Tatiana Calderon, Sauber, Circuit of the Americas, 2018

Calderon: F1 car feels more comfortable than F2 or GP3

2018 F1 season

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Sauber test driver Tatiana Calderon says she feels more comfortable in a Formula 1 car than junior series chassis ahead of he first run for the team in Mexico today.

Calderon had a seat fitting at the Sauber factory last week in preparation for her 100 kilometre demonstration run at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez today. She will take over the chassis Antonio Giovinazzi is to drive in a Pirelli tyre test earlier in the day, meaning the team won’t be able to fully adapt it to fit her.

However the GP3 racer, who is around 10 centimetres shorter than the team’s race drivers, said Sauber has made several alterations to ensure she is comfortable in the C37.

“Certainly the pedals I need to raise my feet a bit so they had to make a platform,” said Calderon when asked by RaceFans. “Also because they have to come too much towards the front – they told me if I were to drive the ’19 car they need to modify a bit the pedals to be able to come more forward so they have to make special parts for me to fit in.

“Usually in GP3 I have to be spot-on in other angle I have with my arms. But being in Formula 1 with power steering I think this will make my life much easier.

“I don’t know if then I will like [it] more because of the feedback that I have. Certainly I think I feel more comfortable in a Formula 1 car than I’ve ever been in a GP3 or Formula Two in terms of the comfort of the seat and the way they did the seat fit.”

Tatiana Calderon, Jenzer, GP3, 2018
Calderon races in GP3
Calderon said the chance to drive the team’s current car was not part of her test deal with Sauber. “It was a great surprise,” she said. “I was definitely not expecting to make my debut in a C37 in Mexico.

“I thought OK, I will drive a Formula 1 car, but I never thought it would be the current one and so early.”

“That also gives you confidence because you know Fred [Vasseur, Sauber team principal], he’s a tough guy. If he trusts me to make my debut in the C37 it’s because he’s seen something.

“So for me that’s like an extra motivation and it means that we’re doing things right. I’m very thankful to the team for this opportunity.”

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44 comments on “Calderon: F1 car feels more comfortable than F2 or GP3”

  1. Good luck to her, I wish her all the best today. I hope the comments won’t all be sexist like in every motorsport site, comparing physical abilities based on sex, and bashing on reason for getting a drive. Too many men that dont belong in f1 are in f1.

    1. “That also gives you confidence because you know Fred [Vasseur, Sauber team principal], he’s a tough guy. If he trusts me to make my debut in the C37 it’s because he’s seen something.

      That part is very important to me in the context you mention there Kpcart.

    2. Good for her, I mean it. However, I think the only sexist thing here was Sauber picking her over dozens of more talented drivers. Clearly a nice PR move. If Calderón turns out to be a super talent I’d love to acknowledge that I was wrong, because it will have meant that a woman finally made it to Formula 1 on merit.

      1. That’s not a sexist move, f1 teams do that all the team picking male drivers over more talented drivers. God, a sexist comment so soon.

        1. Only one being sexist here is you. You want her racing results to be evaluated or even ignored just because she is a woman. You don’t want people to have discussion about her previous race records and f1 worthiness because she is a woman. It is fine for you to say some men don’t belong into f1. But say that about one woman and you come out with your sexism remarks. It just the same thing to make a neutral observation that is based on fact regardless of the sex of the driver. Your whining about sexism only comes across dishonest.

          Is this good enough for f1:
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatiana_Calderón#Racing_record

          I don’t think it is because of those results. She only got her f1 driver because she is woman. That is not sexist. That is a fact. That kind of comments are part of honest discussion. If you are going to attack anybody who makes even a slight negative observation about her racing career then obviously you do not want an honest discussion.

          1. The records show her teammate won several races where she struggled in the low end of the order…. that said, many if not most drivers will get an F1 test based on factors other than driving ability, if a male driver was effeminate for example I would suggest that he would miss out on a test to a “manly” driver more often than not. I am guessing you make selective criticism??

          2. Look at your rant, sexists don’t believe they are sexist, just like racists don’t even get it when they say racist thing.

          3. @kpcart

            There have been studies that show that people tend to be unable to distinguish sexism in favor of women and against men from sexism against women. You seem to suffer from this severely, seeing a lack of sexism against men as sexism against women.

        2. What a troll.

          1. Better be a troll than sexist like you.

      2. If no women ever get a chance there is no chance of ever a woman good enough.
        Let’s hope this test can inspire others😀
        I was watching MTBing the other day and to my surprise my 4 year old daughter piped up and said I should turn it as it was too boyish for her!! So I told her girls do it too and found some footage of Rachel Atherton and Tawny Seagrave ripping it up – my daughter was thrilled and now wants to beat my 6 year old son down the lane!

        So there is a point of putting a woman in an F1 car even if she’s not the one to set the world on fire yet!!

        1. Props to you for being a smart parent.

        2. @Racingdave

          She got a chance, in GP3. People normally don’t get a chance at a higher tier of sports unless they have outscored the competition at a lower tier.

          Of course, F1 makes a bit of a mockery of this with Stroll and Calderon teaching people that having rich parents or the right genitals are substitutes for skill.

          1. damn. Savage. +1

          2. Missing the point…..
            I have no idea who is in GP3 so, therefore, doubt my daughter does – she does know who LH, SV, Bottas, MV, Kimi and a few Moto GP riders (Valentino and Marc Marces)
            I agree Stroll and others probably shouldn’t be there and yes she was well under par and should not be in F1 car based on that – but look to the future and what it might bring…

          3. @Racingdave

            What is the point of elite sport if it is not a meritocracy? If you want to see a group of people, selected in large part for their demographics and personality so they appeal to more viewers, compete, then there is a broad range of television programs that cater to you, called reality shows.

