McLaren has announced the addition of F1 Academy racer Bianca Bustamante to their driver development programme and revealed her 2024 racing plans.
The 18-year-old lies seventh in the all-female F1 Academy series with two wins. That campaign concludes this weekend with three races at Circuit of the Americas.McLaren has confirmed Bustamante will stay in the series next year but leave Prema to join rival team ART Grand Prix.
“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,” said Bustamante.
“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.
“I’m so grateful for this opportunity as I believe I now have the best possible development structure around me to take the next step up in my career, and for this I am so thankful.”
She came ninth on her debut but did not score again, and ended the season 15th in the standings. She ended the year competing in prototype sports cars as she contested the Indian Racing League. There she had a best finish of fifth and was 19th in the points table.
For 2023 she stepped back down to F4, and joined the crack Prema team. She came 27th in the United Arab Emirates’ F4 championship with three points and made a cameo appearance in Italian F4 in addition to her F1 Academy campaign.
She said this year “was all about improving my speed which I demonstrated across several races this year, but in 2024 my aim is to establish consistency and improve my mental strength in order to make a title challenge in the coming F1 Academy season.”
The MDDP director Emanuele Pirro called Bustamante “a promising young talent who has a brilliant work ethic and is aligned closely to our team’s values”. She is the first ever female McLaren F1 junior in the 25-year history of the team’s driver development programme.
Bustamante’s F1 Academy car will feature a design similar to McLaren’s Formula 1 livery next season. Each of the 10 F1 teams will be represented in the 2024 series.
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Zann (@zann)
18th October 2023, 15:00
Good step for everyone
AMPED
18th October 2023, 15:21
Especially for the drivers, they get F1 teams links real F4 drivers can only dream of, for performing at a level that would see them at the back of F4 grids and paid no attention.
Zann (@zann)
18th October 2023, 22:54
Girls are more interesting, you see :) and btw it’s pretty obvious hotness is good for the guys’ driving careers as well
AMPED
19th October 2023, 0:59
The hot guys (I will have to take your word for it however) still have to actually perform well against stacked F4 grids to get opportunities, then still pay up. They don’t benefit from female privilege of getting F1 support simply for taking part in a weaker than F4 series…
Louis Sharp can only dream of getting what the F1 Academy drivers are going to get despite being able to kick their backsides with ease would they ever find themselves on track together! He won against significantly more capable drivers this year but won’t receive F1 team support!
Zann (@zann)
19th October 2023, 9:21
Boys might be naturally better at driving than girls, or not, why does that matter? The main thing is for girls to have the option of driving, whether it’s in a girlie series or shared. And to have girls in motor racing, F1, setting the example, is a good thing. Louis Sharp, yes i don’t know, 6/10 at best really, could be his problem ;)
Hazel Southwell (@hazelsouthwell)
19th October 2023, 10:27
@zann you are saying this about TEENAGERS in a JUNIOR SERIES. several of them are under 18 and Bianca is only just about that. sort your head out.
Zann (@zann)
19th October 2023, 11:26
Seriously Hazel? Lol have you seen her insta? She’s nice to look at, and making it work for her. Are you saying she’s not supposed to? Or it’s a secret? When did you start wearing makeup? Not later than 15 was it :)
Hazel Southwell (@hazelsouthwell)
19th October 2023, 12:51
@zann wearing make up is not inviting sexualisation, that is a gross comment. Bianca looks like the 18 year old she is, her insta looks like the insta of an 18 year old girl.
teenage girls look nice for themselves – and for other teenage girls – not for older men to prey on them.
Zann (@zann)
19th October 2023, 13:26
Nobody is preying on her Hazel what are you talking about? It’s about status, like the rest of F1. Hotness is status as in being desirable, to attract the highest status partner, eventually. It’s status exactly the same as being fastest is status or handsome and that’s why I said it’s the same for the men. Abstract, and the effect she’s trying to have. Same thing as Jessica Hawkins for Aston. So whatever you’re imagining about me is your imagining, thanks very much, age and gender!
Josh Barber
20th October 2023, 13:22
Oh look, Hazel is missing the point, over reacting and getting into arguments with people in the comments again.
Keith, why do you keep on someone with such low professional standards?
Josh
19th October 2023, 10:20
They already do, they always have done. There is literally nothing stopping girls from racing…
Zann (@zann)
19th October 2023, 11:27
Apart from money obviously
Josh
20th October 2023, 13:26
Exactly like everyone else. Except if a guy wants to race and is poor, they won’t have series invented for them just to make sure they don’t fail out…
SteveR (@stever)
19th October 2023, 14:45
This is true. When I was racing FF1600 in the Northwest Region SCCA a long time ago there were three woman FF racers. They did okay, there was no special treatment, and they were respected as drivers, not because they were women. They were treated exactly the same as the men; this is how it should be.
Raymond Pang
20th October 2023, 10:55
Correct, but there’s very little to encourage them to get into motorsport. There are very few female role models in motorsport. We see drivers say “Oh Michael Schumacher was my hero growing up” etc. – there’s no female equivalent.
While the Academy might be giving people of perhaps lesser talent into more prominent positions, a bit more prominence for females racing might just inspire a future female world champion.
