Bianca Bustamante is a self-starting F1 Academy driver, whose talent and commitment has been hailed by drivers such as Esteban Ocon. After starting racing competitively at the age of five, the 18-year-old Filipino means business and has made her intent to race at the top of the sport very clear.

Bianca grew up in the Philippines with her parents, Raymund and Janice, and her brother. Raymund bought Bianca her first suit when she was just one years old, before she took the wheel of a baby race kart at three. Bianca inherited her love of racing from her father who karted, often attributing her passion for motorsport being a result of spending time with him at tracks.

Bianca is a promising talent in motorsport. She has multiple karting championships to her name, winning the Petron Blaze 100 IAME Series Philippines in 2016, before back-to-back championships in the JR Asian Karting Open Championship and Petron Blaze 100 IAME Series Philippines in 2018 and 2019. After winning the AAP National Karting Series in 2020, she was then selected for the FIA Girls on Track Rising Stars shootout.

Bianca went on to impress in the W Series test in Arizona during February of 2022 and was invited to the second pre-season test, where she was then confirmed as a full-time driver for the series, finishing the season as the top rookie in 15th.

Once the sad news about the future of W Series broke, Bianca looked elsewhere, where she was picked up by Prema in the 2023 Formula 4 UAE Championship, before being confirmed as one of their F1 Academy drivers a month later.

Bianca has had a successful campaign in F1 Academy so far. In the inaugural race of the season at the Red Bull Ring, Bianca’s P3 finished was promoted to P2 after a technical infringement on another car. Later in the season at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, a track limit violation pushed her initial P2 qualification to P8, but with the reverse grid order of Race 2, she started from pole and went onto convert it to her first win of the season. This was followed by another win a Prema’s home race in Monza. She has since raced in Italian Formula 4 with Prema in a one-off appearance.

Outside of racing, Bianca resided in Laguna, Philippines however spends most of her time in Europe for the racing season. Her interests include art, design, training and travel, with ambitions to study engineering or architecture in the future.

Ahead of the 2023 United States Grand Prix, where the season finale of F1 Academy will take place, Bianca was announced as the first female in the McLaren Racing Driver Development programme as the team’s F1 Academy driver.