De Silvestro made her return to IndyCar in last year’s Indianapolis 500 with Paretta Autosport, a female-forward team. But for this year team owner Beth Paretta has elected to use the funding she has raised to run three IndyCar races – Road America this weekend, Mid-Ohio in July and Nashville in August – as she targets evolving the team into a full-time operation.
The current IndyCar chassis is still basically the same as the last one she raced on a road course, the DW12, but much has changed. When she finished fourth at the NOLA Motorsports Park in the 2015 Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana, De Silvestro’s Andretti Autosport car had the Honda aerokit. Since then the universal aerokit was introduced for 2018, and there have been weight distribution changes due to extra safety reinforcements – not least the aeroscreen.
