Photo: Alex Bierens de Haan

Bianca Bustamante will step up to Eurocup-3 this year with Palou Motorsport, which will be competing in the championship in partnership with Prema.

It was announced last month that Italian single-seater behemoth Prema would partner with the Palou team founded in 2023 by four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou and his father Ramon for the upcoming Eurocup-3 season.

The championship is switching from a Fomula Regional-based car to the Dallara 326, a Formula 3-level chassis with a Toyota engine. To help Palou Motorsport with that technical transition, Prema will provide “engineering support in multiple areas throughout the year, including the use of the Prema simulator and advanced technical tools”.

Ramon Palou said: “I’m really happy and excited about the collaboration we’ve just started with Prema Racing. I couldn’t imagine a better partner to help us develop the new car we’ll be using in Eurocup-3 from 2026 onward. For a young structure like Palou Motorsport, having the support of one of the world’s leading single-seater teams is something truly extraordinary. I want to personally thank both Angelina and Rene [Rosin] for the effort they’ve put into making this collaboration a reality.”

Prema ventured into top-tier single-seaters for the first time last year, creating a two-car IndyCar squad. Robert Shwartzman claimed pole for Prema’s first ever oval race, the Indianapolis 500, and despite a run of top-10 results in races there has been uncertainty surrounding the team’s continued presence on the IndyCar grid since the 2025 season ended.

At Palou Motorsport, Bustamante is the first driver to be signed for 2026. Eurocup-3 will be the highest level the 20-year-old Filipino has raced at as she enters the fifth year of her single-seater career.

She started off in Formula 4 in 2022, doing two USF Juniors rounds before stepping up to FRegional by driving in the all-female W Series. After finishing ninth on her debut, there were no further points-scoring races and she came 15th in the standings.

The next two years were spent primarily in F4, with her 2023 campaign in the all-female F1 Academy championship her most competitive campaign. Two wins and two other podiums put her seventh in the points table.

Bustamante was part of Prema’s line-up that season, and she also came 27th in UAE4 with the team. She drove for three different teams in 2024 as a McLaren junior, coming seventh in F1 Academy again with one podium and 40th in Formula Winter Series.

Although her McLaren backing was lost for 2025, Bustamante did becoming a development driver of Formula E’s Cupra-partnered Kiro Race Co. team (formerly known as ERT) and tested for them. She also moved back up the single-seater ladder, racing for Elite Motorsport in GB3 and coming 22nd in the standings.

The post Bustamante joins Prema-linked Palou Motorsport in Eurocup-3 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: McLaren

The entry list for Formula E’s annual rookie test in Berlin is filling up, with several starts of junior single-seater racing down to drive on July 14.

McLaren Driver Development Programme members Alex Dunne and Ella Lloyd will test for their backer’s FE squad, which Dunne is the reserve driver for. The 19-year-old started in that role this year, and has already contested an FE practice session.

“I’m very excited to be getting another opportunity in the Gen3 Evo at the Berlin rookie test next month,” said Dunne, who is currently in his rookie Formula 2 season and is leading the title race. The Irishman raced in FIA Formula 3 last year.

“Since I joined the team as reserve and development driver, I’ve learnt so much about what it takes to get the maximum out of these cars, and I can’t wait to get out on track again.”

Lloyd too has FE mileage already as she drove on the final day of 2024-25 pre-season testing last November when teams were required to run a woman in at least one of their cars for at least one session.

The 19-year-old Welshwoman is in her second year of racing in Formula 4. As a rookie she claimed four podiums in British F4, and came 11th in the standings after missing a round. She is missing rounds again this season while her focus is on the all-female F1 Academy series where she sits fourth in the points at present with one win and three other podiums.

“I’m really looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the Gen3 Evo car again,” said Lloyd. “I learnt so much at the women’s test in Madrid and I’m excited to have another opportunity to get out on track and put all the preparation I’ve been doing in the simulator into practice.”

Bianca Bustamante also drove for McLaren in the women’s test day, and has now been signed by the Cupra-partnered Kiro Race Co. team (formerly known as Team China Racing, NIO and then ERT) as its development driver and for the rookie test.

The 20-year-old Filipino drove in Formula Regional in 2022, coming 15th in the all-female W Series, then stepped down to F4. She went on to win in F1 Academy and score in a British F4 cameo. This year she’s moved back up the single-seater ladder to GB3, where she is currently 24th in the standings with a best finish of 13th.

“I’m really excited to join Cupra Kiro,” said Bustamante. “In the very short time that we’ve been working together, it’s been incredible to experience the team’s disruptive approach to racing in action and to see the team’s hunger and desire for success first-hand.”

DS Penske has announced the creation of its own driver development programme, and made Nikita Bedrin its first signing and rookie test entrant.

The 19-year-old Russian is an FIA F3 Championship race-winner and cameoed in the 2025 season opener. Since then he has raced in the FRegional European Championship.

