Tatiana Calderón is already recovering from a hand injury following a first lap incident
in last Saturday’s Formula 2 Sprint race at Monza, which ruled her out of Sunday’s
Feature Race ahead of the Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Tatiana, whose return to the F1 feeder series has been made possible thanks to the support
of award-winning artist Karol-G, AVL Racetech and Escudería Telmex, started the weekend
with full running in the free practice session giving her good mileage to get back to grips with the unique nature of the high-speed Italian circuit.
Tatiana then showed promising pace in qualifying at the Temple of Speed, consistently
improving her pace, although she was unable to finish her last flying lap due to an ill-timed
red flag, which left her on row eleven of the starting grid for both races.
In Saturday's 21-lap Sprint Race, Tatiana was involved in an incident with Campos driver Olli Caldwell on lap one, as both were fighting for position at the first chicane. The damage to the left-front suspension of Tatiana’s car meant her race was over on the spot.
The Colombian racer was focused on Sunday’s Feature Race the next morning, but
following medical checks, Tatiana was ruled out due to a fracture on her right hand,
sustained during the crash.
Tatiana Calderón: “It’s been a very difficult weekend. We made a step forward in qualifying
and came closer to finding the limit of the soft tyres. Unfortunately, the red flag at the end of
the session made things harder, but we were making a good progression. I got a good start
off the line in the Sprint Race, and was on the inside into Turn 1, sticking to my racing line
and side-by-side with Caldwell. Sadly, he decided to open the corner into Turn 2 without
seeing that I was there. When he turned into me the wheels tangled, and the unexpected hit
and the kick back from the steering wheel caused injury to my right hand. Despite some
swelling I remained focused on racing on Sunday, but unfortunately my hand was more
swollen next morning and I couldn´t even fit my racing glove on. Later the medical checks
showed a small fracture which was the end of my weekend, unfortunately. It could have
been a good opportunity as the race was set to be an eventful one, but that’s racing
sometimes. We have a couple of months before the next race, which is more than enough to
fully recover and get back to training. I can’t wait to get back in the car for the last race
weekend of the season in Abu Dhabi.”
Tatiana will return for F2’s season-finale at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on 18-
20 of November.
