Bianca Bustamante

Bianca Denise Bustamante (born January 19, 2005) is a Filipina racing driver who competes in Eurocup-3 for Palou Motorsport.

Bustamante has previously competed in GB3 Championship, F1 Academy and W Series. She has also participated in Formula E test sessions for McLaren and Cupra Kiro.

Junior career W Series Bustamante competing in the 2022 W Series Silverstone round. From January 31 to February 4, 2022, Bustamante competed in a W Series test in Arizona, United States, along with 14 other prospective drivers. She then participated in a second pre-season test in Barcelona on March 2–4 along with 11 other potential drivers and nine automatic qualifiers from the previous W Series season. On March 22, Bustamante was confirmed to compete in the 2022 W Series season. She finished the season in 15th place scoring two points across seven races.

Formula 4 UAE Championship On January 9, 2023, Bustamante was announced to race under Italian team Prema Powerteam for the 2023 Formula 4 UAE Championship. She finished the season in 27th place scoring three points across fifteen races.

F1 Academy

2023 season Bustamante competing for Prema in an F1 Academy race at the Red Bull Ring in 2023. On February 3, 2023, Bustamante was confirmed as the second driver to compete in the newly launched all-female F1 Academy series with Prema Racing (formerly known as Prema Powerteam).

Bustamante finished third in the series' first race at the Red Bull Ring, but was promoted to second following the disqualification of Nerea Martí. Having finished ninth in the second race, her car suffered a technical failure on the formation lap for the third race and did not start.

Bustamante initially qualified second for the second round at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, but was demoted to eighth for a track limits infringement. Having recovered to fifth in the first race, Bustamante then won her first race in the reverse-grid second heat – earning personal congratulations from President of the Philippines Bongbong Marcos.

Bustamante did not finish the first race of the weekend at Monza, before grabbing her third podium of the season in the following reverse-grid race and winning the third and final race of the weekend.

Bustamante scored a total of 116 points, finishing seventh in the championship standings; one point behind MP Motorsport's Amna Al Qubaisi.

2024 season Bustamante leads Chloe Chambers in an F1 Academy race at Zandvoort in 2024. On October 18, 2023, McLaren announced the signing of Bustamante to the McLaren Driver Development Programme, representing McLaren for the 2024 season under ART Grand Prix. Bustamante was the first female driver signed to the McLaren Driver Development Programme.

In Round 1 at Jeddah, Bustamante finished fifth in Race 1 and was promoted to sixth (from eighth) in Race 2 due to penalties for other competitors. Bustamante qualified in fourth for the second round at Miami and finished the first race in ninth after stalling at the start, but set the fastest lap in consolation; in Race 2, she scored her first podium of the season with a second-place finish. In Round 4 at Zandvoort, Bustamante crashed during qualifying and finished outside the points in both races – a pointless streak which continued in Singapore after she received a stop/go penalty in Race 1 for being out of position on the grid, before colliding with Tina Hausmann in Race 2 whilst recovering from a spin.

Bustamante finished the season in seventh in the driver's championship and left the McLaren Driver Development Programme at the conclusion of her F1 Academy campaign.

Italian F4 Championship On May 24, 2023, it was announced that Bustamante would make her Italian F4 debut in the 2023 season at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, driving for Prema Racing in a one-off appearance replacing Aurelia Nobels. Bustamante returned in the 2024 season for the final round in Monza, driving for ART Grand Prix.

GB3 Championship On December 19, 2024, it was announced that Bustamante will join GB3 Championship in the 2025 season with Elite Motorsport. She finished the season in 22nd position in the drivers' championship.

Eurocup-3 In January 2026, it was announced that Bustamante would compete in the 2026 season of Eurocup-3 with Palou Motorsport.