The post Bedrin, Bustamante and Dunne down for Formula E’s rookie test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Bianca Bustamante

GB3 teams have begun testing with the new Tatuus MSV GB3-025 car that will be introduced to the series this season.

Most teams collected their chassis last week from GB3 promoter MotorSport Vision, with 10 cars having been shipped from Tatuus’s headquarters in Italy over to the United Kingdom. Further shipments will be taking place later this month.

The first few chassis to be built were used for development running at Cremona, Vallelunga and Varano in Italy, Navarra in Spain, then at MSV’s Bedford Autodrome base last month.

Elite Motorsport wasted little time before heading out on track to sample its new car once it got hold of it, and went to Spain to test at Jerez.

At the wheel of the car for the team over the last two days have been Bianca Bustamante and Will Macintyre, who form part of its driver line-up for 2025.

Bustamante, who graduates from the all-female and Formula 4-spec F1 Academy series, said “the car looks and feels amazing” after testing it.

She also announced her departure from the McLaren Driver Development Programme, which she joined in October 2023 at the end of her rookie season in F1 Academy. That year she won two races and came seventh in the standings, a position she repeated in 2024 despite only making the podium once. She already has experience at a higher level of single-seaters, having some in 15th in all-female and FRegional-spec W Series back in 2022.

Tatuus announced last week that it has made Leonardo Galante its new chief technical officer. He previously worked in the technical departments of Ferrari and Lamborghini, and joins Tatuus to work on non-motorsport projects as well as its range of junior single-seater cars.

The post GB3 teams begin testing with new Tatuus MSV GB3-025 car appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Elite Motorsport

F1 Academy race-winner Bianca Bustamante will race in GB3 next year, have penned a deal with Elite Motorsport.

The 19-year-old Filipino is a McLaren Formula 1 junior and will be returning to Formula Regional-level competition, having raced faster machinery before spending two years in Formula 4.

She is Elite’s second signing for next season, when the championship introduces a new car, alongside 2024 title contender Will Macintyre.

“GB3 is a great step to progress up the ladder of single-seater competition,” said Bustamante. “I felt GB3 was the perfect step to learn higher downforce and bigger-powered cars, with the next step aimed at Formula 3.

“With the great calendar mixing European and British circuits, as well as a strong grid of drivers, I expect GB3 to provide me with a great learning platform. I look back fondly on my F1 Academy years and am proud of what was achieved but I’m now excited to return to the traditional racing ladder with both male and female racers on the grid.”

Bustamante began her single-seater career in 2022, coming 25th in USF Juniors (which used F4 cars at the time) after contesting a quarter of the season, then moving up to FRegional to race in the all-female W Series. She came 15th in the standings with two points.

Last year she stepped back down to F4, and signed with top team Prema. She 27th in the Emirati championship, then seventh in the all-female F1 Academy with two victories and two other podiums. Cameos in Italy and Macau were also made.

Bustamante returned to USF Juniors for its season finale, and two ninth places put her 17th in the standings. After that she was signed by McLaren to its driver development programme, and it decided to keep her in F4 for 2024.

Driving for the Global Racing Service team she came 40th in Formula Winter Series, then with ART Grand Prix she was seventh in F1 Academy again with one podium and also cameoed in Euro 4 and Italian F4.

Although Bustamante did appear in British F4, her outing with Hitech GP was at Zandvoort rather than a British track. She scored points by finishing eighth in her third race.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome Bianca to Elite Motorsport. It is very clear Bianca has a fantastic attitude combined with total professionalism,” said Elite owner Eddie Ives.

“I’m confident that with these attributes along with her experience and success she’s already accomplished in such a short space of time, together with the skills of my excellent GB3 team, will no doubt lead to a fantastic season.”

The post McLaren junior Bianca Bustamante lands GB3 seat with Elite Motorsport appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

Jack Beeton and Freddie Slater added to their Italian Formula 4 pole position tallies at Monza, where the 38-car field featured several new faces.

Hudson Schwartz continued as Alvise Rodella’s replacement at Van Amersfoort Racing after debuting last time out at Barcelona, and Dante Vinci replaced Andrija Kostic. The 16-year-old Australian came 30th in the WSK Super Master Series for OK karts this year.

AKM Motorsportreplaced Wiktor Dobrzanski with Mattia Marchiante, who came 36th in Euro 4 with the team, Andrei Duna returned to Real Racing Team after missing six three rounds and Jan Koller reunited with BVM Racing.

Jenzer Motorsport was without Ethan Ischer for the weekend, butadded Bart Harrison and Ciro Sobral to its line-up. Harrison came 20th in British F4 this season, and Sobral is currently fifth in Brazilian F4.

ART Grand Prix also made its first series appearance with McLaren-backed Bianca Bustamante and Williams junior Lia Block. They usually race for the team in F1 Academy, where they are currently seventh and eighth in the standings.

