“My biggest dream is to be a F1 World Champion,” said Bianca Bustamante.

Bianca Bustamante has two clear goals in life.

“I am here to prove that women can be as competitive as men,” the Prema Racing driver says over Zoom from Grisignanno di Zocco (Italy), her home as she builds towards the first race of the F1 Academy season. “My biggest dream is to be F1 World Champion.”

Those two ambitions go hand-in-hand, and she’s on her way to achieving both.

Bustamante started her career in the sport as a one-year-old when her father introduced her to motor racing. She instantly fell in love.

“We did everything we could so I could make it one day. At that time there weren’t as many female drivers. Many people didn’t take me as an accountable driver for my gender and the way I look. Little things that stuck up and eventually made it more difficult than for the rest.” 

But it’s not just her gender that made her feel like an outsider. Motor racing is one of the most elitist sports in the world, dominated by drivers from the developed world. Bustamante is cut from a different cloth.

“I wasn’t as wealthy as everyone else. But I have always learned to face adversity to become a stronger personality and stronger mind. I was able to overcome everything, even the financial difficulties. We did everything we could so I could make it one day.”

Bustamante was born in the Philippines, where  her father worked three jobs to make ends meet while providing a platform for his daughter to fulfill her dreams. 

“My dad sometimes can be very emotional because of how much he has sacrificed. It is not just my dream, it is my whole family’s dream. It was everyone’s sacrifice that brought me where I am now.”

Thanks to her family’s sacrifice, Bustamante is trying to prove you don’t to be wealthy to be successful in any sport.

“In the Philippines motorsports don’t get the support, funding, and the backing up. In Europe there are thousands of tracks. In the Philippines there are one or two that are working. My parents taught me to keep driving under difficult circumstances because it is when you blossom the most, and it is very true.” 

Despite being on the peak of her career, the journey of the Filipina driver has not been easy. 

“All that I had to face helped me to build a stronger personality and mind. It wasn’t easy, I had such a big dream and unfortunately we didn’t have the backing that we needed so I had to face a lot of rejections.”  This didn’t stop her from pursuing her dream: “As long as you fight for it you will get there.”

Bustamante climbed all the way up from regional karting in the Philippines to have a seat in the first ever season of the F1 Academy. 

“I would have never expected that I would be here. Everything that is happening is a dream, it came through hard work and consistency. I will be competing at this level of motorsports and with one of the best teams in the world. I am just absolutely grateful.”

The dream that Bustamante is living right now didn’t come served in a silver spoon. In 2020, due to Covid-19, the uncertainty and cost of the sport kept her out of the karting tracks for two years. 

“I was jumping from regional karting to a Formula car. I was about 45 kg because it was during the pandemic. The Formula was so fast, so heavy when I first drove it. That was one of the most difficult things that I had to face.”

In 2021 Prema Racing offered her a F4 seat, but she had to prove that she deserved it. 

“I was so out of shape but regardless of that I was like I am going to drive this car as my life depended on it. I actually did so it was a great feeling.”

Since then, Bustamante has been part of Prema Racing. The Italian team has helped her to discover who she is.

“I find pieces of myself in the team, the places that I go, the things that I experience. It is happening to me right now. It is helping to build my character and personality, and finding things about myself as I go along.”

Bustamante’s Filipino heritage has left an imprint on her. “Growing up in sports in the Philippines you are constantly being pushed out due to our gender and I think that is the mentality that we need to eradicate, it might be a little tough but things like this make a difference.”

Motor sports is a male-dominated environment. 

“You always feel that you have to prove to other people that you deserve to be there and belong there. And I think that the added pressure is in the back of your head, it sometimes hurts your confidence.”

The fight is just not against the other drivers, it is also against your head. 

“I struggle with a lot of confidence issues, sometimes I feel that I don’t deserve to be here. I will have to constantly tell myself I am here for a reason, I can drive, I can be alongside men in the sport in the same game.” 

Prema Racing work ethics environment has helped Bustamante to build her confidence. 

“I work with a lot of people that help me to define my mentality better, always for being ready when I am racing. You have fun working with the whole team. They do it with passion, it doesn’t feel like work and that helps you as a young athlete. Sometimes you need the environment to build you up, my confidence, they give you the winning mentality.”

F1 Academy couldn’t be a reality without the support of the most powerful organizations in motor racing, FIA and F1. 

Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has been supporting the rise of women in motorsports, providing a space for women to be confident and pursue their dreams.

“FIA has a lot of events where they teach young girls to drive, about motorsports, to pursue engineering despite how male dominated it is. I was part of the FIA Girls on Track, the fact that they support that women can be as good and as competitive and the belief in women in power is amazing.”

F1 Academy is an all-women series, where 15 drivers from all backgrounds will compete with each other to show that they can be at the top level.  

“It is going to be a tough one. I will be competing against other competitive women drivers, not just from formula car racing. I come to every journey in my life to learn from and with them. I know that I am able to show my talent, how hard I can work for it.”

The reality is that there are still no female drivers in F1, or F2 and a dearth of drivers who hail from working class stock. There also remains a distinct lack of female drivers across the motor racing pyramid. There hasn’t been a female driver in a Formula 1 car since Giovanna Amati in 1992, and below the elite level, within the feeder tiers of F2 and F3, the same problem exists.

“It is about numbers, we need more women in the sport. The F1 Academy and women in motorsports are in the right place to achieve the goal of having a woman in F1. If you have 10 female drivers you have less of a chance to have a F1 driver. But if you have 100 female drivers it will be a higher chance for one of them to make it to F1.” 

Bianca Bustamante’s fight continues, and she hopes to be an inspiration for the next generation of females in motorsports.