The new colour scheme is an evolution on last year’s car, with principal sponsor Harvey Norman being joined by Lenovo, LG and Trend Micro.

“You always want to have a good looking car and the team have done a great job,” de Silvestro said. “I can’t wait to see what it looks like on track. I spent the off-season training back in Europe, but I was constantly talking to the team and keeping updated on everything. But now I’m focussed on building upon last year and showing what we can do.”

Silvestro endured a typically tough debut season as the former openwheeler specialist adapted to the different discipline of touring car racing while at the same time competing at circuits of which she had no prior experience.

But strong performances at Bathurst – the only Australian track the former Indycar star had raced at before the start of 2017 – and at the season-ending Newcastle street circuit (a new circuit of which none of the drivers had prior experience) provided a glimpse of what might be to come in Supercars from the Swiss driver.

“I can’t wait to get to Adelaide,” she said ahead of the season opener in the City of Churches. “This year is a big change, as I’ll be familiar with most of the tracks. It means we won’t be dedicating valuable track time to learning which way the circuit goes or where braking markers are. We started to really put all the pieces of the puzzle together in the second half of last year. Newcastle and Bathurst were a lot of fun, and it was exciting to be racing inside the top 10. I have high expectations on myself to improve and be racing up the front on a consistent basis.”

De Silvestro will be working with a new race engineer for 2018 in Chris Stuckey. The pair will work together for the first time at the pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park.

“I’m really looking forward to working with Chris this year. The team were very keen to get him on-board and that obviously means he knows what he’s doing. The test day will help us understand each other and by Adelaide we’ll be speaking the same language. I just want the season to start now!”