How Tatiana Calderon continues to crack motorsport’s glass ceiling

It was perhaps cheeky to ask Tatiana Calderon to sum up the month of her life prior to our chat in Abu Dhabi last month using just a single word.

In the weeks leading up to the GP3 Series finale at Yas Marina, she had fulfilled a lifelong dream of driving a Formula 1 car not just once, but twice. She’d also been confirmed for a Formula E test with defending teams’ champion, Techeetah, and secured a Formula 2 test ahead of a planned move up to the category for 2019.

“Fantastic” was Calderon’s choice of descriptor after a few moments of thought and a laugh. 

“It was a dream come true, to drive a Formula 1 car, and to do it in the C37 in Mexico, which is like the closest track to my hometown in Colombia, and being part of the Escuderia Telmex, I couldn’t have chosen a better place to do it," she said.

“And then to have two proper test days in Fiorano in Maranello, where you feel that Ferrari energy… it’s still incredible.”

The goal had always been for Calderon to test an F1 car in 2018 as part of her development role with Sauber. She had been preparing intensively throughout the year, adding nine centimetres to her neck circumference to deal with the stresses of an F1 car, only for Sauber to drop a bombshell just prior to Mexico.

Her first F1 test would not be in an old-spec car as expected. Instead, it would be in Sauber’s 2018 car, the C37, as part of the team’s permitted promotional running.

Calderon described her first feeling hitting the track in the F1 car as “something from a different world,” her previous benchmark being Formula Renault 3.5 cars.

“It seems like a video game, because it passes so quickly," she reflected. "Then you get sort of used to it. The brakes are incredible. It took me a few laps to get used to everything.”

Calderon was only able to complete 23 laps of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez due to the limits on promotional running, but impressed enough to secure a second, more extensive test, spending two days in the 2013-spec Sauber C32 car at Fiorano.

“I think it was a result of what happened in Mexico,” Calderon said. “We had said at the start of the year that maybe we’ll get a chance to drive an older car, but it was not that defined. That was a proper test with a lot of tyres, even race engineers - they went with me for that test, so it was proper.

“There were so many cameras on the Mexico test, you didn’t want to put a foot wrong. I was definitely not pushing to the limit. But at Fiorano I was able to explore the limits of the car, to really adapt my driving a bit more to suit the F1 car.

“Always when I jump in bigger cars, I’ve felt much more comfortable, because I’m a driver who pushes the entries a little bit more and when you have that extra downforce and extra grip overall, I think it really suits me. I really enjoyed those days, it was incredible.”

As for which of the two cars Calderon preferred driving? “Nothing beats the V8 sound!” she said. “It’s just music for me! There were a lot of people in Fiorano town, they heard the noise of the engine and came to watch on the fence.”

Calderon was told by the engineers on-site to perform doughnuts at the end of her run for the fans who had braved the 4ºC temperature to watch her. “It was just the cherry on the top of the cake, really cool.”

‘I’M A DIFFERENT DRIVER’

The F1 test came at the end of a difficult third and final full year in GP3. While it was certainly Calderon’s strongest season, one that ended with five straight points finishes, she ended up 16th in the standings with a best finish of P6. Nevertheless, Calderon said she felt “much more complete” as a driver for her experiences this year.

“Maybe sometimes the results don’t show the full potential. It’s so difficult that you have one lap, because everybody is sort of improving, and if you don’t put it all together there in qualifying, it’s really difficult to make up the places in the race,” Calderon said.

“Of course I wanted more from the season, but I’m quite grateful that I had the chance to test a Formula 1 car, and that I did quite well. I feel like I’m a different driver from the start of the season.”

Just as Calderon is a different driver to the one who started the year, Sauber is a different team. Its ascendance from backmarker to occasional midfield leader has been one of the feel-good stories in F1 this year, making the team one to watch for 2019.

“It’s incredible, the step they’ve made,” Calderon said. “I think that it shows what happens when you work hard, because they’re hard working and passionate people working there, I think it makes a huge difference.

