Gianmaria Bruni

Gianmaria Bruni

Gianmaria Bruni in 2012
Born 30 May 1981
Rome, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality Italy Italian
Active years 2004
Teams Minardi
Races 18
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podiums 0
Career points 0
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First race 2004 Australian Grand Prix
Last race 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years 2008 -
Teams Risi Competizione, AF Corse
Best finish 13th (2011)
Class wins 3 (2008, 2012, 2014)

Gianmaria "Gimmi" Bruni (born 30 May 1981) is an Italian professional racing driver who in 2004 drove in Formula One with the Minardi team, and is now racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship.[1]

Career

Born in Rome, at age ten Bruni lied about his age (twelve was the minimum age for competition) to the director of La Pista d'Oro, a kart racetrack in Rome, in order to begin an amateur karting career.

His first experience racing cars was in Italian Formula Renault Campus in 1997; he won the title in 1998 and moved on to European Formula Renault 2.0. He won the European title in 1999 and moved on to British Formula 3, where he came fifth in 2000 and fourth in 2001. After racing in various similar European series like the Euro Formula 3000, he caught the attention of Minardi, for whom he tested in 2003; the biggest struggle of his career, however, was finding enough sponsorship to compete for Minardi in 2004.

Bruni did, in fact, join Minardi for the 2004 Formula One season, though he struggled in a car which was considerably less developed than the rest of the grid. He was one of only two drivers to contest the majority of the season without scoring any World Championship points.

In 2005, Bruni competed in the GP2 Series, a single-seater championship which is part of the F1 support package and which is intended to be its feeder series. He won his first GP2 race in Barcelona on the 7 May. Bruni left the Coloni GP2 team in September, just before the races at Monza. Joining up with the Durango team, Bruni started on pole position for the next event at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

Bruni competed in the 2006 GP2 Series for the new Trident Racing team. He won two races for the team, the feature race at Imola and the feature race at Hockenheim.

For 2007, he switched to the sportscar racing as he joined the FIA GT Championship with Team AF Corse MOTOROLA in a Ferrari 430 GT3. He and his teammate Stéphane Ortelli finished the season 2nd in the GT2 class with 3 wins.

After competing in the American Le Mans Series for Risi Competizione, Bruni shifted focus to Europe for 2011, teaming with Giancarlo Fisichella in an AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia, winning the driver's and team's championship in the LM GTE Pro class of the Le Mans Series and helping win the team's championship in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Bruni finished 2nd at the Le Mans 24hrs and won the Petit Le Mans.

At the 2012 12 Hours of Sebring, Bruni disqualified his car by attempting to shunt off the BMW M3 GT of Joey Hand on the last lap to help the sister car of Olivier Beretta to win the overall grand touring classification, though the BMW was in a different class and the car would not have classified anyways because it did not make 70% of the race leader's distance.

In the 80th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2012, Bruni and the AF Corse Team scored first place in the GTE-Pro class along with his co-drivers Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella; their Ferrari 458 Italia covered a total of 336 laps (2,845.53 miles) of the Circuit de la Sarthe.[2][3]

Bruni scored three wins and two second places at the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship, so he won the GTE-Pro teams trophy and the GTE drivers and manufacturers cups.

Racing record

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 WDC Points
2003 European Minardi Cosworth Minardi PS03 Cosworth V10 AUS MAL BRA SMR ESP AUT MON CAN EUR FRA GBR GER
TD		 HUN
TD		 ITA
TD		 USA
TD		 JPN
TD		 - -
2004 Minardi Cosworth Minardi PS04B Cosworth V10 AUS
NC		 MAL
14		 BHR
17		 SMR
Ret		 ESP
Ret		 MON
Ret		 EUR
14		 CAN
Ret		 USA
Ret		 FRA
18		 GBR
16		 GER
17		 HUN
14		 BEL
Ret		 ITA
Ret		 CHN
Ret		 JPN
16		 BRA
17		 25th 0