The final change to the entry list was at Maffi Racing, where Kirill Kutskov took the place of the absent Gabriel Holguin. Kutskov began 2024 by coming third in Saudi Arabian F4, then was F4 Central European Zone runner-up.

Drivers faced wet conditions throughout Friday, and in the first 40-minute practice session in the morning nobody did more than 10 laps as three red flag periods interrupted running.

R-ace GP’s Luka Sammalisto and Enzo Yeh traded fastest laps at first, before US Racing’s Maxim Rehm pipped Yeh to top spot. VAR duo Gustav Jonsson and Hiyu Yamakoshi each lowered the pace, before Prema’s already crowned champion Slater put in two laps good enough to be quickest.

He ended the session 0.396s ahead of Jonsson, with team-mate Kean Nakamura Berta 0.837s behind in third and US’s Gianmarco Pradel 0.859s back in fourth. Everyone else was more than a second off the pace.

FP2 was also shortened by red flags, caused by an incident for Koller. Before that, there had been more running and faster laptimes. Nakmaura laid down the first benchmark, and was swiftly beaten by team-mates Dion Gowda, Alex Powell and Slater.

Yamakoshi and Jonsson were then at the top, followed by Jenzer’s Reno Francot, PHM Raciong duo Davide Larini and Maximilian Popov, then Beeton.

Slater surpassed Beeton 15 minutes in, but then did not feature at the top again until the very end as Pradel, Popov, Beeton, Jonsson and Francot each lowered the pace. Francot led the way with a 1m52.895s before Slater beat him by 0.3s at the end.

Nakamura demoted him to third, and also within a second of Slater were Pradel, Rehm and Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis.

The first qualifying session towards the end of the day was wetter and slower, and once more disrupted by an incident. This time Real Racing Team’s Luca Viisoreanu was the guilty party.

It was a battle between Prema and US’s line-ups to be fastest, and Beeton prevailed by almost half a second by setting a 1m58.547s. Slater was second-best, and both Francot and Powell were 1.16s behind. US’s Akshay Bohra and Pradel were fifth and sixth, ahead of four Prema drivers.

Block and Harrison were the red flag culprits in Q2, which had a similar story at the top to the previous session. This time Slater was fastest, setting a 1m57.666s to lead Nakamura by 0.318s. Beeton and Jonsson were 0.582s and 0.657s behind respestively, and AKM Motorsport’s Emanuele Olivieri made it into the top top five but was 1.188s off pole.

Drivers’ second-best laptimes from the two qualifying sessions set the race three grid, and Slater was on top again by 0.332s over Sammalisto. Pradel and Powell will start third and fourth, ahead of Francot and Beeton.

Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Jack Beeton US Racing 1m58.547s
2 Freddie Slater Prema +0.497s
3 Reno Francot Jenzer Motorsport +1.160s
4 Alex Powell Prema +1.160s
5 Akshay Bohra US Racing +1.451s
6 Gianmarco Pradel US Racing +1.475s
7 Tomass Stolcermanis Prema +1.491s
8 Kean Nakamura Berta Prema +1.492s
9 Dion Gowda Prema +1.533s
10 Rashid Al Dhaheri Prema +1.558s

Race 2 grid
1 Slater 1m57.666s
2 Nakamura +0.318s
3 Beeton +0.582s
4 Gustav Jonsson Van Amersfoort Racing +0.657s
5 Emanuele Olivieri AKM Motorsport +1.188s
6 Everett Stack PHM Racing +1.539s
7 Al Dhaheri +1.631s
8 Gowda +1.737s
9 Pradel +1.792s
10 Luka Sammalisto R-ace GP +1.804s

Race 3 grid
1 Slater 1m59.267s
2 Sammalisto +0.332s
3 Pradel +0.608s
4 Powell +0.642s
5 Francot +0.740s
6 Beeton +0.832s
7 Nakamura +1.007s
8 Gowda +1.082s
9 Al Dhaheri +1.131s
10 Bohra +1.150s

The post Beeton and Slater takes Monza poles in expanded 38-car Italian F4 field appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

The value of a driver coach is widely accepted and when McLaren was looking to support its growing roster of junior drivers – such as Alex Dunne – it turned to Warren Hughes. He explains his role to Formula Scout

After initially joining the McLaren Driver Development Programme (MDDP) to look after F1 Academy racer Bianca Bustamente, Warren Hughes also began supporting Formula 3 driver Alex Dunne after McLaren signed the Irishman earlier this year.

Formula Scout caught up with Hughes and Dunne at Spa-Francorchamps, as the latter approached the end of his rookie F3 campaign, to find out what Hughes does and how being in Dunne’s corner helped his development through 2024.

A veteran racer with vast experience across motorsport from his own varied driving career, Hughes says his role as a driver coach is not a “defined” one, as it involves “filling in any gaps that I identify, really”.

