At least three female drivers will be competing in most Izod IndyCar Series races in 2010, and possibly four.
HVM Racing announced Monday that Atlantic Championship graduate Simona De Silvestro will drive its No. 78 Team Stargate Worlds car for a full campaign. The 21-year-old from Switzerland won four Atlantic races in 2009 and took the championship lead into the season finale before getting crashed out.
Milka Duno reportedly has sponsorship for at least a partial Indy car season and is trying to find a team to field her entry. And owner/driver Sarah Fisher has expanded her 2010 program to include at least nine races.
Finally, Indy Lights race winner Ana Beatriz will make her IndyCar Series debut in her home race at Sao Paulo, Brazil for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Additional races are a possibility if 'Bia' turns in a good performance in Brazil.
From a competitive standpoint, De Silvestro is likely to make the biggest impact. Comparisons to Danica Patrick are obvious and have already started: Both drove single-seat formula cars in Europe prior to two seasons of Formula Atlantic. Patrick never won in Atlantics against a much stronger field than De Silvestro faced.
Katherine Legge also won Atlantic races and went on to compete in the Champ Car World Series and the DTM touring car championship.
Beatriz is the only female driver to date who has triumphed in Indy Lights competition.
De Silvestro tested a Dallara-Honda Indy car at Sebring International Raceway for HVM, and at the recent IndyCar Series open test at Barber Motorsports Park she lapped 0.3-second faster than Patrick on the second day.
"Racing in the IndyCar series, alongside the class of competition that I will be racing with, is a true honor," De Silvestro said.
HVM team principal Keith Wiggins has fielded cars in numerous formula car series around the world, including Formula One, and he believes De Silvestro can succeed in Indy cars.
"From the first day of the first test, we knew she could drive," Wiggins said. "The longer we worked with her, the more she impressed us. I think she has a great future in this series. She made a lot of history in the Atlantic Championship, and we expect her to make some waves in IndyCar now that she's here."
Patrick has occasionally struggled at road courses like Barber (she was 18th of 21 drivers in the Indy car open test) so those venues are where De Silvestro could earn some bragging rights. But she has zero oval racing experience, and as a smaller scale former Champ car transition team, HVM isn't fully up to speed on ovals yet either.
Fisher, 29, has done an impressive job of building her close-knit team in tough economic times. Thanks to increased support from sponsor Dollar General stores, her program has grown from three races in 2008 to six last year to nine in 2010, including two road races.
Sarah Fisher Racing will also field a second car for former Indy Lights champion Jay Howard for a five-race slate.
