Guaranteed two full seasons as part of W Series Academy Programme
W Series Academy to nurture Bustamante’s driver development on and off-track
Young Filipino gearing up to push flat-out in W Series rookie season
Bianca Bustamante (PHI) has been announced as one of two drivers for the W Series Academy Team, which is an exclusive program designed to support the development of young female talent across all motorsport disciplines. The selection came as a result of the strong performance by Bustamante at the W Series pre-season tests, showing rapid pace and consistency throughout the different stages of the evaluation process. As part of the special W Series Academy programme, Bustamante is guaranteed a race seat in the all-women racing series for the next two seasons, a major boost, allowing the young driver to focus on her driver development. She will have a dedicated engineer throughout the season, offering a consistent environment to push Bustamante beyond her limits as she tackles a new race car and a variety of new race circuits in her rookie season. There will be equally as much focus on her development off the track, including fitness, nutrition and media training to help Bustamante grow into a well-rounded professional racing driver. The 17-year old has been training hard to prepare for her upcoming W Series season, which will officially kick off in May at the Miami F1 Grand Prix. She will be going up against some of the best female racing talents in the world, and with limited experience, this season will be a steep learning curve for the young Filipino. Having made the big step up from karting to formula racing in 2022, this added opportunity with the W Series Academy Team will give that extra support needed to adapt to a completely new environment. Bustamante will make her W Series debut in the W Series Academy Team car, featuring a livery with Acronis branding, W Series’ Global Cyber Protection and Security Partner this year. With the season opener to be held in the USA, the series will stage support races at eight Formula 1 weekends, including the first-ever W Series Asian round at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka in October. W Series 2022 Race Calendar Miami, USA: 6-8 May Barcelona, Spain: 20-22 May Silverstone, UK: 1-3 July Le Castellet, France: 22-24 July Budapest, Hungary: 29-31 July Suzuka, Japan: 7-9 October Austin, USA: 21-23 October Mexico City, Mexico: 28-30 October
Bianca Bustamante | Racing Driver
“I’m so thrilled to be part of W Series this season! Being selected to drive for the Academy Team programme is an additional privilege, as it reaffirms W Series’ confidence and faith in my racing abilities. I have quickly learned the importance of building a strong foundation in motorsport, and it feels great to be given this opportunity of extra training as this will surely play a critical role in my development. I just want to thank everyone so much at W Series for entrusting me with this opportunity. I’m also super excited to be team-mates with Juju this year, and my hope is that, together, we can demonstrate to the world what the next generation of racing drivers from Asia can do. It’s been a whirlwind, and I’m looking forward to a couple of weeks at home in the Philippines before my W Series debut in Miami in May.”
Dave Ryan | W Series Racing Director
“W Series aims to give opportunities to the most talented female racing drivers in the world, and we have been tracking the progress of Bianca and Juju for some time now. We knew they had raw skill but, since joining us and working with the team at this year’s pre-season tests, they’ve also shown consistency in the car and a willingness to learn. We’ve put our faith in them by giving them W Series race seats for two years and dedicated race engineers, and it’s now up to them to repay it by continuing to work hard. If they do so, they have every chance of going on to achieve great things with W Series and further up the motorsport ladder.”