Tatiana Calderon becomes Sauber development driver

2017 F1 season

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Sauber has signed Colombian racer Tatiana Calderon as a development driver for the 2017 F1 season.

The 23-year-old is one of the leading women in junior single-seaters having raced extensively in Formula Three. She moved into GP3 with Arden last season but ended the year 21st.

Calderon previously won races in India’s MRF Challenge and the Florida World Series. In the latter she raced against current F1 drivers Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll.

She will join the team’s young driver development programme which will including coaching from the team’s engineers at the track and at their base during selected race weekends. Calderon will also have simulator training sessions, although Sauber does not have its own simulator.

The Colombian racer is backed by Escuderia Telmex, which previously brought Mexican drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez into Formula One.

“We have the opportunities and facilities to provide Tatiana a professional platform on which she can further develop her knowledge and skills in racing,” said Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn.

“I am convinced that we can provide her lots of in-depth motorsport know-how for her future career in racing.”

Calderon said: “I am grateful to be working with such an established Formula One team and to benefit from its long experience. I look forward to working with the team and learning as much as I can.”

“It is a step closer to my dream – one day competing in Formula One.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on “Tatiana Calderon becomes Sauber development driver”

  1. Meh, she’s not talented. Nowhere near the talent expected in F1. Hope we can have a strong female driver soon!

  2. They really need the money. 😬

  3. Paul Ortenburg
    28th February 2017, 8:09

    Carmen 2.0?

    1. While Tatiana isn’t exactly Formula One material, she’s scored 2 points in the GP3 championship in 1 season. That surely beats Carmen Jordá’s record of 0 points in 3 seasons.

    2. You could also call her Simona 2.0, but that wouldn’t do justice to de Silvestro’s talents. Hope she does well in Australian Supercars this season.

    3. As @casjo and Ludwig mentions, she is not as far off the pace as Carmen was. I saw some good racing from her when I was at Hockenheim last year. But she is unlikely to be a top notch driver either.

  4. I’d normally fulminate against these kinds of clearly commercial deals, but I like Sauber and a bigger grid. So, good on them.

  5. I like this trend of pretty girls becoming development drivers. They’ll never get to race, but I find it amusing nonetheless. Glad to see Sauber banked some of that Telmex money…

  6. Did Tatiana beat Max and Lance when she raced against them in the “Florida (Winter) Series”?

    1. goo question Gary. where did she end up racing against them. can anyone find out?

    2. @greggriffiths There were no points awarded in the FWS, but based on results, Antonio Fuoco was the ‘champion’. Verstappen was 3rd, Calderòn 5th and Stroll 8th. So she dit pretty ok.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Florida_Winter_Series

      1. *did*, not *dit* facepalm

        1. haha. your a legend @matthijs. im feeling dang lasy right now.

          thats a decent result seeign as both of the guys are now in F1 as part of the main line up. hats off to her – dotn ruler her out yet (untill weve seen stroll)

    3. So what @matthijs showed means that she did in fact beat Stroll. But he has improved a lot last year too. That said, I think Calderon is at least a decent racer, not “just a pretty face with mony tied to it”

  7. She is nothing like Carmen…. Didnt you read the part about winning races?

    That being said not exactly F1 material. Good question would be who is the highest scoring woman on FIA superliscence list?

    1. I believe there is not a single girl with superlicense points at the moment. At least I don’t remember finding one when I went through the list some weeks ago.

  8. jeez, 23? isn’t that a bit old for an F1 rookie these days?
    Hello Kitty is joking of course. Good luck to her!!

  9. join you on that Hello Kitty. this is excelent. to see Suzie wolff walk off into the suset like she did was a big shame. let hope, like Suzie, Tatiana will, if never a full driver, a force that proves women can compeat in F1 (even if it is in their own league)

  10. Good on them. She might not be fit for an F1 drive but as a “development driver” she doesnt have to be. Whatever they hired her for i hope she got the skills to back it up which would be more than a number of the guys on the grid can boast with.

  11. I’d rather see an ugly female driver who has some talent.

  12. I’m actually not as against this as many others seem to be because I actually think Tatiana has a fair amount of potential. I know that some of the people that have worked with her over the last few years think relatively highly of her.

    She won races, Scored podiums & points in the junior categories. This is just a development deal, She’ll be on the simulator & if good enough on that may get a run in the car, Not as if she’s just signed a race deal or anything.

  13. I remember her from the Florida world series, unfortunately her competitiveness seems to have dropped since then. Still, she’s not a complete no-hoper (hello Carmen), so I don’t see any problem with this appointment.

  14. With regards to the gender concious comments above:

    Women will never be as good as the men in F1.

    That may upset your feminist-influenced ideas of gender equality, but look at the facts rather than the philosophy of “men and women are equally good at everything”. The philosophy simply isn’t true. There are gender specific strengths and weaknesses.

    F1 is about men’s strengths. That’s why its dominated by men.

    1. Men’s strengths????? I take it your’e super popular at work. A successful F1 driver needs his/her strengths to be based on concentration/focus, risk vs return, good muscle memory/instinct, predict driver reaction and light weight. Non of these are men’s strengths. I challenge you to find a successful female athlete that does not possess these strengths. The reason F1 is dominated by men is simply because the level of talent required to stand out is so competitive. Based on the number of female racers the odds are against them. Simples

    2. Your opinion is exactly the problem. You generalise gender inequalities where really there are none. It’s down to the individual.
      A particular person can be stronger/weaker than the next, gender doesn’t come into it. It’s about what that person wants and how they go about getting it.

      I hope you don’t teach your children that backwards nonsense

    3. Unless of course you’re trolling, just spotted your name is ‘Bernie’

    4. There are a lot of women who could beat you up!

  15. you can see her here, wining in karting
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Xek11_JPc

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