Tatiana Calderón’s FIA Formula 2 Championship campaign continued last weekend at the historic Silverstone Circuit, where her efforts again went unrewarded.
The Alfa Romeo F1 test driver finished in 14thand 17thplaces respectively in the two races at the legendary British Grand Prix venue, with a lack of race pace prompting Tatiana and her BWT Arden team to redouble their efforts to improve her car’s balance for future races.
A combination of the relatively cool temperatures at Silverstone and a new track surface left Tatiana struggling to get the notoriously tricky Pirelli tyres in their correct operating window, leaving her lacking grip and therefore the ability to push to the limit.
The Colombian recorded the 19th-fastest qualifying time, although she climbed as high as second during Saturday afternoon’s feature race as she opted to start on the more durable hard tyre, while the majority of her rivals started on softs and pitted early.
But by the time Tatiana came in to equip fresh rubber she had already been caught by several drivers on newer tyres, and after changing to softs she ended up in 14thplace.
A difficult start to the sprint race on Sunday morning resulted in Tatiana dropping positions, with the 26-year-old finally unable to improve on 17thplace at the chequered flag.
Tatiana Calderón: “It was a very tough weekend. In free practice and qualifying I got closer to my teammate, which is something positive compared with the previous rounds, but with the weather and the new tarmac it was quite challenging to find the right balance to make the tyres work. We struggled quite a lot with the cool temperatures. There’s a lot to analyse and hopefully we can find some answers as to why we can’t perform at the level we believe we should be able to achieve. Now I’m looking forward to getting some rest and then to regrouping for Budapest and hopefully getting closer to where we want to be.”
Tatiana’s F2 season will continue after a three-week hiatus at the Hungaroring circuit near the Hungarian capital of Budapest on August 2-4.
Comments