MANILA, Philippines — Filipina racer Bianca Bustamante is relishing her return to the race track like coming home to a place she's missed very much.
After almost two years of inactivity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bustamante enjoys going back to the grind of enriching her racing career.
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"Well, I'm definitely far away from home in the Philippines, but coming back from racing, I felt very much at home," Bustamante told Philstar.com in an interview on Friday (early Saturday morning, Manila time).
"It's like coming back from a long day of work. It's just amazing that I could do everything I love again. I can work out, I'm training, I'm going to the race tracks, [and] I'm driving," she added.
Bustamante is currently in Indianapolis as she's undergoing intensive training for the 2022 season.
She also recently participated in the W Series' pre-season test in Arizona and a two-day test with F4 US Championship team Doran-Kroll Competition.
Now with her jam packed schedule, the 16-year-old says she's having the time of her life.
"I haven't been driving for a very long time and coming back to it, it definitely felt a bit different... Honestly I'm just so happy that I could even drive [again] and I've been driving for a couple of weeks and it felt great," she said.
The Filipina racer has a chance to take a huge leap in her career with the W Series pre-season test, with a seat in one of the W Series' teams possibly up for grabs for her.
And after going through down time in racing because of the pandemic, Bustamante looks forward to hopefully getting a more regular schedule.
"The pandemic, it kinda brought down racing a lot in Asia and I couldn't do anything. That made me sad, depressed even to be honest because I couldn't do what I love. Being able to do it now, it's like hope," she said.
"And I am hoping that I get to do it for a whole season with W Series. I mean that would mean everything, that would be a game changer," she added.
The W Series is a support series to the top-flight motorsport championship Formula 1.
The all-female grid races in multiple F1 Grand Prix venues throughout the 2022 calendar.