Josh Barber
20th October 2023, 13:16
So?
Men don’t see Hamilton or Verstappen and say ‘oh look, a man, maybe I can do that…?’ So why do we fall over ourselves to try and add representation for women?
If they want it as bad as the guys who make it, it’s doesn’t matter the gender of the role models. It’s pandering.
Raymond Pang
20th October 2023, 20:03
No, but boys do. They look up to men. They see men succeeding, they want that success.
Girls look for female role models. They see a woman succeeding, they want that success.
So it’s a question of getting people to want it. You don’t just innately want something through your blood and DNA. You need inspiration.
JB
22nd October 2023, 12:51
@Raymond Pang
Boys look at the cool cars, the speed, and the excitement and say ‘I want a bit of that’. Hamilton didn’t have any/much black representation in F1 but he still made it regardless. Representation takes a huge backseat to motivation and ambition.
If girls only take part in motorsport because they see others doing it, do they REALLY want to take part in motorpsort? Or maybe we could spend these millions of dollars on helping poor aspiring drivers from Africa or other poor parts of the world? In todays world, a young Hamilton would be passed over for a Jamie Chadwick, let that sink in…
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
18th October 2023, 17:00
Grid girls never disappeared. They just started calling them development drivers.
MichaelN
18th October 2023, 19:17
Don’t know about these folks, but that reminds me of Keiko Ihara who was a grid girl in Japan, but whilst standing around on the grid she figured she’d have more fun racing the cars. And she did, starting at age 27! And with a third place in a 20 car Asia Formula BMW series in 2003, over a dozen WEC appearances, three at the Le Mans 24h in LMP2, I’d say she did just fine!
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
18th October 2023, 19:19
That’s a cool story, wasn’t aware of that.
Sham (@sham)
18th October 2023, 22:11
I understand that it’s a good thing to get publicity for the female drivers, to encourage the youngsters to participate and grow the talent pool, and I can appreciate that.
I just hope that, in good time, the need for separate series to do so can be eliminated – because what we want is equality and not separation in one of the few sports where that’s really possible.
AMPED
19th October 2023, 1:03
Publicity doesn’t encourage drivers, that is just the BS left wing extremists use to justify the preferential treatment given to those they deem unrepresented despite showing nothing deserving of being represented in the first place!
Bottom end F4 drivers, drivers of a similar levels to these drivers, don’t receive even a fraction of what the female drivers do just for existing! Even F2 front runners receive less attention than F1 Academy do and W Series did!
Sham (@sham)
19th October 2023, 6:55
Your comments on this topic have an overwhelmingly obvious theme. Can’t help but wonder why.
Josh Barber
19th October 2023, 10:22
Maybe you could respond to his points rather than just inferring something vague? I never see anyone come up with good responses to arguments like this, just ad hominem attacks.
Sham (@sham)
19th October 2023, 12:44
He didn’t make any points, except to claim I was wrong. Which is blatantly incorrect as since the initiatives to promote female racers, more young girls are indeed taking up motor sport.
But whatever.
Claiming negative discrimination whenever a minority is given the public eye isn’t an argument, it’s a knee jerk.
Josh
20th October 2023, 13:32
@sham
Yes they did, they said that publicity doesn’t encourage drivers and that low level female drivers are being given far more attention and praise than they would otherwise deserve simply because they are women. Both points have merit.
You just wrote off his response because you thought it easier to infer that he is motivated by sexism. Maybe they (and others like them) just don’t like the idea of motorsport becoming less of a meritocracy than it already is, just to pander to people who never wanted to race on the first place?
MichaelN
19th October 2023, 10:29
Sometimes a bit of preferential treatment can help overcome obstacles that have emerged due to tradition, and the subsequent biases against anything that deviates from the norm.
But that does have to be followed by performances. The Iron Dames project in the ELMS and WEC is a good example. Having an all female line up was a bit contrived at first, and drew some negative responses, but they’ve done very well since.
Dex
19th October 2023, 19:47
What we want is equality of opportunity, and nothing more than that (and no less). That’s how ideal world would look like. Well, whatever brings us closer to that I guess.
Josh Barber
20th October 2023, 13:19
We already have that and always have. There is nothing that prevents girls from competing in motorsport, except talent and money (they same as the boys).
This idea that women are somehow suppressed from taking part in motorsport is nonsense, to the point where we subsidise sub-par racers simply because they aren’t men.
SteveR (@stever)
19th October 2023, 2:16
On topic, pretty much an underwhelming racing resume; maybe I should jump back into the seat and get noticed….
Paul (@frankjaeger)
19th October 2023, 11:05
You’re both just as bad as them with silly comments like that haha
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
19th October 2023, 17:40
I hope she possesses the same Philippino magic as Bustamante, Reyes and Pacquiao…
Raymond Pang
20th October 2023, 11:05
Correct, but there’s very little to encourage them to get into motorsport. There are very few female role models in motorsport. We see drivers say “Oh Michael Schumacher was my hero growing up” etc. – there’s no female equivalent.
While the Academy might be giving people of perhaps lesser talent into more prominent positions, a bit more prominence for females racing might just inspire a future female world champion.