Tatiana Calderon: Firsts, Formula 2 and Endurance Racing

Tatiana Calderon is a Colombian driver whose career moved from karting in Bogota to open-wheel racing in the United States and Europe. She has several women's firsts to her name, including a Formula 2 lap led in 2019. Her Formula One connection was as a development and test driver for Sauber, while her later results came in endurance racing and stock cars.

Who is Tatiana Calderon?

Tatiana Calderon is a Colombian racing driver born on 10 March 1993 in Bogota. She raced in Formula 2 in 2019 and 2022, competed in Super Formula and endurance racing, and worked for Sauber as a test driver from 2018 to 2021. In 2026 she moved into the NASCAR Brasil Series with SG28 Racing.

Her record is built on a run of milestones for women in motorsport. In 2013 she reached the overall British Formula 3 podium, and in 2015 she led a race in a European Formula 3 series. In 2026 she took a NASCAR Brasil victory, the first by a woman in that series.

Her milestones run from a Colombian karting title to a NASCAR Brasil win, with several firsts for women along the way.

How did Calderon start in karting?

Calderon began karting at the age of nine after her older sister Paula drew her into the sport at a rental track north of Bogota. She claimed the national karting title in Colombia in 2005 by winning the EasyKart National Championship. In 2008 she won two more titles, and the Snap-On title gave her the first female crown in a US national karting series.

Her first memories of racing came earlier, when she sat on her father's lap as a small child and held the wheel of the family car. Her father later bought her a go-kart for use on the family farm and taught her how the machinery worked. Her mother was worried about the dangers at first, but she accepted the career on the condition that school grades stayed strong.

Calderon also had to earn respect on track. Rivals often made contact with her once she started winning, and she answered by showing she could not be rattled. She drove her first racing car at 14, a Kia Picanto shared with Paula.

How did her open-wheel career begin?

Calderon moved into open-wheel racing in the Star Mazda Championship in 2010, driving for Juncos Racing. She finished tenth with 320 points from thirteen races. In 2011 she took two third-place finishes, a first for a woman in the series, and ended the year sixth with 322 points.

Her sports car debut came earlier, in 2009, in the Radical European Master Series SR5. She finished second in the series with one victory and ten podium finishes, scoring 240 points for the PoleVision team. That year she also finished second in the Colombian Rotax Senior Max Challenge, and in 2010 she took the Colombian Rotax Championship.

Early in 2011 she joined the Derek Daly Academy development programme. Daly advised her on moving up to more powerful cars, and she remained at Juncos for the 2011 Star Mazda season, switching to car number 10. Her strongest runs came at Barber and at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Later in 2011 she contested the last three rounds of the European F3 Open Championship with Team West-Tec. She scored three points with an eighth-place finish in a Circuit de Catalunya race and ended the drivers' standings 21st.

What happened in her 2012 to 2014 seasons?

In 2012 she raced the full European F3 Open season for EmiliodeVillota Motorsport and finished ninth with 56 points. In 2013 she joined Double R Racing and claimed third at the Nurburgring, a podium in British Formula 3. In 2014 she took her first open-wheel victory, at Sebring, and became the first woman since Cathy Muller in 1983 to contest the Macau Grand Prix.

Calderon turned down a 2012 seat in Indy Lights because she and her father disliked oval tracks. Instead she worked on her technique with Andy Soucek. That winter she flew to Colombia for the 6 Hours of Bogota, where she shared a Radical with three co-drivers, finishing third overall and second in class.

The 2013 season was a mixed picture. Tyre problems and the team's inexperience in the championship held back her European results, and she finished 20th at the Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort. Before joining Double R she had raced in the New Zealand-based Toyota Racing Series as the only woman in the field.

The 2014 season opened with the Florida Winter Series, where she won at Sebring and finished fifth in the standings. Back in Europe she raced at Paul Ricard before joining Jo Zeller Racing for the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. She had first signed with Signature Team, but concerns about limited testing time and an under-powered engine led her to switch. Anthony Hamilton, father of Lewis Hamilton, advised her during the year, and she finished 15th in the standings.

How did her European F3 and GP3 seasons go?

In 2015 she raced for Carlin in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship and briefly led a rain-affected race at Spa-Francorchamps. She scored no points that year. From 2016 to 2018 she raced in GP3, where her best finish was seventh at Monza in 2017.

The 2015 season was her first with Carlin, after a test with the team in December 2014 and mentoring from Susie Wolff. Over a 33-race season she had no points-scoring finishes, but her lead at Spa stood out. During the 2015-16 season she also drove for MRF Racing in the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship, winning at the Dubai Autodrome and finishing runner-up to Pietro Fittipaldi.

A governing body rule introduced in late 2015 limited drivers to three full seasons in European Formula 3, which meant she could not stay in the series for a fourth year. She joined Arden International for the 2016 GP3 Series, becoming the team's first woman driver. She scored two points with tenth places at Hockenheimring and Monza and finished 21st in the standings.

In 2016 she also took 66 points from six rounds of the Euroformula Open Championship, finishing third at the Red Bull Ring. For 2017 she moved to DAMS. Her best result that year was seventh in a Monza feature race, and she finished 18th in the championship with seven points. In 2018 she switched to Jenzer Motorsport after DAMS left the series, scoring eleven points from seven races for 16th place.