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 DC Points
2005 Coloni Motorsport SMR
FEA
4		 SMR
SPR
4		 ESP
FEA
1		 ESP
SPR
Ret		 MON
FEA
2		 EUR
FEA
8		 EUR
SPR
Ret		 FRA
FEA
18		 FRA
SPR
11		 GBR
FEA
7		 GBR
SPR
11		 GER
FEA
NC		 GER
SPR
14		 HUN
FEA
10		 HUN
SPR
8		 TUR
FEA
Ret		 TUR
SPR
9		 ITA
FEA		 ITA
SPR		 10th 35
Durango BEL
FEA
Ret		 BEL
SPR
16		 BHR
FEA
Ret		 BHR
SPR
14
2006 Trident Racing VAL
FEA
6		 VAL
SPR
5		 SMR
FEA
1		 SMR
SPR
Ret		 EUR
FEA
Ret		 EUR
SPR
16		 ESP
FEA
Ret		 ESP
SPR
17		 MON
FEA
Ret		 GBR
FEA
Ret		 GBR
SPR
15		 FRA
FEA
Ret		 FRA
SPR
Ret		 GER
FEA
1		 GER
SPR
6		 HUN
FEA
Ret		 HUN
SPR
8		 TUR
FEA
Ret		 TUR
SPR
15		 ITA
FEA
Ret		 ITA
SPR
9		 7th 33

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2008 United States Risi Competizione Finland Mika Salo
Brazil Jaime Melo		 Ferrari F430 GT2 GT2 326 19th 1st
2009 Italy AF Corse Argentina Luís Pérez Companc
Argentina Matías Russo		 Ferrari F430 GT2 GT2 317 26th 6th
2010 United States Risi Competizione Brazil Jaime Melo
Germany Pierre Kaffer		 Ferrari F430 GT2 GT2 116 DNF DNF
2011 Italy AF Corse Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Finland Toni Vilander		 Ferrari 458 Italia GTC GTE
Pro		 314 13th 2nd
2012 Italy AF Corse Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Finland Toni Vilander		 Ferrari 458 Italia GTC GTE
Pro		 336 17th 1st
2013 Italy AF Corse Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Italy Matteo Malucelli		 Ferrari 458 Italia GTC GTE
Pro		 311 22nd 6th
2014 Italy AF Corse Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Finland Toni Vilander		 Ferrari 458 Italia GTC GTE
Pro		 339 13th 1st

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Class Car Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rank Points
2012 AF Corse LMGTE Pro Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 Ferrari 4.5L V8 SEB
EX		 SPA
2		 LMS
1		 SIL
1		 SÃO
1		 BHR FUJ
2		 SHA
Ret		 1st † 136
2013 AF Corse LMGTE Pro Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 Ferrari 4.5L V8 SIL
5		 SPA
1		 LMS
5		 SÃO
1		 COA
2		 FUJ
2		 SHA
4		 BHR
1		 1st 145
2014 AF Corse LMGTE Pro Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 Ferrari 4.5 L V8 SIL
4		 SPA
1		 LMS
1		 COA
3		 FUJ
1		 SHA
Ret		 BHR
1		 SÃO
4		 1st 168
2015 AF Corse LMGTE Pro Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 Ferrari 4.5 L V8 SIL
1		 SPA LMS NÜR COA FUJ SHA BHR 1st* 25*

* Season in progress.
† There was no drivers championship that year, the result indicates rank in the LMGTE Pro Trophy.

References

  1. ↑ Stephane Samson (20 January 2005). The Official Formula 1 Season Review 2004. MotorBooks International. pp. 23–. ISBN 978-0-7603-2174-4. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
  2. ↑ http://live.lemans-tv.com/
  3. ↑ "Formula 1™ - The Official F1™ Website". Formula1.com. 2012-06-18. Retrieved 2012-08-15.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Bruno Besson		 Eurocup Formula Renault champion
1999 		Succeeded by
Felipe Massa
Preceded by
Soheil Ayari		 International GT Open champion
2012
with Federico Leo 		Succeeded by
Andrea Montermini
Preceded by
none		 FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers
2013–2014
with Toni Vilander (in 2014) 		Succeeded by
Incumbent