Bianca Bustamante Creates History for Philippines with F1 Academy Race Victory

BY: Michelle Liew

Bianca Bustamante has just made history by being the first Filipina to win an F1 Academy race at only 18-years-old, making it her first career victory racing with PREMA Racing.

15 young women made their debut on the grid this year with F1 Academy. The championship has now completed its first two rounds in Spielberg and Valencia and across the six races. There have been four different race winners.

Marta García of PREMA Racing has won three of the six races, taking two victories in Spielberg and one in Valencia. The Al Qubaisi sisters have both achieved a race victory as well and the only other driver to have won a race so far is Bianca Bustamante.

Bustamante currently races for PREMA Racing alongside García and Chloe Chong. The 18-year-old Filipina raced in the W Series championship last year. Round two of the 2023 F1 Academy season not only saw Bustamante take her first career win, but also her maiden pole position.

“Having never been here in Valencia, I think it was quite technical. There are a lot of corners and I think what made it super difficult is actually not having a lot of rest in between the corners,” said Bustamante as quoted from Formula Nerds.

“So you’ve always got to hustle the car on the entry to prepare a lot to have a good exit because the track limits here are a bit crucial, being a motorbike circuit, it was so flat. So you have little to no margin for track limits.

“Everything had to be precise from your steering inputs, your throttle application. And I think that itself made the track super difficult and it was very hard to pass. So overall, I think it’s one of the most technical circuits I’ve been to.”