16-year-old Filipina kart racing prodigy Bianca Bustamante has just been given the stellar opportunity to participate in a prestigious race in Marseilles, France as part of the Girls on Track Rising Stars program which will offer the champion a highly-coveted Ferrari Driver Academy scholarship.
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The Girls on Track Rising Stars program is actually big news for aspiring race car drivers around the world as it is run by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of motorsport events including Formula 1!
The three-day shootout will take place at the world-famous Circuit Paul Ricard from October 21 to 23, 2021. Bianca will be competing against 13 other drivers in the Senior category. The top eight finishers from that category, as well as the Junior category, will then go on a one-week training camp with Ferrari in Fiorano, Italy, where participants will get to drive Formula 4 race cars. From there, only one will be chosen to compete in the International Karting season under the Ferrari Driver Academy scholarship.
Bianca is notably the only Asian selected to take part in the shootout.
She’s been racing ever since she was 5-years-old and has won multiple karting championships across Asia, such as the Macau International Kart GP (3-time champion), Junior Asian Karting Open Championship (2-time overall champion), and the China Grand Prix Kart Scholarship (4-time winner). She was also named the Philippines National Junior Karter of the Year in 2018 and the Philippines Driver of the Year – Karting from 2018 to 2020.
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“Thank you to the FIA for selecting me as one of the 14 drivers for the Girls On Track – Rising Stars scholarship shoot-out. I fell in love with racing ever since I was a kid, and I haven’t stopped training in preparation for this moment,” Bianca said in an official statement.
“Now that it’s becoming a reality, I will continue to work hard towards being selected for the Ferrari Driving Academy race scholarship.
I am so proud to represent the Philippines in this competition and to be the only Asian driver selected is an added bonus, but also adds a bit of pressure to represent the Asia region against the global field.”
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We’re so happy for her!
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