The Class of 2018 in GP3. Photo by: Pellegrini.
Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1 Test Driver Tatiana Calderón was left to reflect on the positives after a difficult opening round of the 2018 GP3 Series at Barcelona last weekend.
On her first race outing with the Jenzer Motorsport team after an encouraging winter of testing, Tatiana went away from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with no points to her name after contact ended her charge in the first race and a switch to slick tyres in a wet second race that didn’t pay off.
The weekend had started in promising style during Friday morning’s practice session, in which she was sixth-fastest overall and comfortably the best of Jenzer’s three drivers. However, despite being in the top-six for most of what was one of the closest qualifying sessions in the history of the series, in the final minutes of running Tatiana was pushed down to 14th place on the grid for Saturday’s opening race.
Calderón in her Jenzer Motorsport car. Photo by Pellegrini.
The Colombian rising star was challenging the Arden car of Joey Mawson in the battle for 12th – on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult, even with the use of DRS – when the pair made light contact at Turn 1 that damaged her suspension. That forced her eventual retirement and left her starting from the back of the grid for Sunday’s second race, which was affected by rain.
After making progress in the tricky opening laps, Tatiana entered the pits during a Safety Car period, gambling on a late switch to slick tyres. Although the track was clearly drying on the closing laps of the race, it turned out to be still too wet in some places, causing her to go off at Turn 5.
“On Sunday for race two we went aggressive with the set-up, as we had nothing to lose, but it made things worse on the wet track, which we expected to dry much quicker. Then I pitted for slick tyres and it was the wrong decision. At least we know we have some pace and hopefully we can show it in the next race,” said Tatiana Calderón.
It was a bitter end to a weekend that held much promise, but the 25-year-old could at least take satisfaction with her pace in practice that should stand her in good stead for the upcoming races.
Tatiana’s next GP3 appearance will be at the French Paul Ricard Circuit in June, but before that she will attend the Monaco F1 Grand Prix on May 24-27 in her capacity as Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 test driver.