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.