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Alfa Romeo holds on to Tatiana Calderon as F1 reserve

The Alfa Romeo team has confirmed that Tatiana Calderon will stay on as their test driver in 2019, working alongside the team's full-time race drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi.

The 25-year-old from Colombia originally joined the Sauber squad in 2017 as a development driver. She got her first taste of driving a F1 car last year in Mexico last year, and also tried out a 2013-spec car at Fiorano.

Last week it was announced that after three seasons competing in GP3, Calderon would be moving up to Formula 2 this year with the BWT Arden team. That means she will become the first female driver in the championship's history.

With Calderon, Formula 2 gets its first female racer!

And now Alfa Romeo has confirmed that she will be combining those racing commitments with an enhanced testing role at Hinwil in Switzerland.

"I'm extremely happy to continue as test driver for Alfa Romeo Racing this year," she said in a press release from the team.

"They've done a fantastic job from one year to the other and it's always a privilege to work alongside such experienced people.

"They gave me my first opportunity to drive a Formula 1 car and I love being part of the team," she continued. "Hopefully we can achieve great things together in the near future."

Confirmation of Calderon's ongoing involvement with the team was warmly welcomed by Fred Vasseur, the team boss at Alfa Romeo.

"We are pleased to announce that we will continue our collaboration with Tatiana as test driver," he said

"The team is impressed by Tatiana's commitment, persistence and skill," Vasseur added.

"She delivered a good performance when she was given the opportunity to drive a Formula 1 car for the first time last season, and has proven to be a valuable member of our team.

"Together, we will work on further developing Tatiana's skills as a driver and the Alfa Romeo Racing project."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.