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.