An 18-year-old made history recently by becoming the first female racer to join McLaren’s Driver Development programme. Bianca Bustamante was born in the Philippines and spent her adolescence thus far pursuing a career in single-seater racing.

Kerry Violet

An 18-year-old made history recently by becoming the first female racer to join McLaren’s Driver Development programme. Bianca Bustamante was born in the Philippines and spent her adolescence thus far pursuing a career in single-seater racing.

The Success Story

For the 2024 season, all Formula One teams will have one driver representing their livery in F1 Academy, yet no other drivers have been announced besides the 18-year-old.

Bianca is also the first female driver McLaren have ever enrolled in their development programme, which in the past has produced the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri.

Bustamante’s Reaction

Bustamante expressed her thoughts on the announcement in a press statement:

“This is such an unreal moment in my career, to sign with McLaren and ART Grand Prix is way beyond anything I could’ve ever imagined growing up racing karts in the Philippines. I still have a hard time seeing my name next to McLaren without getting emotional, as the history and heritage linked to this team leaves me truly speechless.”

The McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella continued: “The team are delighted for Bianca to join us, and for McLaren to be involved in F1 Academy. It’s a core principle of ours to be a diverse and inclusive team, so we’re pleased to be so involved in Formula 1’s work on the important topic of improving gender diversity within motorsport. We also look forward to seeing Bianca grow and progress within the McLaren Racing Driver Development programme under Emanuele’s guidance.”

“We couldn’t afford to pay my tuition, we went through a real struggle.”

Before signing with the esteemed team, Bustamante previously won multiple Asian karting championships and competed in Formula 4 UAE and Italian Formula 4.

The young talent then went on to demonstrate potential throughout her inaugural season with W Series in 2022 having previously doubted if she would be able to pursue racing at all.

Speaking to the F1R THE GIRLS podcast, Bustamante revealed that she put racing on pause during the pandemic. “We couldn’t afford to pay my tuition, we went through a real struggle.”

She continued: “I told myself okay I’ll retire, I want to study, I want to get a job to help with the family to pay for food, for rent”

She then met a manager who covered her tuition and was, as Bustamante put it, “quite literally [her] saviour”.

W Series

The W Series was backed by prominent members of the motorsport community, such as former F1 driver and presenter David Coulthard and engineer Adrian Newey. 

Sadly the series only lasted for four seasons and came to an end after 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and rumoured financial struggles as well.

F1 Academy is technically a step below W Series, as the cars used are equal to Formula 4 rather than Formula 3. F1 Academy is however designed to embed the young drivers within the F1 Grand Prix weekends and give them the track time they need to develop their skills.

Having now completed her maiden season with F1 Academy, Bustamante claimed two victories and two podiums for PREMA Racing. Once she completes the move with McLaren, she will race for the ART Grand Prix with the ‘Papaya’ livery next season.

https://www.tiktok.com/@racerbia/video/7291667239617465601?lang=en

F1 Academy 2023

Bustamante finished 7th out of 15 drivers in the F1 Academy 2023 standings, one place behind Amna Al Qubaisi, whose sister Hamda, finished 3rd overall. Spanish driver Marta Garcia took the championship title after the first race of the day in Austin, however, Hamda Al Qubaisi won the second race and GB’s Jess Edgar won the final race. 

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr. came to congratulate his compatriot Garcia on her win, yet F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff was “saddened” by the fact only one F1 driver actually visited the academy paddock in Austin.

“It’s a little bit sad that it’s always Lewis.”

Many of the male drivers will have links to several F1 Academy racers next year once each team has an affiliated female driver, yet Bustamante herself trained with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and he only expressed his pride via social media. Regardless of connections to the academy, it would be nice to see more support from the F1 paddock towards female representation within motorsport.

“It’s a little bit sad that it’s always Lewis,” Susie said. “He’s always the one offering support, coming over and really because I think in the end, he knows what it’s like to be the only one and so he has an affinity.”

What comes next?

Aston Martin’s own F1 ambassador Jessica Hawkins made history earlier this year as the first woman to test an F1 car since 2018. This move hopefully encourages more teams to allow female drivers the same opportunities as men in Formula One for years to come.

The hope of one day seeing a woman race again in Formula One will take years of development, but with such a vast pool of young talent who knows what the future could bring? It seems Bustamante’s journey is certainly far from over.

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Featured image courtesy of randomwinner on Pixabay. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.

Kerry graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Sheffield and has since pursued her passion for writing on multiple platforms. With an affinity for sport and film, Kerry is working towards her dream career of becoming a motorsport presenter and journalist.

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