Team preseason profile: Opportunity to step up

KV Racing Technology

The cast: Drivers – Tony Kanaan and Simona de Silvestro. Chief engineers – Eric Cowdin (Kanaan), Gerald Tyler (de Silvestro). Race strategists – Jimmy Vasser and Eric Cowdin (Kanaan), Jimmy Vasser and Gerald Tyler (de Silvestro)

Twitter: @TonyKanaan, @simdesilvestro, @kvracing

The cars: No. 11 Chevrolet-powered KV Racing Technology-SH (Kanaan) and No. 78 Chevrolet-powered Nuclear Clean Air Energy (de Silvestro).

Snapshot: Kanaan exchanged wedding vows with Lauren Bohlander on March 8. De Silvestro, a native of Switzerland, helped introduce the Chevrolet Spark EV early this month at the Geneva International Motor Show.

The stats: Kanaan, the 2004 IZOD IndyCar Series champion, posted five top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 2012 in his second season with KV Racing Technology. … He had a best finish of second at Milwaukee and wound up ninth in championship points. … Qualified in the top 10 in four of the first five races and nine of the 15 overall. … He has finished third and fourth the past two years in the Indianapolis 500. … De Silvestro will surpass 50 IZOD IndyCar Series starts over her four seasons. She has a total of five top-10 finishes, with a high of fourth in the 2011 St. Petersburg opener (in which Kanaan finished third). … She did not record a top 10 in 2012 as her HVM Racing team struggled with the Lotus engine.

The gist: The team, co-owned by Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser, welcomed Imran Safiulla as a partner in the offseason. On March 13, it announced an alliance with SH Racing for the No. 11 entry. Kanaan holds the series record for most consecutive starts (162), and his streak of combined consecutive starts (including CART) is 196. Vasser holds the record of 211. De Silvestro joined the team in December; it will be her first season in the series to have a teammate.

They said it: “The team is the same so that’s a plus for me,” Kanaan said. “(de Silvestro) is easygoing. It’s going to make me raise my game. She has the best opportunity of her career so hopefully she’ll make the most of it. I have been around for a while, and I can teach her a few things as I have a history of helping drivers. I am willing to give her my experience to help her succeed.”

Added de Silvestro: “We are learning, and we have much more power with the Chevy engines. Tony and I are trying to figure out how to work together, as I have never had a teammate before. This is an opportunity for me and a step up. You have to make the most of what you have. I am lucky to be driving in IndyCar, and even though I had a long season last year, something good came out of it, to be driving for KV (Racing Technology).”