With the return of Honda Indy Toronto Just around the corner after a three-year absence from Canadian streets, the IndyCar Series will present its smallest field of the season, with just 25 cars in the compact pit lane. Unfortunately, the two subtractions from the Mid-Ohio 27 affect cars driven by two women. The absence of Simona de Silvestro was already known, since Paretta Autosport only contests three races this year, but the setback has come for the AJ Foyt Racing team and for a Tatiana Calderón who will not compete from this weekend.
The Colombian driver, who is in her first season in the competition with a program focused on circuit racing, has seen its program paralyzed for the immediate future after having disputed seven races, with a 15th place in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis as the best result. The reason, as confirmed by the Foyt team, lies in the lack of payments from its main sponsor ROKiTwhose funding directly fueled the team’s expansion to a third car numbered #11 for 2022.
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The mobile phone company he was already present in the team last year as title sponsor of Sébastien Bourdais’ #14 car, a role they have repeated this year with rookie Kyle Kirkwood in addition to their presence in Calderón’s car. Nevertheless, in the last two months, this company has presented important delays or absence of payments, who were about to leave the Colombian on foot at the last Mid-Ohio event before a last-minute payment allowed her to compete. There she suffered her first abandonment of the year due to a mechanical problem.
In the words of Larry Foyt, the main person in charge of the team, ROKiT has expressed its intention to continue sponsorship as soon as possible, alluding to some ‘temporary difficulties’. It is unknown whether or not these difficulties are related to the large sum of 35 million dollars that they were sentenced to pay in January 2022 due to the unilateral termination of its sponsorship with the Williams Formula 1 team. For now, this situation does not affect Kirkwood, which already had another sponsor in the last race and whose financial security depends more on the transfer agreement signed with Andretti Autosport than the sponsorship of this company.
In both the Indianapolis 500 and the Texas Oval, car #11 was driven by veteran JR Hildebrand, who improved Calderón’s best result in both events. Due to the proximity of the double date at the Iowa oval on July 23 and 24, it is expected that Hildebrand will not compete in this event, and that the absence of the Colombian pilot extends to at least the Brickyard Grand Prix and the Nashville Grand Prix, all of them in the following weeks consecutively. After that, he only planned to compete in Portland and Laguna Seca in September. Despite this, Foyt has flatly ruled out getting potential interested parties such as Benjamin Pedersen (Indy Lights driver) into the car, hoping to resolve this situation eventually.
While this lasts Calderón will continue with the team from the pits, although he will not be traveling to Toronto this weekend. Although this fact will force them to reduce the workforce if it is extended over time, having one less car in the running alleviates a bit the workload of a somewhat overwhelmed team with three vehicles. This year, Kirkwood’s tenth place at the Long Beach Grand Prix was the only top 10 for the lineup, a fact only comparable to that of the worst seasons of the historic formation in 2003 and 2004. The young American, at least, has shown some ‘flashes’ of brilliance; Dalton Kellett, on the other hand, has already accumulated 33 races in this competition with only one top 15 under his belt.
Tatiana Calderón arrived at IndyCar this year after a successful test in July 2021, promoted by a sponsor that invested in different initiatives and patronage to support female pilots, both in the W Series and in other competitions. In addition to the expected difficulties that she has encountered at the level of performance, the 29-year-old pilot has also faced an unenviable situation, in the worst team on the grid, with no previous tests and almost no experience on the tracks on which she competes. Lacking rhythm, an aspect in which Simona de Silvestro had already surpassed her despite her seven-year absence, Tatiana showed a great integrity in the car, without causing unnecessary incidents. For now, his learning curve is put on hold.
Photos: IndyCar Media