entry lists and briefly part of Sauber’s driver structure, has qualified to compete in bobsleigh at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, running from February 6-22. De Silvestro will represent Italy at the Games, completing one of the more unusual crossovers you’ll see from the motorsport world.
It’s not a total leap into the unknown, either. If there’s one thing De Silvestro has always leaned into, it’s the idea that a career doesn’t have to follow the neat, accepted ladder. She made 71 IndyCar starts between 2010 and 2022, with her best championship-era result highlighted here as 13th in 2013, and later broadened her CV with stints in Formula E and Australia’s Supercars scene. Even after stepping away from regular racing, she resurfaced in November 2024 for Formula E’s special all-female test at Jarama — a reminder that, whatever direction her life takes, she never really cuts the cord with a cockpit for long.
That connection to single-seaters is also why her Olympic story will resonate in F1 circles. Back in 2014, Sauber brought her in as an “affiliated driver” — the sort of title teams use when they want to explore potential without making a full commitment. It was a period when Sauber, then as now, was a team that needed smart ideas and fresh commercial angles to survive. De Silvestro completed a private run in a 2012-spec Sauber at Fiorano as part of a development programme that, at least in theory, was designed to build towards a 2015 race opportunity.
That moment, quietly ambitious and a bit improbable, tells you plenty about how De Silvestro has operated: willing to be judged in tough environments, and willing to chase doors that aren’t always held open. Ultimately, the relationship ended later that year and the F1 pathway closed — a familiar story for drivers who get close enough to smell the paddock without ever being handed the keys.
A decade on, Sauber has become Audi’s works project, and De Silvestro’s own route has taken a hard left into winter sport. Her last known race appearance came in 2023, and she’s spent recent years focusing on bobsleigh seriously enough to reach Olympic qualification — not as a novelty entrant, but as an athlete who’s done the work.
“We officially made it. We’re going to the Olympic Games,” De Silvestro wrote on social media after securing her place. “Proof that a little crazy, mixed with belief, can make the impossible real. It all started with a dream that I wasn’t scared to chase! I cannot wait to represent Italy in Milano Cortina 2026.”
For F1 fans, there’s something quietly satisfying about that tone: it’s the same stubborn optimism you hear from drivers trying to claw their way into the top tier, the ones who keep going long after logic suggests they should pivot. In De Silvestro’s case, the pivot is real — but the mindset is identical.
She hasn’t disappeared from motorsport, either. De Silvestro continues to work as a pundit for Switzerland’s SRF Sport, keeping a foot in the world that first made her a recognizable name. And while her Sauber chapter will always read like a “what if?” footnote to F1 followers, Milano Cortina offers her something motorsport rarely does: a single, definitive event where the job is to peak on the day, with the entire world watching.
In an era when drivers are increasingly managed, branded and boxed into clean narratives, De Silvestro’s story remains refreshingly untidy. She didn’t reach F1. She did plenty anyway. Now she’s an Olympian — and, frankly, that’s a finish line most people in the paddock will never touch.