Formula E On October 15, 2024, McLaren announced Bustamante and her F1 Academy successor Ella Lloyd as the line-up for the McLaren Formula E Team women's pre-season test for the 2024–25 season in Formula E. She placed in third in the test. From June to August 2025, Bustamante was signed by Cupra Kiro as a development driver. She participated in the 2024–25 season rookie test for the team, finishing in 19th and 22nd in the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively, being more than 1.5 seconds behind the leaders. She was again announced as Cupra Kiro's driver for the 2025–26 season pre-season women's test, where she finished in sixth and third in the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively. Bustamante returned with the team during the rookie test at the 2026 Madrid ePrix, finishing 16th in the morning session and 17th in the afternoon session.

Personal life Born in Manila, Bustamante resides between Laguna, Philippines, and San Jose, California. Former GT racer Darryl O'Young acts as Bustamante's manager.

In December 2023, Bustamante received backlash on social media after it emerged that she had liked several tweets critical of Formula One driver Lance Stroll, one of which used ableist language.

In March 2024, vehicle rental company Avis ranked Bustamante the third-most influential non-European female racing driver; at the time, she had a combined 2.2 million followers across Instagram and TikTok.

Karting record Karting career summary SeasonSeriesTeamPosition 2015 SKUSA SuperNationals XIX - TaG Cadet Cambrian Go-Karts 21st Challenge of the Americas - PSL West Mini Max 9th 2016 SKUSA SuperNationals XX - X30 Junior Cambrian Go-Karts 43rd 2019 Asian Karting Open Championship - X30 Junior 2nd IAME Series Asia - Junior AutoInc Racing 4th 2020 IAME Asia Cup - X30 Senior AutoInc Racing 16th Sources:

Complete Macao International Kart Grand Prix results

Racing record

Racing career summary † As Bustamante was a guest driver, she was ineligible for points. Season still in progress.

American open-wheel racing results

USF Juniors (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete W Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 DC Points 2022 W Series Academy MIA1 MIA2 CAT SIL LECHUN SIN 15th 2

Complete Indian Racing League results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Franchise 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pos. Pts 2022 Bangalore Speedsters HYD11 HYD12 HYD13 IRU11 IRU12 IRU13 IRU21 IRU22 IRU23 HYD21 HYD22 HYD23 17th 46

Complete Formula 4 UAE Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Pos Points 2023 Prema RacingDUB11 DUB12 DUB13 KMT11 KMT12 KMT13 KMT21 KMT22 KMT23 DUB21 DUB22 DUB23 YMC1 YMC2 YMC3 27th 3

Complete F1 Academy results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 DC Points 2023 Prema Racing RBR1 RBR2 RBR3 CRT1 CRT2 CRT3 CAT1 CAT2 CAT3 ZAN1 ZAN2 ZAN3 MNZ1 MNZ2 MNZ3 LEC1 LEC2 LEC3 COA1 COA2 COA3 7th 116 2024 ART Grand Prix JED1 JED2 MIA1 MIA2 CAT1 CAT2 ZAN1 ZAN2 SIN1 SIN2 LSL1 LSL2 YMC1 YMC2 YMC3 7th 73

Complete Italian F4 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Complete Formula 4 South East Asia Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pos Points 2023 BlackArts Racing ZZIC11 ZZIC12 ZZIC13 MAC1 MAC2 SEP11 SEP12 SEP13 SEP21 SEP22 SEP23NC†0

Complete Formula Winter Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 DC Points2024 GRS Team JER1 JER2 JER3 CRT1 CRT2 CRT3 ARA1 ARA2 ARA3 CAT1 CAT2 CAT3 40th 0

Complete F4 British Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 DC Points 2024 Hitech Pulse-Eight DPN1 DPN2 DPN3 BHI1 BHI2 BHI3 SNE1 SNE2 SNE3 THR1 THR2 THR3 SILGP1 SILGP2 SILGP3 ZAN1 ZAN2 ZAN3 KNO1 KNO2 KNO3 DPGP1 DPGP2 DPGP3 DPGP4 SILN1 SILN2 SILN3 BHGP1 BHGP2 BHGP3 BHGP4 29th 6

Complete Euro 4 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DC Points 2024 ART Grand Prix MUG1 MUG2 MUG3 RBR1 RBR2 RBR3 MNZ1 MNZ2 MNZ3 34th 0

Complete GB3 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Eurocup-3 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Season still in progress.