Bianca Bustamante settles for P9 in Macau race: ‘We’ll fight back as always’
Photo from racerbia/Instagram
Embodying Filipino resilience and determination, Filipina-American race driver Bianca Bustamante faced adversity head on during her Formula 4 debut at the Macau Grand Prix on Nov. 11.
But despite an unfortunate end to the race, McLaren’s first Filipina driver remained optimistic, citing her progress and the challenging nature of the iconic Macau Guia street circuit.
“Whatttta euphoric feeling driving onto the Macau Guia Street Circuit for the very first time,” her Instagram caption reads. “Never really knew what narrow and fast meant until today.”
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For those unfamiliar, the 6.1-kilometer circuit is renowned as one of the most challenging street tracks globally, characterized by its narrow layout, breakneck speeds, and unforgiving tight corners.
Nevertheless, Bustamante still showcased her skill by finishing 11th in the race qualifying. Her prowess in navigating the wet street track elevated her to ninth place in the final heat.
“P11 in qualifying and a clean drive in a wet Race 1 moved us up to P9 for the final. We worked extra hard today to go over onboards and data improving my technique to close down the gap,” she further shared.
However, the final race took an unfortunate turn of event for Bianca Bustamante in the very first lap, leading to a “Did Not Finish (DNF)” result.
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Detailing the sequence of events, the Laguna native elaborated, “On lap 1, a driver out-braked themselves, flew past me, and hit the wall in Lisboa, giving me absolutely no room to go which caused me to DNF. I gave it my best fight for a top eight, but this one was out of our control.”
Reflecting on the incident, she described it as a “tough lesson” and explained, “For hours I was replaying how it all happened thinking of any other way I could’ve avoided it, but it was just unavoidable.”
Notwithstanding the setbacks, her positive attitude and commitment to improvement shine through as she remains undeterred, using the experience as a stepping stone for future success. Racing under the banner of BlackArts Racing for her maiden F4 race, the Filipina driver drove a Tatuus F4-T421.
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Bianca Bustamante concluded her Instagram post with a reflection on the race, stating, “We’ll fight back as always!! A P9 in race one was a major improvement, and we gotta take that as a win to keep progressing.
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