Why was her role with Sauber significant?

Sauber made Calderon a test driver in 2018, after she had worked with the team as a development driver since late 2016. On 30 October 2018 she drove a Sauber C37 at a promotional day at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which made her the first woman from Latin America to drive a Formula One car.

Her Formula One work was largely behind the scenes. She spent time in the team's simulator and attended race weekends, and engineers coached her at headquarters and at circuits. A month after the Mexico day she drove a 2013 C32 at Fiorano over two days. The team later became Alfa Romeo Racing, and she worked on its C39 car with reserve driver Robert Kubica.

Her test programme also reached electric racing. On 16 December 2018 she tested a Techeetah DS E-TENSE FE19 at the Formula E in-season test at Ad Diriyah, and she drove it again at the rookie test in Marrakesh on 13 January 2019. Calderon remained a Sauber test driver until 2021.

How did she perform in Formula 2?

Calderon went back to Arden for the 2019 Formula 2 season and was the first woman to race in the series. At the Baku feature race she led a lap, which no woman had done before in Formula 2. Her best finish was eleventh at Circuit Paul Ricard, and she ended the year 22nd with no points.

Qualifying was difficult, so she used different race strategies to gain positions. She worked with two race engineers that season. Late in 2019 she also entered the Porsche Supercup round at Mexico City, retiring from the first race and finishing last in the second.

In August 2022 she joined Charouz Racing System for the final four rounds of the season, replacing Cem Bolukbasi, with financing from Karol G. Her right hand was hurt in a sprint race crash at Monza with Olli Caldwell, and she spent two months recovering. She finished 28th in the championship without a points-scoring finish and left the team at the end of the year because she lacked the sponsorship to continue.

What was her Super Formula career?

Calderon joined Drago Corse with ThreeBond for the 2020 Super Formula Championship, finishing 23rd with no points. She stayed with the single-car team in 2021 and scored nothing from four races, finishing 24th in the standings.

Team owner Ryo Michigami chose her over Nobuharu Matsushita for the seat after negotiations in December 2019. She spoke with him regularly about the SF19 car, and she kept her Formula One test role with Alfa Romeo. Alongside that she ran three events in the 2019-20 F3 Asian Championship for Seven GP, collecting six top-ten finishes, 31 points and 13th in the standings.

What has she achieved in endurance racing?

Calderon's endurance record includes a debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2020, where she finished ninth in LMP2 and 13th overall. She also raced in the European Le Mans Series, the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship between 2020 and 2024.

In 2020 she started the 24 Hours of Daytona in a No. 19 GEAR Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, sharing the car with Rahel Frey, Katherine Legge and Christina Nielsen. Car problems dropped the team to sixteenth in class. Her European Le Mans Series season came in an Oreca 07 LMP2 car with Sophia Florsch at Richard Mille Racing, where she ended the season eleventh in the standings with 19.5 points. At Le Mans that year she teamed with Florsch and Beitske Visser.

In 2021 she raced the World Endurance Championship with Richard Mille Racing, finishing seventeenth in the LMP2 standings with 23 points and four top-ten finishes from five races. In 2023 she drove for Team Virage in the LMP2 Pro-Am category of the European Le Mans Series and finished 16th with five top-ten finishes and one pole position.

Her IMSA programme came in 2024, when she joined Gradient Racing for the North American Endurance Cup and the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTD class, driving an Acura NSX GT3 Evo22. Her class result was 41st with 883 points, and she recorded no top-ten finishes.

Did Calderon race in IndyCar?

Yes. In 2022 she drove an A. J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara-Chevrolet, numbered 11, in the IndyCar Series, but she competed in only seven races before sponsor payment problems sidelined her. She finished the season 29th with 58 points.

Her route into the car began in July 2021, when she tested a Foyt car at Mid-Ohio for 87 laps in a single day under a sponsorship agreement. Her preparation covered two weeks of study on the circuit and the car, plus coaching. The team considered her a potential driver, and she was originally set to drive the road and street course rounds of 2022, with J. R. Hildebrand taking over for the ovals.

Calderon found the transition hard. Testing was restricted to a single pre-season session, and she had little IndyCar track knowledge. Adapting to new tyres and a car that demanded physical effort added to the challenge.

Her Formula E involvement came later. In February 2025 she joined Lola Yamaha ABT for the rookie free practice session at the Jeddah ePrix, and in October 2025 Citroen Racing selected her for an all-women test at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

Has Calderon raced stock cars?

Yes. She was due to race in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series with SG28 Racing in 2026, but the team's cars arrived late and without the required running gear, so she moved to the NASCAR Brasil Series. Her victory at the Circuito dos Cristais came on 20 September 2026, and it made her the first woman to win in that series.

The 2026 NASCAR Brasil season was still in progress when this profile was compiled, so the results may change.

How does Calderon describe her driving style?

Calderon describes herself as a smooth driver who feels more at home in powerful cars and in wet weather. She trains hard because she believes women often carry less muscle mass than men, and she added 9 cm (3.5 in) to her neck through training to cope with Formula One g-forces.

At 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in), she finds it harder to pick the right angle and generate arm force. GP3 rules prevented a rest at the back of her helmet, and she spent part of 2016 adjusting her seating position and pedal settings so that she could steer more comfortably.

What do her main results look like?