Tatiana Calderón

Tatiana Calderón Noguera (born 10 March 1993) is a Colombian racing driver who currently competes in the NASCAR Brasil Series for SG28 Racing and serves as test driver for the Formula 2 and Formula 3 Championships. Calderón previously drove for the Drago Corse with ThreeBond squad in the Super Formula Championship and for Richard Mille Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Born into a family of car dealers, Calderón began racing go-karts at the age of nine, and was the first woman to win national karting championships in either Colombia or the United States. She progressed to car racing at the age of 17 in the Star Mazda Championship, taking two podiums in the 2011 season, a race victory in the 2014 Florida Winter Series, and was runner-up in the 2015–16 MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship. Calderón was the first woman to stand on the podium in the British Formula 3 International Series and the first to lead a lap in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. From 2016 to 2018, she competed in the GP3 Series and later the 2019 Formula 2 Championship. Calderón was employed by the Sauber Formula One team (later Alfa Romeo Racing) as a development and test driver from 2018 to 2021.

Early and personal life Calderón was born in Colombia's capital of Bogotá on 10 March 1993 to Alberto Calderón Palau and María Clara Noguera Calderón. Alberto is the first cousin of Juan Manuel Santos, a former President of Colombia, and María is the daughter of Rodrigo Noguera Laborde, the co-founder of the Sergio Arboleda University. Her parents operate a Kia dealership in Bogotá. Calderón has an older sister named Paula, who co-manages the career of her younger sibling with former driver Fernando Plata, She was educated at Colegio Helvetia in Bogotá from 1997 to 2011, learning English and German, along with her native Spanish, and accommodated her racing with her education, sometimes having to miss weeks of school. Calderón played football, tennis, field hockey, golf, and tried horse riding before settling on motor racing at the age of nine. Since 2012, she has lived in the Spanish capital of Madrid.

Racing career Karting (2002–2008) When Calderón was four years old, she first drove around Bogotá's streets while perched on her father's lap and holding the steering wheel of the family vehicle. She was introduced to racing by her sister, and aged nine began driving go-karts visiting a rental race track north of Bogotá in the city's 170th street close to the family home with Paula and some of her friends. Calderón's mother tried to sway her away from racing because she believed it was too dangerous, Calderón was inspired by Juan Pablo Montoya's achievements and Ayrton Senna, a three-time Formula One World Champion. She became the first female Colombian national karting champion in 2005 when she won the EasyKart National Championship. She was third in the Stars of Karting Este Division, won the Rotax Junior Division of the Colombian Kart Championship and was runner-up in the EasyKart National Championship the following year. The former achievement made Calderón the first woman champion of a national American karting series. She finished second in that year's Colombian Rotax Senior Max Challenge. She had five top-ten finishes, with a best of seventh in the first Autobahn Country Club race. In thirteen races, Calderón finished with 320 points for a final championship position of tenth. While Daly advised Calderón and helped her to transition to driving more powerful cars, Calderón took two third place finishes at Barber Motorsports Park and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Her final championship position was sixth with 322 points scored.

Calderón entered into discussions to compete in Indy Lights for the 2012 season but she declined due to her and her father's dislike of oval tracks. Around this time, Calderón began working with racer Andy Soucek to better her driving ability. That year, she raced the entire 2012 European F3 Open Championship with EmiliodeVillota Motorsport with team owner Emilio de Villota as her race engineer. Calderón finished the season with eight top-ten finishes for ninth in the championship and 56 points scored. scoring no points to place 33rd in the standings.

For the 2013 season, Calderón joined Double R Racing for both the FIA Formula 3 European Championship and the British Formula 3 International Series. That year, she became the first woman to stand on the overall podium in British Formula 3 history with a third-place finish at the Nürburgring round. She scored no points in the European series, in part because of tyre issues, and Double R Racing's inexperience competing in the championship. In late October, she tested an Auto GP car in a two-day test session at the Circuito de Jerez. She made a guest appearance for EmiliodeVillota Motorsport in the season-ending European F3 Open Championship round at the Circuit de Catalunya but was ineligible to score points.