“It’s just dipping in and out where I feel it can be of support to him [Dunne]. It might just be somebody for him to sound off to and be a sounding board. ‘What do you think about this? What sort of track position do I need to get a slipstream?,’ for example. Just general guidance.

“We’re talking about tracks, looking at onboard stuff and the tracks are evolving all the time, whether its resurfacing or the kerbs changing, so it keeps me very current on multiple tracks, how they’ve evolved in the last couple of years.”

And the buzz that Hughes gets from the role is obvious.

“I love it!” he enthuses. “It’s super enjoyable because once you get the trust of a driver by offering advice on kerbs or gears, they realise that you’re tuned in.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s a replacement for driving. You know you don’t get the dopamine hit that you get from a super strong performance, but it’s the next best thing for sure.”

Photo: Roger Gascoigne

Having raced and won in everything from single-seaters and touring cars to Le Mans prototypes and GT sportcars in a driving career spanning over 30 years, Hughes has a wealth of experience to share. “You just pick up a lot of knowledge along the way,” he says modestly.

Hughes debuted in Formula Ford in 1989, and in 1991 was FFord Festival and Formula Vauxhall Lotus runner-up. He then stepped up to F3, and stayed in the category until 1999 as a perennial lack of funds meant that he didn’t progress up the ladder as quickly as his performances – which included coming fourth in the British F3 standings three times – merited.

As a result, he often found himself thrust into a developmental role, something that he revelled in. “Those technical challenges and testing new projects are things I’ve always massively enjoyed as a driver. Racing is one thing, but the testing and development stuff is something I’ve always really loved, getting under the skin of it all.”

Dallara’s asserting its dominance on the F3 chassis in the mid-1990s (a position it still basically holds today) owes much to Hughes’ early-season pace in the family-run Richard Arnold Developments team in 1993, when he stunned the established teams running the then-dominant Ralt or Reynard cars and prompting a mass switch to the Dallara F393 mid-season.

He was then hired by Mitsubishi to help with the development of its F3 engine, first in Japan and then back in Britain where he scored the company’s maiden victories in 1995.

That understanding of and interest in the technical aspects has, he believes, helped him “become the driver coach that I am”.

“You’ve got many aspects of understanding not just from a driver’s perspective, [but also] the team’s and engineers’ requirements and just how to get your point across, what the engineer needs to know, how the driver needs to be communicating with the engineer. That’s all built up just with my own experience.”

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

He initially got started as a coach “alongside my own racing in the early to mid-2000s” and has “been working in British Formula 4 with Argenti Motorsport for the last three or four years and Double R Racing before that, so the lower level of junior single seaters was quite current for me”. When Double R centrally ran the cars of the all-female W Series in 2021, Hughes teamed up with his former Le Mans 24 Hours team-mate Jonny Kane to act as driver coach there too.

His association with McLaren is lengthy, starting “as a driver coach on the Pure events programme that they do for [road car] customers who are doing track days”, with some of those customers progressing to GT racing.

“I was asked to do the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year and drive a couple of cars up the hill, [including] the 1977 James Hunt McLaren M26. Quite a lot of familiar faces turned up and I know Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO] from when he actually competed in F3 [in 1995], and our paths crossed quite briefly.”

After being given a glowing welcome by Brown at Goodwood, Hughes caught up with 1992 F3 rival and McLaren consultant Gil de Ferran “for the first time in quite a while since he became a big name in the US”.

Looking to offer the benefits of his W Series experience, he “touched base with Gil again to see what the situation was in F1 Academy, because I’d heard about [new all-female series F1 Academy] requiring Formula 1 teams to be affiliated with a driver.”

De Ferran replied that he didn’t know, “but he said ‘I know a man who does’, so he put me in touch with [then-MDDP director] Emanuele Pirro”.

“Emanuele and I spoke at length about how I would fit into the role, representing McLaren or supporting their affiliated drivers and we seemed to really connect on that sort of vision. He took the idea to Zak and Andrea [Stella, McLaren team principal]. Zak was very enthusiastic to have me on board so there was just a lot of really neat connections there and the timing was perfect,” Hughes recalls.

Photo: F1 Academy

He began his MDDP involvement this February by supporting Bustamante in Formula Winter Series before she embarked on a second season in fellow F4 series F1 Academy. “We’ve done a lot of days together and gelled really well. We’re still mid-season with that and she’s had some good results recently.”

When Stephanie Carlin replaced Pirro in May, “she asked if I could support [new signing] Alex Dunne in F3, so I’ve been with Alex since the Imola race” that month.

“Obviously, it’s still in the fairly early stages of the [revamped] MDDP, but there certainly seems to be quite a commitment from McLaren to support drivers that they believe have got the talent and a future,” says Hughes, who in turn is enjoying the level of trust he has too from the team’s senior management.

“I’m enjoying it more than ever really, particularly on the McLaren side of it, because I do feel a real affinity with McLaren. There’s just a lot of good, historical connections which draw me to that team and to be able to do something that they value is really rewarding,” he explains.