            Or you can watch amateur sports.

      3. GtisBetter (@)
        30th October 2018, 17:52

        Don’t forget that a lot of drivers now are already linked to some team development cycle. They aren’t all available. I haven’t seen anything special from her, but why not let her test.

    3. SJW triggerred. She hasn’t done anything special to warrant a seat in F1 apart from her XX chromosome. Has she won a F3 champiinship? Has she won a F2 champiinship? NO. So why should she be here Mr. SJW?

      1. Do she got a seat in an f1 car because she is a woman? Oh yes, because women always get preference in f1. Completely sexist comment.

        1. I just want you to list out reasons based on her actual accomplishments as to why she deserves a seat in F1? Got any? hmm….Havent seen any from you so far apart from calling people sexist left to right..

  2. It’s exciting to see what any Junior can do. Especially in modern equipment!

  3. A small typo here:

    “It was a great surprise,” he said.

    1. @dusty LOL. Good catch.

  4. I watched some F3 races where Calderon was running in the midfield. She seemed like many of the other drivers – decent, level-headed, sometimes quite aggressive, occasionally entertaining, but not able to claw their way too far forwards. On the other hand, Mick Schumacher didn’t seem much more capable than that, until recently, so what do I know? I wish her good luck, good support, hard work and growth through honest reflection.

    1. Mick certainly has tons of money behind him but even then do these two really look identical to you:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Schumacher#Racing_record
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatiana_Calderón#Racing_record

      Btw. tatiana calderon is 25, mick schumacher is 19…

      1. @socksolid – Nobody said “identical”. Curb your excitement.

        1. Do they look even vaguely similar?

  5. One things for certain, if any woman driver has even a sniff of decent talent, the sponsorship funding available from female aimed products and services would rocket them right into F1!

    If anything, they’d have an advantage over a similar talented male.

    1. Squeak: good point, people LOVE to ignore that fact… life itself is sexist/racist, and that’s ok… it is what it is.

      1. That’s so right wing Conservative, you there are millions more men like me, and 10 times more women that want equality in every day life

        1. -Men pay 97% of alimony
          -Men make up 93% of work fatalities
          -Men make up 81% of all war deaths
          -Men lose custody in 84% of divorce cases
          -80% of all suicides are men
          -77% of homicide victims are men
          -89% of men will be the victim of at least one violent crime in their lives.
          -Men are 165% more likely to be convicted than women
          -Men get 63% longer prison sentences when convicted as compared to women.
          -Court bias against men is at least 6 times bigger than racial bias.
          -60-80% of all homeless people are men
          -Womens cancers receive 15x more funding than mens cancers.

          You don’t need to feel guilty about being a male.

      2. the sponsorship funding available from female aimed products and services would rocket them right into F1

        people love to ignore that fact

        When someone says something “would” be the case that is never a fact, it is supposition. That may seem a pedantic point but it’s important to acknowledge it before you start accusing people of ‘ignoring’ opinions you’ve mistaken for facts.

        I don’t find it hard to imagine that a company would want to take advantage of backing a successful female racing driver as it would be a breakthrough for the sport in much the same way Lewis Hamilton’s arrival as the first successful black driver in F1 has been. But I think it’s easy to exaggerate how significant that could be.

        Danica Patrick, for example, had backing from Motorola and GoDaddy in IndyCar. But these are hardly “female aimed products and services”, the latter also sponsored a male driver and she’d already made it to IndyCar and led the Indy 500 before they started backing her.

        1. @keithcollantine

          There have been several female test drivers in F1. You could check whether women get more opportunities than men with the same results by comparing the past results of the female test drivers with those of the male test drivers, during a certain period. Perhaps the F1 Metrics guy could help you with that, he is good at doing analyses like that.

    2. As if the males don’t have a head start already.

      The only reason that will happen is due to having a huge audience to cater to, a woman making it to the current grid in F1 you think a lot of companies won’t want to buy into the hype?

      Just look at Max, just because he was a teenager the hype was there.

  6. Her GP3 boss Andreas Jentzer says that she has been a bit unlucky lately, but without a doubt is the fastest woman in motorsport.

  7. Doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near an F1 car, how can anyone defend this?

    1. Neither do you, and your a man (a woman wouldn’t say this, I bet this article hurts your ego doesnt it?

      1. coming from the future this aged badly

        check out her f2 results would you

  8. ” Certainly I think I feel more comfortable in a Formula 1 car than I’ve ever been in a GP3 or Formula Two in terms of the comfort of the seat and the way they did the seat fit.”

    F1 cars more comfortable than F2 or F3. And they say F1 isn’t road relevant.

  9. Hasn’t Alonso (for example) talked extensively about how this generation of cars is v easy to drive compared to the pre-2009 monsters?

  10. It’s a filming day, if I recall correctly from earlier reports. Let her have her day and let’s see how she does. Male or female, the days of F1 drives being decided on merit are long gone, and you can thank the big teams for driving up costs to the point where the smaller teams that are the natural entry place for young drivers have to hire not on merit but by how much sponsorship a new driver brings.

  11. Here she is, winning in karts agains and all male field, after this race, slim hired her to be a TELMEX sponcered driver.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Xek11_JPc

    1. some of the other drivers include antonio perez (sergio perez brother),Johnny Cecotto Jr. etc

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