Tatiana Calderón

Early life

Calderón was born and raised in Bogotá and entered the Colegio Helvetia when she was four years old. She studied there from 1997 until 2011 and learned English and German, along with her native Spanish. During the years she competed in kart races, before moving up categories and had to accommodate her races with her schooling, sometimes having to miss weeks of school. She graduated in June 2011 and moved to Indianapolis in order to train full-time for her team, Juncos Racing. In 2012, she moved to Madrid to compete in the European F3 category.

Racing career

In the 2005–06 season she was a karting driver and won the Easykart National Championship. In the next season she ended up third in the Colombian National Kart Championship, Rotax junior division. In 2008 she became the first female to win the Snap-On-Stars of Karting Divisional Championship-JICA Eastern Championship and was the IAME International Challenge champion. She continued enjoying success next year when she ended up second in the Radical European Master Series — SR5 and second in the Colombian Rotax Senior Max Challenge.

In 2010 she began her open-wheel auto racing career and moved to the Star Mazda Championship driving for Juncos Racing and finished tenth in her rookie season with a best finish of seventh in race 1 at Autobahn Country Club. She also won the Colombian Rotax Championship in karting that year. In the 2011 season, she ended in sixth position, finishing third twice, marking her as the first and only woman so far to climb the podium in the series.

Also in 2011 she attended the last three weekends of the 2011 European F3 Open season for Team West-Tec finishing in all six races, with an 8th-place best finish in the last round at Catalunya, Spain. Ending 21st overall with 3 points.

In 2012, she moved to Europe, to race with the Emilio de Villota team finishing 9th overall with 56 points in the 2012 European F3 Open season.

In 2013, she debuted with newcomers Double R Racing in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship gaining no points, with a best 15th-place finish in Silverstone, UK. She also contested the full 2013 British Formula 3 season with Double R Racing finishing 7th overall with 79 points and one podium finish, a 3rd place at the Nürburgring, Germany. The first and only woman racer to stand on the podium in the British series. She also made a guest appearance in the last weekend of the 2013 European F3 Open season finishing 6th and 7th at Catalunya, Spain for Emilio de Villota Motorsport albeit ineligible to score points as a guest driver.

In the 2014 European Formula 3 season Calderón moved to Jo Zeller Racing finishing 15th overall with 29 points, gaining a best finish of 5th place at the second race of the Spa, Belgium weekend that year.

In 2015, it was announced that she was to complete Carlin Motorsport's team for the 2015 FIA European Formula 3 Championship season. She briefly led the third race at Spa, Francorchamps in Belgium on rain tyres, becoming the first female to lead a FIA European Formula 3 race moving through the order from a lowly 27th on the starting grid. Eventually the track dried up and the Colombian female racer had to pit for slicks ending up 15th on the finish line.

Due to new sporting regulations introduced by the FIA at the end of 2015 that limits drivers to three complete seasons in European F3, Calderón would have been ineligible to enter the FIA European Formula 3 Championship for a fourth consecutive season and will instead contest the 2016 FIA GP3 Series for Arden International. This made her the first female driver to race for Arden in their 19-year history.

In 2017, Calderón was hired by the Sauber Formula One team as a development driver. In addition to continuing her GP3 schedule, she would test in the team's simulator.

Complete FIA European Formula 3 Championship results

(key)

Complete GP3 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)