“I feel very valued by the MDDP, by the hierarchy, by Zak and Andrea. I’ve really just enjoyed working with the young drivers. It’s super rewarding once you earn their trust and it keeps my brain very current as well. It’s just a very nice relationship in all aspects.”

When in F1’s support paddock, Hughes has focused solely on Bustamante or Dunne, with Formula 2 points leader Gabriel Bortoleto and Martinius Stenshorne – who came 18th in FIA F3, four places behind Dunne – not having his assistance.

Hughes explains the benefit of individual focus: “[You] sort of get under the skin of it. You live and breathe the thought processes throughout the weekend and then all of the meetings and debriefs. And I’m on the radio all the time when Alex is in the car. You’re properly embedded and you’ve understood the reason that they’ve come to certain decisions and if I can guide them in some way.”

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

So, what does a typical race weekend look like for a top coach like Hughes?

“It starts off with a track walk together with Alex’s race engineer. It’s important that the three of us do that track walk and the discussions that we have so that there’s no conflict of information.

“We talk about the track, we’ve always got an onboard video of a reference lap, and we just stop and talk about each corner. I use my experience of each track and what I feel. Just general overview stuff, not car-specific, more track-specific like which kerbs are to be used [or] track evolution over the course of a race weekend.

“Then Alex has just got a little bit more information to pick and choose from. Some of it will be relevant, some of it less so because it will be car-specific,” he adds. “There’s a lot of crossover with the engineers as well, obviously, we need to all be on the same page.”

On F3 weekends, Hughes would then join the pre-event briefing of the MP Motorsport team that Dunne drove for, and who he credits as having an “experienced set of engineers at this level”.

“Just to listen, to see what the run plan is going be. If I have an opinion on something, I’ll pipe up, but it tends to be just information gathering so that I’m aware of what the plan is for the weekend.”

Driver, engineers and coach go through the run plan again before Dunne hits the track for the first time for Friday practice.

“[I’m] on the radio, it’s a little bit tricky in terms of direct coaching in F3 because there’s no [onboard] video allowed on the cars, which is a massive tool when you’re trying to coach,” Hughes says of how his role transfers into when Dunne is driving.

“Occasionally I’ll go and watch on track, but trackside access normally is quite limited, especially when the crowds build up, so trying to get a good vantage point to watch a particular corner is sometimes quite difficult.”

Interestingly, he says that he doesn’t “have access to the pitlane during the qualifying sessions, but I do tend to be there for the races”. However, if he notices anything on the radio or from his observations, whether live or via the TV monitors, “I’ll get a message to either Alex’s father [former Formula Ford racer Noel] or to the race engineer just to say ‘double check on what he said there’ to make sure the communication is what it should be.”

In the debrief, he again tries to offer opinions where appropriate. “[I need to] ask the right questions. If I feel the information isn’t clear enough, I’ll just chip in and ask more questions,” Hughes says of trying to identify areas for performance improvements.

“We’ll do a little data review within the team [which is] obviously primarily led by the race engineer, but I’ll dip in and out as I see appropriate, but after that really it’s just a little bit coaching outside of the car, just for Alex’s own learning; to make sure he’s aware of [any] changes [to the car.]”

“If a change is made in the session and he feels a benefit from it, he needs to know what that change was so that he can store that away for future reference. Changes to the wings, the ride height or the roll-bars have a an effect, so he needs to be able to register what those effects are.”

Their relationship only began at the Imola round in May, where the Irishman was announced as a member of the MDDP, although naturally he’d already had his eye on him “in F4 a couple of years prior to that, so I was aware of how strong a talent he was at that level, but you’re never quite sure how that’s going to translate as you move up through the ranks.”

“I’ve been super impressed with his first year of F3. He’s a young guy, [I think] the potential is very high as do McLaren, so we’re really just trying to support that and just try and shortcut the learning process, both in and out of the car. I feel very quickly we’ve developed a very strong relationship.”

Due to the lateness of the MP deal, Dunne missed most of post-season testing at the end of 2023 and did none of it with the Dutch squad, meaning there was still some “bedding in” to do in the early rounds.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

“I think there was a settling in period of the team trying to understand what Alex needed from the car set up and that bedding-in process sometimes takes a bit of time, but by Imola they’d had a test at Barcelona where they made a bit of a step with what they felt Alex needed from the car and he was much happier with the car balance.

“Imola started off really well. It was quite clear Alex had super pace from the word go. I thought it was a super impressive weekend, so my initial impression of him was already very strong from that moment onwards.”

As a result of a minor technical error by the team, Dunne had been disqualified from qualifying, leaving him at the back of the grid for both races, “so he wasn’t able to show the outside world what he could do. But when you’re watching closely enough, it’s quite clear, because I think he came back through the field and finished 14th [in race one and 16th in the feature race]. It was super clinical, the way he brushed the disappointment away from quali and just got on with the job.

