Tatiana Calderón Noguera (born 10 March 1993) is a Colombian racing driver currently competing in the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship driving for Gradient Racing.
Calderón previously drove for the Drago Corse with ThreeBond squad in the Super Formula Championship and for Richard Mille Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Born into a family of car dealers, Calderón began racing go-karts at the age of nine, and was the first woman to win national karting championships in either Colombia or the United States.
Calderón was born in Colombia's capital of Bogotá on 10 March 1993 to Alberto Calderón Palau and María Clara Noguera Calderón.
Alberto is the first cousin of Juan Manuel Santos, a former President of Colombia, and María is the daughter of Rodrigo Noguera Laborde, the co-founder of the Sergio Arboleda University.
Her parents operate a Kia Motors dealership in Bogotá.
Calderón has an older sister named Paula, who co-manages the career of her younger sibling with former driver Fernando Plata, and a younger brother, Felipe.
1997
She was educated at Colegio Helvetia in Bogotá from 1997 to 2011, learning English and German, along with her native Spanish, and accommodated her racing with her education, sometimes having to miss weeks of school.
Calderón played football, tennis, field hockey, golf, and tried horse riding before settling on motor racing at the age of nine.
2005
In the 2005 season, she won the EasyKart National Championship, making her the first woman to win a Colombian national karting title.
The following year, she was runner-up in the EasyKart National Championship, took third in the Stars of Karting Este Division and was the Rotax Junior Division champion of the Colombian Kart Championship.
Calderón drove her first racing car at age 14, sharing a Kia Picanto with her sister Paula.
Around this time, the owners of her local go-kart track later allowed her to drive a professional four-stroke go-kart after she began winning races.
2008
In 2008, she became the first woman to win the Snap-On-Stars of Karting Divisional Championship-JICA Eastern Championship and the IAME International Challenge series.
The former achievement made Calderón the first woman champion of a national American karting series.
After winning the Snap-On-Stars of Karting Divisional Championship-JICA Eastern Championship, she told her parents of her decision to focus on racing and not enroll at university.
2009
Calderón had more success in 2009 when she made her sports car debut, coming second in the Radical European Master Series – SR5 with one victory and ten podium finishes, accruing 240 points for the PoleVision team.
She finished second in that year's Colombian Rotax Senior Max Challenge.
2010
Aged 17, Calderón moved into open-wheel racing, driving in the Star Mazda Championship (part of the Road to Indy programme) in 2010 for Juncos Racing in its No. 25 car.
She had five top-ten finishes, with a best of seventh in the first Autobahn Country Club race.
2011
She progressed to car racing at the age of 17 in the Star Mazda Championship, taking two podiums in the 2011 season, a race victory in the 2014 Florida Winter Series, and was runner-up in the 2015–16 MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship.
Calderón was the first woman to stand on the podium in the British Formula 3 International Series and the first to lead a lap in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.
Calderón joined the Derek Daly Academy driver development programme in early 2011 after reading a book authored by Daly.
While Daly advised Calderón and helped her to transition to driving more powerful cars, she stayed with Juncos Racing for the 2011 Star Mazda Championship and changed her car number to 10.
Calderón took two third-place finishes at Barber Motorsports Park and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
These results made her the first woman to mount the podium in Star Mazda Championship history.
Her final championship position was sixth with 322 points scored.
2012
Since 2012, she has lived in the Spanish capital of Madrid.
Calderón was four years old when she had her first experience of driving in the streets of Bogotá sitting on her father's lap and holding the steering wheel of the family car.
2013
In 13 races, Calderón finished with 320 points for a final championship position of 10th.
She also won the Colombian Rotax Championship that year.
2016
From 2016 to 2018, she competed in the GP3 Series and later the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
2017
She was introduced to racing by her sister, and aged nine began driving go-karts visiting a rental race track north of Bogotá in the city's 170th street close to the family home with Paula and some of her friends.
The two siblings went to the track every night after school and during the weekends.
Around the age of ten Calderón began seriously considering a possible motor racing career.
She persuaded her father greatly to purchase a green go-kart and a 50cc motorcycle for use on a personal basis on her family's farm and he educated her on racing's mechanical aspects.
Calderón's mother tried to sway her away from racing because she believed it was too dangerous, though she later supported her daughter's career choice on the condition she maintained good grades in school.
Calderón was inspired by Juan Pablo Montoya's achievements and Ayrton Senna, a three-time Formula One World Champion.
As she began winning races, Calderón was regularly rammed by her male rivals, forcing her to retaliate in response to demonstrate that she was undeterred by them.
2018
Calderón was employed by the Sauber Formula One team (later Alfa Romeo Racing) as a development and test driver from 2018 to 2021.