During the 2014 Florida Winter Series Calderón won her first open-wheel race at Sebring International Raceway. She finished fifth in the championship standings with two more top five finishes. She had originally signed for Signature Team days before the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship began; a lack of testing time and the misgivings of her being noncompetitive due to the car's under-powered engine led her to join Jo Zeller Racing. During the season, in which she was advised by Anthony Hamilton, the father of driver Lewis Hamilton, finishing 13th.

Formula 3 and GP3 Series (2015–2018)

In late 2014, driver Susie Wolff began to mentor and advise Calderón. Calderón briefly led the rain-affected third race at Spa-Francorchamps, becoming the first woman to lead a series race. She scored no points to go unranked in the 33-race season. where she developed a reputation for risky overtaking because the cars' low downforce allowed them to run close together. She consistently finished in the top five, winning at the Dubai Autodrome and was runner-up to Pietro Fittipaldi in the points standings. Calderón was ineligible to enter the series for a fourth consecutive season. She instead contested the 2016 GP3 Series for Arden International and was the team's first woman driver in history. She had tested a World Series Formula V8 3.5 car with Pons Racing at Ciudad del Motor de Aragón in November 2015 before choosing GP3 two months later because it was faster. Calderón was third at the Red Bull Ring and took 66 points for Teo Martín Motorsport and then RP Motorsport in six rounds of the Euroformula Open Championship.

At the end of 2016, Calderón was introduced to the Sauber Formula One team principal Monisha Kaltenborn and began working for Sauber as a development driver. Calderón switched teams from Arden to DAMS for the 2017 season. She had a best result of seventh at the Monza feature race and was eighth at the Circuito de Jerez to finish eighteenth in the drivers' championship with seven points. She finished third in the second race, taking the first podium finish for a woman in the series.

Calderón moved to Jenzer Motorsport for the 2018 GP3 Series after DAMS left the championship. A month later, Sauber made Calderón its test driver, spending time in the team's simulator and engineers coached her at its headquarters and race circuits. (Simona de Silvestro was employed by Sauber as an affiliate driver during 2014.) In GP3, her performance improved from 2017, scoring eleven points over seven races for a championship placing of sixteenth. she drove the team's C37 in a promotional day at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on 30 October, becoming the first Latin American woman to drive a Formula One car. Calderón drove a 2013 C32 car in a two-day test session at the Fiorano Circuit a month later. On 16 December, she tested the Techeetah DS E-TENSE FE19 electric car at the inaugural Formula E in-season test in Ad Diriyah, and drove it again in the series' rookie test at Marrakesh's Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan on 13 January 2019.

Formula 2 and Super Formula (2019–2022)

Calderón returned to Arden for the 2019 Formula 2 Championship and became the first woman to drive in the series. The renamed Alfa Romeo Racing team retained her as its test driver for the year. She stated that her two Formula One test sessions assisted her acclimatisation to Formula 2. At the Baku feature race, Calderón became the first woman in history to lead a lap in Formula 2. Poor qualifying results from a lack of tyre preparation led her to employ different strategies to gain position in a feature race. She had two race engineers during the season. Calderón had a best finish of eleventh at Circuit Paul Ricard and was 22nd in the drivers' standings with no points scored.

Following the purchase of Arden's Formula 2 entry for the 2020 season by HWA Racelab and the signing of drivers Giuliano Alesi and Artem Markelov, Calderón left the team and sought a career in either American or endurance racing. As a result, she left Formula 2 to join the Super Formula Championship with Drago Corse with ThreeBond for the 2020 season. Team owner Ryo Michigami negotiated with her late in December 2019 and concluded with an agreement not long after. Michigami selected Calderón over Nobuharu Matsushita for the seat and she spoke to him regularly about the SF19 car. In addition to her Super Formula seat she remained at Alfa Romeo's Formula One team as a test driver. Calderón worked with the reserve driver Robert Kubica to develop its C39 car, and was appointed an ambassador for the team. She also entered three rounds of the 2019–20 F3 Asian Championship with Seven GP, taking six top-ten finishes for 31 points and thirteenth in the drivers' standings. She injured her right hand in an accident with Olli Caldwell in the Monza sprint race and she spent the following two months recuperating with the help of therapy to regain her strength in her arm and injured hand. Calderón finished the year 28th in the Drivers' Championship and achieved no points-scoring finishes.

