Tom welcomes Porsche test driver Simona de Silvestro to another exciting episode of Nitro Nights.
The guest in our eleventh Nitro Nights episode is the incredible Simona de Silvestro, who’s a test driver for Porsche. In fact, Simona is the famed car manufacturer’s first female test driver ever. To her, the signing was nothing short of “a dream come true”.
In her talk with Tom, she explains what she can contribute to the team thanks to her experience in Formula E. But she also learns much from her team-mates at Porsche in return. She compares her team with a family that helps each other out. “I think it’s really special, you know, because in racing it can be pretty ‘cutthroat’ sometimes.”
On the difference between sim and real racing
Of course Tom wants to know about her involvement as an esports driver and how she is faring. Although Simona enjoys playing very much, she doesn’t have much of a gaming background. “It’s been pretty fun but I think pretty frustrating,” she admits laughingly. She adds: “It’s quite different to drive and I drive it too much like a car.” Because of that sim racers still are a bit faster than Simona and her team, however they work hard on improving their performance all the time.
An important factor which plays into that is the feeling real-world racers have developed which doesn’t translate into sims that well. Sim racers have an advantage as they can assess right opportunities better. Nevertheless, Simona seems quite excited learning more and more about esports racing.
If you want to know on which platform you can compete against Simona and what’s it like to work with Porsche junior driver Ayhancan Güven, make sure to watch this episode of Nitro Nights!
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