“Really from that point forwards, Alex has been very clear and very strong in the message he gets across to the team, which I’ve tried to encourage as well, to make sure you’ve got enough rotation in the car, [and] you’ve got the car in the sweet spot where you want to drive it.

“That sounds straightforward, but it’s a moving goal post over the course of the race weekend because the track’s constantly changing with temperature, with rubber going down, especially on an F1 weekend, so there is that element of just learning and we’re still learning.

“F3 is such a difficult formula because you get so little track time, you get an extremely peaky tyre in qualifying [when] you might get one lap out of it if you’re lucky, so it doesn’t take much for that to be not quite where it needs to be either in terms of balance or a little bit of traffic. The slightest little thing can have a huge impact on your qualifying and that’s what we found in Hungaroring.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

“It’s a difficult track to manage your runs traffic-free in qualifying. The first couple of runs were a little bit messy just with traffic. The third run looked like he was on for probably a P6 maybe, and the red flag came out for Luke Browning’s accident, so it’s quite clear that the ingredients on each weekend are there.

“There’s been a lot of missed opportunities throughout the year and that’s probably a little bit on both sides but the one that probably hurts the most is Silverstone.

“Alex had put it on the front row after the first run in the in the dry part of the session before the shower came and it was a little bit of a miscalculation probably team-wise that we didn’t go back out again because the track suddenly dried, so he got bumped down to 13th. That was a real golden opportunity. Because of Alex’s track knowledge we came into that weekend expecting to be quite strong, so not to be able to deliver on that was really quite a big blow.

“That frustration has been there at each event almost. Obviously Imola we’ve talked about, Monaco was the one after that where [it] was Alex’s first [visit]. Free practice had been wet so he had very little track knowledge, [going] straight into qualifying in the dry for the first time, so his first lap wasn’t perfect. His next lap he was on it, probably for P2 or P3 on the grid, again the red flag came out.

“There’s a lot of these flashes of raw potential there that, at the moment, we’ve not been able to show to the outside world. If you’re looking closely enough, you’ll see it. But we’ve just got to deliver and show the outside world what he’s capable of, because I think the potential is super high and his development in and out of the car is progressing all the time.

“Putting it together is hard for a first-year driver with a young team as well, so to get them meshed together to deliver week in week out sounds straightforward but with a lot of variables that affect that, so it’s really trying to cover off those variables as much as we can to prepare.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

“In terms of development, I can see Alex has grown in stature within the team. He’s quite vocal in the team debriefs; he’s shown enough potential so far that when he speaks everybody’s very attentive internally within the team. I think his stature has grown hugely and you can see his confidence in how vocal he is. That’s grown as well. He’s sort of become a bit more empowered. I think he’s seen that with a clean run each week he can be right at the front.

Dunne says that “with such limited mileage [in F3], all the information I can get, the better,” so Hughes’ observations are “definitely a benefit.”

“There’s a lot of things that he gives input on, which for sure helps,” adds Dunne, underlining how Hughes’ observations complement the information available to the engineers on the pitwall.

“Warren will go to a couple of different corners during FP and say, ‘Oh, a couple of different guys are doing this. It might not necessarily be better, but you could give it a try,’ or ‘This definitely looks better, I think you should try it,’ and different things like that.

“Warren has a lot of knowledge, he’s been to a lot of the tracks that we’ve raced at and he understands the cars, the downforce and everything about the setup,” he says.

While Dunne is confident that he already understands “a good amount, if there’s anything I’m confused on or I have an idea, but I just don’t completely understand it, I can ask him. He’s always very good at explaining it and always helps make sure I understand what’s going on.”

Of course, Hughes’ presence trackside provides his bosses at McLaren “with a set of eyes and ears in the paddock,” to provide “an accurate feedback opportunity.” The team is investing heavily in its young drivers and having input from someone needs as much relevant input as possible to measure their progress.

Photo: Roger Gascoigne

Hughes feels that he can give an “independent overview of what’s going on within the team which I then filter back to McLaren. How was Alex’s performance? Where is he strong? Where does he need to work? I think that’s equally as important as the support that it gives Alex.”

Not so much a “fly on the wall” as a balanced viewpoint, going beyond what can be seen from the stopwatch and the points table.

Dunne admits that “we’ve had one of the more difficult seasons, [such that] somebody looking in from the outside might say sometimes I may be underperforming.”

Therefore, for him as well, having “someone like Warren who’s here, looking at the data, looking at everything on track, he’s able to, I guess you could say, back me up in the case that that’s not necessarily what’s happening.”

Having that “second opinion confirms that a lot of the things that have happened are not necessarily within my control. To have that [has] been very helpful,” he reckons.

Hughes has continued to work with Bustamente as she builds her career in F1 Academy, although the relative lack of experience compared to someone like Dunne given that most of her racing has been in F4 necessitates a “very different” approach.