Sports car racing (2020–2025) Calderón entered the 2020 24 Hours of Daytona (part of the IMSA SportsCar Championship) alongside Rahel Frey, Katherine Legge and Christina Nielsen in the No. 19 GEAR Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo. (Ana Beatriz was due to partner Calderón at Daytona before she withdrew due to pregnancy.) Calderón prepared for the race by increasing her fitness regime and sleeping less in case she was told to drive early in the morning. Multiple car issues relegated the team to a sixteenth place finish in class. She shared a Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) Oreca 07-Gibson car in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) with Sophia Flörsch on the all-female Signatech-run Richard Mille Racing team in 2020. Calderón finished the ELMS season with three top-tens for eleventh in the Drivers' Championship with 19.5 points and was 23rd in the Super Formula Championship with zero points.

In 2021, Calderón raced in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in the No. 1 Richard Mille Racing-run Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 car with Flörsch and Visser and continued to drive for the single car Drago Corse team in the Super Formula Championship. She was also retained as Alfa Romeo's test and development driver. Calderón's WEC season saw her finish seventeenth in the LMP2 Drivers' Championship with 23 points with four top-ten finishes in the five races that she entered. She concluded the Super Formula season without scoring any points in the four races she drove for 24th in the championship standings. She ended the season 16th in the LMP2 Pro/Am Drivers' Championship with five top-tens and one pole position. She concluded the season with no top-ten finishes and was 41st in the class standings with 883 points. She prepared for two weeks learning the circuit and the car and received coaching and mentoring. and the team considered her a potential driver for the 2022 IndyCar Series. She left Alfa Romeo in 2021, and signed to drive the No. 11 A. J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara-Chevrolet vehicle, originally for each of the twelve street and road course rounds of the 2022 IndyCar Series; she was replaced by J. R. Hildebrand for the oval track races. After competing in seven races, she was sidelined due to repeated missed payments by her team's primary sponsor. She ended the season 29th in the drivers' standings with 58 points scored. She returned in October later that year, where she was selected by Citroën Racing to participate in the all women's test at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

Stock car racing (2026–present) In 2026, Calderón was scheduled to join the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series with new team SG28 Racing – however, after the teams' cars were delivered late and without the required running gear, she switched to the NASCAR Brasil Series.

Driving style Calderón describes herself as a smooth driver; she feels she reacts better to more powerful cars and in wet weather. Calderón's short stature of makes it challenging for her to find the right angle and maximise arm force. The GP3 Series regulations prevented her from having a rest placed at the back of her helmet. Calderón also spent half of the 2016 season figuring out where she liked to sit, making it touch her legs when steering and decided to adjust the position of her car pedals for more comfort.

Racing record Career summary

IndyCar Series (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Points Ref 2022 A. J. Foyt Enterprises 11 Dallara DW12 Chevrolet STP TXS LBH ALA IMS INDY DET ROA MOH TOR IOW IOW IMS NSH GTW POR LAG 29th 58

Complete Euroformula Open Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Macau Grand Prix results Year Team Car Qualifying Quali Race Main race 2014 Mücke Motorsport Dallara F312 21st 16th 13th

† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as she completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete F3 Asian Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete European Le Mans Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points 2020 Richard Mille Racing Team LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 LEC SPA LEC MNZ ALG 11th 19.5 2023 Team Virage LMP2 Pro-Am Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 CAT LEC ARA SPA ALG ALG 16th 24

Complete Super Formula results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Points 2020 Drago Corse with ThreeBond Honda MOT OKA SUG AUT SUZ SUZ FUJ 23rd 0 2021 Drago Corse with ThreeBond Honda FUJ SUZ AUT SUG MOT MOT SUZ 24th 0

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points 2021 Richard Mille Racing Team LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 SPA ALG MNZ LMS BHR BHR 17th 23

Complete Stock Car Pro Series results Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Rank Points 2026 SG28 by RTR Toyota Corolla Cross CRS1 CRS2 CAS1 CAS2 INT1 INT2 GOI1 GOI2 CUI1 CUI2 VCA1 VCA2 SCZ1 SCZ2 CRS1 CRS2 BRA1 BRA2 CAS1 CAS2 VEL1 VEL2 INT1 INT2 36th* 0* Season still in progress.