“Even when you listen in the debriefs and things like this, you feel the motivation of the people. They want to do extra work because they are so close.

“That’s the key. You know that if you put in an extra two hours of work and you find this little tenth here, it makes a lot of difference. I really see that good atmosphere and motivation within the team.”

While Calderon is still yet to have any formal confirmation of plans for 2019 regarding her role with Sauber, the noises coming out of the team are positive.

“She did two good tests,” Sauber team boss Frederic Vasseur said. “The first one was more of a PR event in Mexico, but the second one was a real test and she did really well. She is able to manage the situation on the physical side, that probably, in this case in F2, is more difficult without power steering.

“She did well. She is very calm, improving step-by-step and, honestly, she is a very good test driver. She impressed everybody, including the engineers with 25 years of experience at the team.

“Now we have to relax. She will do the F2 test and see what happens.”

Calderon linked up with Charouz Racing System for the F2 test, the team which will be Sauber’s junior outfit from 2019. Her F2 test results were competitive, finishing 13th overall across the two days to act as a promising sign for 2019.

“I would love to continue [with Sauber],” Calderon said. “We haven’t really discussed much further. I would love to stay because I feel part of the family, and I get along with everybody really well. Hopefully we can finish the season on a high and have a good test to see what we can do in the future.”

A TIMELY ROLE MODEL

Calderon’s recent events and achievements have come at the end of a big year for women in motorsport. The FIA’s Women in Motorsport Commission has been doing more and more work, ranging from its new ‘The Girls On Track’ scheme for young racers to its two-day assessment for a number of female racers, including Calderon, in Spain. Dare To Be Different, set up by Susie Wolff, the most recent woman before Calderon to drive an F1 car, also continues to stand out as an important scheme for women at every level of motorsport.

But one of the biggest talking points for women in motorsport this year was the launch of the all-new, female-only W Series. 

Established to try and enhance and further female involvement in racing, the championship has divided opinion, with some believing it to be a step backward for the progression of women. The series has named a 55-driver long-list, all of whom will face assessments in the near future, with notable names including Beitske Visser, Jamie Chadwick, Alice Powell and Carmen Jorda.

Calderon herself was supportive when asked about the W Series one month prior to our interview, but only as a first step. “I think it will be helpful for some of the girls who are struggling with budget or that want to start to prepare to get competitive against the boys,” she said. “In that sense, we need to thank also the organisation. If they’re doing the effort you can’t really be against somebody who wants to promote motorsport and female participation.

“But my view is that we can compete in equal terms, and anyway, if you want to reach Formula 1, you have to go through Formula 2.”

Calderon has already surpassed that level – the W Series will use Formula 3 cars – and noted that she had even felt a noticeable change in how she is perceived and treated as a result of her recent achievements.

“Now that I’ve sort of reached Formula 1, people start to respect you more. I think with the new initiatives like Dare To Be Different, like what the FIA is trying to do with the Women’s Commission, I think slowly but surely, things are changing for us.

“Of course you still have to prove yourself, but once you’ve done that, they’re sort of like: ‘OK there’s something we can do here.’

“That’s all you ever want, that opportunity, and they’ve given me that. I think things are changing.”

Calderon herself is also eager to play a key role in the future in helping further female involvement in motorsport: “I think this sport has given me so much, and I’m convinced that we can compete at the highest level. I want to help the next generation have more opportunities than I have had, and to make it that they can make a career out of racing.”

But Calderon doesn’t need to wait until her racing days are over to make that kind of impact – because she is already doing exactly that. It is hard to find a woman who has driven such a wide variety of cars in such a short space of time, ranging across F1, F2, GP3 and – after this weekend – Formula E.

The last few weeks were indeed “fantastic” for Calderon. But thanks to her actions, they have also been fantastic for women in motorsport as a whole. 

At a time when more and more young girls are getting into racing, to have someone like Calderon to look up to – a proper racer, getting behind the wheel of anything she can, fighting on a level playing field against men – will be of enormous value.

The glass ceiling is continuing to crack. If the results come along in the near future, Tatiana Calderon could be the woman to shatter it.