“There’s way more guidance involved, both in the driving side and out of the car, so that I really feel I can influence her quite a lot.

“I’ve got a really good relationship with Bianca and her management as well, so if feel I need to say something or have an opinion on something, they’re very open and receptive to my opinion. She’s a great character, very bubbly and a lot of fun. It’s a little bit of a rollercoaster just because of the nature of F1 Academy, there’s probably bigger gaps between races, the drivers are less experienced, so there’s more room for variation.”

Photo: Roger Gascoigne

Having worked with W Series and now with Bustamente, he admits that “it is different working with a girl, there are other elements involved and the emotional side of it is definitely one of those things,” which has been “a learning process” for him too, “trying to navigate that and trying to use it in a positive way.”

“It probably would have helped if I’d had daughters, but I haven’t, I’ve got two boys,” he adds with a smile.

“I’m finding it a great challenge and it’s really rewarding when she gets a good result and she’s super appreciative of the input,” he says.

After around 20 years as a coach, Hughes has lost none of his enthusiasm for the role and the never-ending opportunity to learn something new, and never get stale.

“I’ve been at it a long time. You learn a huge set of skills, people skills and obviously it keeps you involved with car progression, with track progression, but you’re [always] learning, mixing with different characters all the time, not just drivers, but within the teams, different engineers, different nationalities,” he says.

“Every day is different, every personality is different and I think you’ve got to be emotionally switched on and emotionally intelligent to do a job that people value. But I’m still here so something must be going well!”

The post How Warren Hughes is helping McLaren guide Alex Dunne appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: F1 Academy

French team ART Grand Prix has announced it will enter the upcoming Euro 4 and Italian Formula 4 finales with two cars.

Best known for its exploits further up the single-seater ladder, ART GP expanded into the entry-level F4 category last year in the all-female F1 Academy championship.

It runs three cars there, and Bianca Bustamante and Aurelia Nobels will migrate across from ART GP’s F1 Academy line-up to drive at Monza twice later this month. The Euro 4 season concludes there on October 4-6, then the Italian F4 finale is on October 25-27.

Both Bustamante and Nobels are Formula 1 juniors, with the former backed by McLaren while the latter joined Ferrari’s ranks at the end of 2022 after winning the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission’s Ferrari Driver Academy-affiliated Girls on Track Rising Stars programme.

They are currently seventh and 11th in the F1 Academy standings respectively, with Bustamante taking a podium and a fastest lap in Miami.

Bustamante also came 40th in Formula Winter Series and made a points-scoring British F4 cameo this year, and in 2023 she was seventh in F1 Academy with two wins and 27th in F4 United Arab Emirates.

Nobels dabbled in several F4 series as a single-seater rookie in 2022, competing in Brazil, Denmark and Belgium, and last year joined Prema for a double programme. She came 22nd in Euro 4 and 26th in Italian F4, where she missed races.

This year has been far busier, starting off with two F4 UAE rounds, then a Saudi Arabian F4 round where she got a podium before she joined the F1 Academy grid. Like Bustamante, Nobels has also made a British F4 cameo in 2024.

The post ART GP announces two-car entry into Italian F4 and Euro 4 finales appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: McLaren

Bianca Bustamante has become the third member of this year’s F1 Academy grid to seek Formula 1 circuit experience by signing with a team to make a British Formula 4 cameo.

F1 Academy points leader Abbi Pulling races full-time in British F4, and is a Rodin Motorsport driver in both series.

Chris Dittmann Racing ran Carrie Schreiner (who drives for Campos Racing in F1 Academy) last month in British F4’s round on Silverstone’s Grand Prix layout, and for the next round at Dutch Grand Prix venue Zandvoort will replace her with Jessica Edgar (Pulling’s F1 Academy team-mate).

Bustamante is an ART Grand Prix driver when on the F1 support bill, and this weekend she will join Hitech GP to make her British F4 debut in the Netherlands. Zandvoort is a track she already has experience of.

“I’m looking forward to racing in the British F4 championship for the first time,” said Bustamante. “Though I raced at Circuit Zandvoort last year, it will be my first time in the championship where the level of competition is intense and will have some of the best male and female drivers from around the globe.

“As always, qualifying will be a key component to a successful race weekend so I will work hard in the practice sessions to get acquainted with both my team and the car. Big thank you to my team Hitech GP for their guidance, as well as to McLaren for all their support.”

The 19-year-old Filipino came 15th in the Formula Regional-spec W Series in 2022 as a single-seater rookie, then stepped down to F4 last year. She came 27th in the United Arab Emirates championship and then seventh in F1 Academy with two wins.

McLaren signed her as a junior for 2024, and kept her in F1 Academy. Bustamante is currently fifth in the standings with one podium from the first three rounds.

