Gianmaria "Gimmi" Bruni (born 30 May 1981) is an Italian

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company ...

factory

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

driver who drove in the 2004 Formula One World Championship for

Minardi Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal followi ...

. He is a

GP2 Series The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Eccles ...

race winner and is now racing in the

FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship is an auto racing world championship organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The series supersedes the ACO's former Intercont ...

, in which he gained the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

GT Drivers' Titles whilst driving as a factory

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

driver. He won the 2008 FIA GT Championship,

2011 Le Mans Series The 2011 Le Mans Series was the eighth season of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's Le Mans Series. The series began on 3 April with the 6 Hours of Castellet and ended after five rounds on 25 September. It is a series for Le Mans Prototype and Gr ...

and 2012 International GT Open and took three class victories at the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...

, in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

and

. He also was successful at the

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

and 2015 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps,

2010 12 Hours of Sebring The 58th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida was the 2010 running of the 12 Hours of Sebring and the opening round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series season. It took place at the Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, Fl ...

and

2011 Petit Le Mans The 2011 Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda was held at Road Atlanta on October 1, 2011. It was the ninth and final round of the 2011 American Le Mans Series season and the sixth And penultimate round of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Qual ...

Career

First wins in single-seaters

Born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, at age ten Bruni lied about his age to the director of ''La Pista d'Oro'', a Go kart track in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, in order to begin an amateur

Karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on ...

career (twelve was the minimum age to compete). His first experience with racing cars was in the Italian Formula Renault Campus in 1997; he won the Title in 1998. For the following season he moved on to the European Formula Renault Eurocup 2.0, taking another Title. Then he entered the

British Formula 3 The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single se ...

, where he came fifth in 2000 and fourth in 2001. After he had raced in various similar European series like the Euro Formula 3000, finishing third in 2003, he caught the attention of

Formula 1

Bruni started testing for Minardi in 2003. However the biggest struggle of his career was finding enough sponsorship to compete for them in

Formula 1 Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

in 2004. In fact Bruni did join Minardi for the 2004 Formula 1 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 points.

GP2 Series

In 2005 Bruni competed in the

, the single-seater Championship which is part of the Formula 1 support package and which is intended to be its feeder series. He won Race 1 at

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and took second at

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

driving for Coloni. The Italian left the Team in September before the

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label= Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of Mo ...

weekend. Joining up with Durango, he started on pole position at

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), frequently referred to as ''Spa'', is a motor-racing circuit located in Stavelot, Belgium. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, hosting its first Grand Prix in 1925, and has he ...

and finished tenth in the Drivers' Classification. In 2006 Bruni competed again in the GP2 Series, this time with the new Trident Racing squad. He scored two victories, the first at Imola and the second at Hockenheim. At the end of the season he was seventh in the Drivers' Classification.

GT competitions

Porsche 911 RSR Bruni Silverstone 2018 Vale

For 2007, he switched to the sportscar racing as he joined the

FIA GT Championship The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

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 The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' h ...

for Risi Competizione, Bruni shifted focus to Europe for 2011, teaming with

Giancarlo Fisichella Giancarlo Fisichella (; born 14 January 1973), also known as Fisico, Giano or Fisi, is an Italian professional racing driver, also captain of the official ''Nazionale Piloti'' association football team (composed of the racing drivers). He has ...

in an

AF Corse AF Corse is an Italian auto racing team founded by former racing driver Amato Ferrari in 1995 in Piacenza. Strongly linked to the Maserati and Ferrari brands, AF Corse currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, GT World Challen ...

Ferrari F458 Italia, winning the driver's and team's championship in the LM GTE Pro class of the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

and helping win the team's championship in the

Intercontinental Le Mans Cup The Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (shortened ILMC) was an endurance sports car racing tournament organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) started in 2010.

. Bruni finished 2nd at the Le Mans 24hrs and won the Petit Le Mans. At the 2012

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second rou ...

, 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 anyway 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 The Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, also known as Circuit de la Sarthe (after the 1906 French Grand Prix triangle circuit) located in Le Mans, Sarthe, France, is a semi-permanent motorsport race course, chiefly known as the venue for the 24 H ...

. 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. In February 2017, Ferrari and Gianmaria Bruni announce that, by mutual consent, they have early terminated their relationship. After a collaboration started in 2007, Bruni will leave Ferrari at the end of June of this year. Bruni signed a contract with Porsche Motorsport. As a result of the contract termination settlement he sat out the first half of the 2017 racing season, making his Porsche debut in July at Watkins Glen. In 2018 he will race for Porsche in the WEC replacing Frédéric Makowiecki

Racing record

Complete Formula One results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Did not finish the race, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Complete GP2 Series results

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

Complete European Le Mans Series results

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

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

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

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results

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

References

External links

Official website (Italian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruni, Gianmaria 1981 births Living people Italian racing drivers Italian Formula One drivers GP2 Series drivers FIA GT Championship drivers Auto GP drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers Minardi Formula One drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers American Le Mans Series drivers European Le Mans Series drivers French F4 Championship drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers International GT Open drivers WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Racing drivers from Rome Blancpain Endurance Series drivers Trident Racing drivers Porsche Motorsports drivers Scuderia Coloni drivers Durango drivers AF Corse drivers SMP Racing drivers Fortec Motorsport drivers