Calderon hopes to inspire young girls with IndyCar efforts

For 2022, Calderon is competing in all the road and street course events for AJ Foyt Racing, while handing over the #11 ROKiT car to JR Hildebrand for the ovals.

But given the current testing restrictions, it has a been a tough season of acclimation for the 29-year-old Colombian since she knows so few of the tracks, and she’s being compared with team-mate and reigning Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood.

“It's been very tough for me coming as a rookie with very little testing,” she said. “I think we have improved particularly in the road courses where I can explore the limit of the car a little bit more.

“These street circuits are really tough here, compared to Europe even or some other places. The bumps that you experience in Detroit, for example, I think that's unique from IndyCar that you can have all these kind of tracks.

“I've been enjoying suffering a little bit, as well. It's tough, but we like the good competition. Hopefully once we get to places where I've been before, like Indy GP again, Mid-Ohio where I tested for the first time last year in July, to go to familiar places, I hope that our performance can continue to improve.”

Having looked up to Simona De Silvestro, Danica Patrick and Bia Figueiredo [Ana Beatriz] while she was climbing the motorsport ladder, Calderon said: “It's a shame it was a long period the last couple of years that we hadn't had somebody in the top level of single-seaters.

“I think sometimes you have to see it to believe it, for the young generation to say I want to be in IndyCar, because there are females that can compete against men in a very competitive championship.

Tatiana Calderon, A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

“I hope that together [with De Silvestro, who makes her IndyCar road course return this weekend at Road America] we can keep that momentum going and to see more females starting in single-seaters because at the end that's what we need. It's a circle, so hopefully there will be more and more joining us in the future, and we can stay and represent women in the best possible way.

“One of the things I love most about American racing, that the paddocks are open for more kids, for more people, so you can interact with some of the little girls. Just a handshake or a picture can change their view on the sport. That's something you feel with their parents, as well. It's like, ‘Look, this is a girl, you can do this’.