Bianca Bustamante is a ‘one to watch’ within the motorsport industry. Kart racing since the age of five, now 19. She has won the China Grand Prix Kart Scholarship 4 times and the Macao International Kart Grand Prix 3 times.
She speaks to City A.M ., now as part of the McLaren driver development programme.
I grew up in a small town in the Philippines called Laguna. Motorsport wasn’t particularly popular there, so this made it quite tough to get into the sport initially. My dad has a huge passion for racing so it was him that got me into it.
We started watching races together and it became all we ever talked about. Before I knew it, I was driving my go-kart at six years old and began competing in both national and international events. It’s not an easy sport to succeed in, if I wanted to have a career in racing I’d need to devote my entire life to it.
I was homeschooled pretty much my entire life to ensure I had the time to train and compete. I think people often see the cover of the book but not really the contents inside. They see me travel, they see me race, and they see me training in a cool facility, but I’m still just a teenager.
There are still a lot of things I have to learn, which puts me under a lot of pressure. I also have to have the mental tenacity to manage a lot in my life whilst being so busy. This includes keeping in touch with my family and friends whilst trying to pursue greatness in my career.
I also need to find time for personal growth and happ.