The post Bustamante becomes latest British F4-bound F1 Academy racer appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Gedlich Racing

The Formula Winter Series gets underway at Jerez this weekend, with a grid that is still growing with new signings.

McLaren junior Bianca Bustamante is the latest addition to the entry list, and will be racing for the Global Racing Service team at Jerez, Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit and Motorland Aragon but will miss the Barcelona season finale next month.

Bustamante came 15th in the all-female, Formula Regional-spec W Series in 2022, then stepped down to Formula 4 last year and came 27th in F4 United Arab Emirates then seventh in F1 Academy.

“I’ll have the chance to test my skills against some of the top F4 drivers in Europe,” said the 19-year-old Filipino of her decision to race in the series. “It’s a short series but it will be great preparation as the F1 Academy season is fast approaching, which is my main programme this year.”

GRS only has two drivers signed, while rival teams have packed line-ups for Spain’s wintertime F4 championship.

Campos Racing has signed Andres Cardenas, Finn Harrison, Jan Przyrowski, Enzo Tarnvanichkul, Nathan Tye and Pacome Weisenburger, with four of those then racing in Spanish F4 with the team. The exceptions are Ginetta Junior graduate Harrison, who will go on to race in GB4, and karter Weisenburger who will compete in French F4 this year.

Jenzer Motorsport has announced Adam Hideg for a double programme, with an Italian F4 campaign following FWinter Series. The 16-year-old Hungarian drove on OK-J karts through 2021 and ’22, starting off by finishing 18th in the WSK Champions Cup. In his second year he was CIK-FIA World championship runner-up, eighth in the Champions of the Future Winter Series, 15th in CotF and 18th in the CIK-FIA European championship. At the end of 2022 he stepped up to OK karts and came 16th in the WSK Final Cup.

His FWinter Series team-mates will be Edouard Borgna, Arthur Dorison and Enea Frey. Borgna came 26th in French F4 last year, Dorison won the 2022 FIA Karting Academy Trophy and made a French F4 cameo in 2023, and Frey steps up to single-seaters after finishing 11th in last year’s South Garda Winter Cup and 14th in the CIK-FIA World championship for OK karts.

Drivex has grown its line-up to three cars by signing Juan Cota and Francisco Macedo. Cota came eighth in FWinter Series then 15th in Spanish F4 with the team last year, while Portuguese rookie Macedo is a national karting champion in his home country and on OK karts was 22nd in the 2023 CIK-FIA European championship.

Two positions ahead of him in that championship was former Sauber junior Maciej Gladysz, who will race for MP Motorsport in FWinter Series. He won the 2021 FIA Karting Academy Trophy, then in 2022 won the CotF WS, was WSK Euro Series runner-up and came fourth in junior karting’s world championship.

Another to double up in Spanish F4 and FWinter Series this year is Polish karter Wiktor Dobrzanski, who has joined Tecnicar Motorsport.

The post McLaren junior Bustamante among latest additions to FWinter Series grid appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: McLaren

Bianca Bustamante has joined the McLaren Formula 1 team’s driver development programme and will sport its colours while racing for ART Grand Prix in F1 Academy in 2024.

Every F1 team will have a driver running its livery in the championship next year and McLaren has become the first to confirm which driver it will be supporting.

It has also enrolled Bustamante in its junior programme, the first time it has signed a female driver to the scheme.

McLaren announced the signing ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix where the 2023 F1 Academy season will conclude – the first time the series has raced alongside an F1 event, before it joins the support bill for its full 2024 calendar.

Bustamante has been racing for Prema in the inaugural season and sits seventh in the standings with two victories. She also competed for the Italian squad in United Arab Emirates F4 at the start of the year, and a single Italian F4 round at Spa-Francorchamps, having previously joined the W Series grid for its final season in 2022.

“This is such an unreal moment in my career, to sign with McLaren and ART Grand Prix is way beyond anything I could’ve ever imagined growing up racing karts in the Philippines,” she said. “I still have a hard time seeing my name next to McLaren without getting emotional, as the history and heritage linked to this team leaves me truly speechless.

“I’m so grateful for this opportunity as I believe I now have the best possible development structure around me to take the next step up in my career, and for this I am so thankful. 2023 was all about improving my speed which I demonstrated across several races this year, but in 2024 my aim is to establish consistency and improve my mental strength in order to make a title challenge in the coming F1 Academy season.”

McLaren also announced that American technology giant Cisco will partner its F1 Academy participation.

“I’m pleased that Bianca is joining our Driver Development programme,” said Emanuele Pirro, the head of McLaren’s young driver scheme.

“She’s a promising young talent who has a brilliant work ethic and is aligned closely to our team’s values. I look forward to working with Bianca on her development as a racing driver. We’re also excited for Bianca to be representing the team in the F1 Academy series and we look forward to seeing her race in papaya in 2024.”

The post Bustamante signed by McLaren, to race for ART in 2024 F1 Academy appeared first on Formula Scout.