PHILIPPINE racing sensation Bianca Bustamante has set lofty goals for herself after an optimistic debut race weekend in the inaugural F1 Academy, Formula 1's all-female single seat racing championship.
Bianca Bustamante on F1 Academy outlook
Finishing P2 in just her first race with PREMA Racing in the top-flight women's racing competition, Bustamante now eyes the top spot in the podium.
The 18-year-old said that her main motivation draws from wanting to represent Filipino and Asian drivers in the biggest stage for women's racing.
"It's been an amazing pleasure to be able to raise the [Philippine] flag across the world in the motorsport scene and to actually see the flag up there, and it hasn't been there for quite a long time in motorsport." Bustamante said.
"It was a surreal experience when it was getting raised so I was like smiling. I was trying to hold back tears."
Flanked with the Philippine flag at the podium during race weekend in Austria last week, Bustamante eyes another first for the Philippines.
Much like in any competition, the winner of each race is honored by playing their national anthem as they stand atop the podium.
In her young racing career, Bustamante dreams of hearing Lupang Hinirang ring across the paddock.
"For sure, the next goal for us is to have the national anthem played, and that's definitely gonna be my main goal for this year is to get on the top spot of the podium and hear that national anthem." she said.
Bustamante has long been adoring of her fans, who have been pushing her to be better.
As the teenage racer bucks homesickness and the challenge of being a professional athlete at such a young age, she says that hearing the cheers from her Filipino fans from across the world is one of the things that help her regain the strength.
"Honestly, it's the best feeling in the world. Even just before heading into a race weekend, the support has been insane from so many Filipino fans from all over the world. Not even just Philippines, but whole of Southeast Asia in general." said Bustamante.
"The support has been insane. Actually, whenever I have a bad day in training, or in the sim, I just go through Twitter or Instagram, and go through their comments, the tweets and it just boosts me so much because in the end, I'm not just fighting for myself but for everyone that's behind me on this. And I've always just had that on my head and that's why I was always able to push forward, power through everything."
Bustamante will have three races to score more points and potentially score a maiden win this weekend. The first two races at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo happens on Saturday with the third and final race of the weekend on Sunday.
Currently, the Filipina driver is sixth in the world championships standings with 18 points to her name.
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