Sauber sign female driver Tatiana Calderon as test driver

Colombian Tatiana Calderon has signed for Sauber as a development driver for the 2018 season.

Calderon, 24, competed in GP3 last season, finishing 18th overall with 7 points.

She is backed by Telmex, who also sponsor the Swiss constructor.

This signing continues Sauber's streak of having women take important roles in their team, after Monisha Kaltenborn became the first female principal in F1 and Simona de Silvestro held a role as an 'affiliated driver' back in 2014.

Calderon's biggest achievement in terms of results in her career is when she finished runner up in the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 in 2015-16, with one win and seven podiums.

Italian Antonio Giovinazzi has kept his role as reserve driver, so it is unlikely that Calderon will become only the second female driver to participate in a Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend since 1976 - the other being Susie Wolff in 2014.

The only female driver to ever score points in a Formula One race was Lella Lombardi, when she scored half a point due to the race not completing it's full distance, at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuic.

Only one other female F1 driver has ever started a race, Maria Teresa de Filippis, although that was back in the 1950s.

Calderon joins that short list of female drivers to be involved with an F1 team and hopefully she can inspire more young women to take up motorsport.