Woman in the Fast Lane
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Bia with PREMA car at F4 UAE (Photo courtesy of PREMA Racing)
Bianca is a serious competitor on the Formula 4 racetrack. She joined the fledgling PREMA F1 Academy team and recently won F1 Academy Round 2 in Valencia, Spain and Round 5 in Monza, Italy. Before moving up to formula racing, she was a three-time Philippines Driver of the Year in Karting, from 2018 to 2020, and three-time Macau Kart Grand Prix Winner, from 2019 to 2020.
Just another workday for Bianca. She consults with an engineer between laps on the Spa-Francorchamps racing circuit in the scenic Ardennes region of eastern Belgium (Photo courtesy of PREMA Racing).
Positively Filipino caught up with Bianca while she was training in France. “Being Filipino and overall, being Asian was difficult when I came to Europe. But I approached my unique status the same way I approach all challenges,” she recalls. “I’m hard working like the many Filipinos overseas who work day and night to support their families. Among all my competitors, I do my best to be the hardest worker on and off the track.”
Winning the F4 Italian at Spa Francorchamps (Photo courtesy of PREMA Racing)
A Woman’s Nerves of Steel Overpowers a Man’s Physical Prowess
Motorsports is the rare profession where there are no physical differences that prohibit women from going mano to mano with their male counterparts. “The beauty of it is nothing separates men from women. The minute you put your helmet on in a car, you no longer classify as a man or a woman. Racing is grueling so the mental side counts more than brute strength. We [women] are able to think on our feet and we’re bold in our actions.”
Take it from an expert thrill seeker, nothing beats a Formula 1 cockpit: “I’ve played volleyball and jet-skied in the Philippines and can tell you that the feeling of driving a car 250 kilometers an hour is very singular and cannot be replicated. Car racing allows you to go beyond your boundaries, achieve far beyond your threshold.” Despite her deft command of English and Tagalog, she concedes, “I can’t explain the feeling. A person has to experience it herself.”
On the day of our interview, Bianca was riding back to race base with her teammates after a day of freediving. She vouches that holding her breath on the Mediterranean seafloor isn’t like driving a Formula 4 car either.
Thanks to Bianca, Southern Californians like myself will never again feel sated after trotting our Corollas on Sunset Boulevard to the ocean, Ventura Highway to the Valley, and PCH to Malibu. Even as we raise our arms upon our majestic lookouts, we’ll sense a shallow victory.
The reason it’s easy to picture Bianca on the silver screen is her telegenic presence and endearing eloquence. Every advantage counts as she overcomes gender prejudices and economic obstacles across continents. “Coming from a Third World country makes it hard enough to find funding. I’ve also had lots of other challenges thrown at me.” She reveals, “I realize that my journey isn’t so normal, so I’ve always used the media to share my perspective and give back to my Filipino community and to inspire a young generation. I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for the support of the Filipino community around the world.”
Small Bia with Dad Raymund (Photo courtesy of Bianca Bustamante)
Young Bia karting (Photo courtesy of Bianca Bustamante)
Accelerometers, Gas Compressors and Tensile Strength
Alas, becoming a Hollywood starlet isn’t on her bucket list. If she weren’t racing, she confesses, “I would be studying to become an engineer. As a driver, I’ve always been passionate about engineering. I’m very technical-minded and have a working understanding of data and the intricate components of a car. In racing, it’s important to give your team precise feedback about the many configurations affecting your vehicle’s performance. I speak with my engineer much of the time and I love reading about engineering.”
The rare times when she’s not reading computational fluid dynamics mechanics manuals, training or making hairpin turns in Europe or North America, Bianca lives in Laguna, Philippines. Acknowledging Northern California as the backyard of Positively Filipino, she relates, “I appreciate that lots of Filipinos in the Bay Area follow my career. I’ve enjoyed driving in Sonoma and Fresno.”
Anthony Maddela is a Staff Correspondent based in Los Angeles. His ability to tune-up a car and change the oil will soon become obsolete as California transitions to electric vehicles. An EV sales rep recently explained that changing a flat will also require technical learning because the tires of electric vehicles are more sophisticated than rethreads.
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