Gianmaria Bruni has been a Porsche man since 2017, but it’s the first chapter of his sportscar career at Ferrari that he looks back on to pick a favourite team-mate. In his four years of sharing a car with Toni Vilander, the pair enjoyed great success, and enjoyed numerous collaborations outside their season-long campaigns in the FIA GT championship (2008-09) and World Endurance Championship (2014-15).
That the pairing was a good match is evidenced by their claiming two titles and as many Le Mans victories together – although their 2012 and 2014 triumphs could have been added to in 2011 and 2015 without mechanical gremlins interfering while leading in the closing stages. It also helped that during that time, Bruni says he and Vilander became “friends outside and inside the track”.
“We were always together and then separate and then together again, separate,” reflects Bruni. “In this period, we grew up as drivers, as a person, together. We were having fun during races, and fighting each other when we were not in the same car, so it’s something that will always stay in my mind. We were successful together but also when we were not, we always had fun. It’s something that is not common.
“It was not in any doubt that he was on the pitwall supporting me and I was on the pitwall and supporting, so it was not any rivalry, it was just working for the results. It’s not easy to find a fast driver, good team-mate, that is with you all the time, in a good result and then the bad results. I only see these kinds of drivers once or twice in my entire career and Toni is one of these.”
The two had previously crossed paths in single-seaters – Vilander made his GP2 debut in 2005 when he replaced Bruni at Coloni mid-season – but were put in the same setting for the first time when they were part of the same AF Corse stable during the 2007 FIA GT season. Vilander and Dirk Muller edged the sportscar rookie and Stephane Ortelli to the GT2 title, before they were paired up for 2008 as Ortelli and Muller departed.
The partnership bore fruit immediately. They won the GT2 crown, Bruni’s first major honour in sportscars, at a stroke and never finished lower than third all season. Along the way, they won half the races – including at Brno, which clashed with the Le Mans Series finale at Silverstone which meant Bruni was unable to partner Rob Bell in securing the crown.
That FIA GT operated with a system of success ballast at the time seemed irrelevant to their prowess. A sixth win from 10 races was ceded in Argentina to a local pair operating from the AF stable when team orders arrived in the closing stages.
“For sure it was a very good starting point,” Bruni says with some understatement. “And from there we kept going.”
Bruni and Vilander remained together in 2009 but were unable to defend their GT2 title, narrowly missing out to Richard Westbrook’s ProSpeed Porsche. Crucial in their defeat was a broken steering link that plunged Bruni into the gravel while leading in the closing stages at Silverstone, dropping them to 11th as Westbrook and Emanuel Collard won.
"It was done already on Friday when we had the free practice, we already know what to do until the checkered flag" Gianmaria Bruni
Victories at Oschersleben, the Spa 24 Hours and Paul Ricard got them back into contention, but they ended up two points shy after finishing fourth at Zolder. ProSpeed’s call to deploy silver-rated co-driver Marco Holzer alongside Westbrook gave the 911 a crucial 50kg weight break at the sinuous Belgian circuit, while the heavier Ferrari struggled to keep its tyres alive.
The duo were paired only sporadically over the next few seasons. Vilander joined Bruni for two American Le Mans Series rounds in 2010, their Risi-run F430 narrowly coming up short of victory on both occasions. They missed out by 0.3s at Mosport after starting from the back – due to Bruni’s regular co-driver Jamie Melo being taken ill, Vilander swapped in after his team-mate Pierre Kaffer shunted their #61 machine in practice. Then, they ran dry with two corners to go while leading at Petit Le Mans, missing just a quarter litre of fuel in a cruel end to 10 gruelling hours of racing as a pair.
Refuelling, brake and radiator glitches left the F430 they shared with Melo three laps down in third at Zhuhai, the final round of the 2010 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, but their sole outing together in 2011 was altogether more competitive. They were only denied victory on the new 458’s Le Mans debut by an electronic engine issue that sapped the car of power and limited them to second in the new GTE Pro class.
But together with Giancarlo Fisichella they went one better at Le Mans the following year, as the World Endurance Championship came on stream for 2012. Bruni’s second Le Mans class win, after his GT2 triumph on debut in 2008, was achieved after Fisichella’s practice crash required a new tub to be hurriedly prepared by AF Corse. From the back of the grid, having missed qualifying, Vilander made storming progress in the early stages, setting the crew up for a faultless run.
Bruni says the duo enjoyed complete trust in the other’s abilities and worked to bring out their best traits.
“It was clear from the beginning, each of us has I would say a strong character and each of us has a strong point,” says Bruni. “Right from the beginning, we knew each other which one was the strong point and weakness and we were using this when we needed.
“He was very good in the wet condition, he was absolutely amazing, I never saw someone like him in the wet. And I was really good on dry, on one-lap pace, or catching people or overtaking people.
“We knew when the weather was going to be bad for the race, and maybe the start of the race, we already say ‘okay, Toni is going to start, Gimmi is going to finish on the dry’. Or in the beginning of the race, it’s dry and then it's going to be wet, so I start and Toni finished. It’s simple things, but it makes a big difference because you trust 100% that it will work and you don’t have to think about it.
“It was done already on Friday when we had the free practice, we already know what to do until the checkered flag. And behind this, we had a very strong team that they were working in the same direction of us to push each other in a good way, but to get the results.”
In 2013 Vilander was paired with sportscar rookie Kamui Kobayashi in the WEC, while the Bruni-Fisichella full season axis continued. But come the final round in Bahrain, the close proximity of Aston Martin pair Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke prompted AF Corse to put its eggs into different baskets. Bruni and Fisichella were split to maximise Ferrari’s title chances, the former reuniting with Vilander as Fisichella joined Kobayashi. The result was resounding, as Bruni and Vilander won to secure the former the first World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers – which had not been awarded in 2012.
“Nothing to say about Giancarlo, but I was happy because I knew I could have a chance with [Vilander], and I know that he was very happy to help me to win the championship,” says Bruni. “There was no jealousy, he was so happy to help me and to do the job. This is his strong point.
“We found out I think on Monday of the race weekend that we were split, then we arrived there on Wednesday and it was an easy task. I remember just saying, ‘okay Gimmi starts, he makes a strong start and then we carry on like this’ and it basically was how the race went.”
Back together for the full season in 2014, their first since 2009, they claimed the WEC title as a pair with four wins, including another Le Mans triumph with Fisichella after a polished performance as all around others hit problems.
"He was very good in the wet condition, he was absolutely amazing, I never saw someone like him in the wet" Gianmaria Bruni
The 2015 campaign was another that might have yielded a title but wins at Silverstone and Fuji weren’t enough to deny Porsche’s Richard Lietz. They led after an early puncture at Le Mans that cost four minutes, but late gearbox problems dropped their 458 to third – and fourth of the WEC points-scoring entrants. That disappointment, added to a 60-second stop-go while in contention to win at Spa, an electronic failure at the Nurburgring and a damaged illuminated door panel at COTA that required two replacement doors proved costly.
The 2015 Bahrain finale, when they finished a distant second to Lietz’s Manthey Porsche that was simply better on its tyres, would prove their last outing together. Bruni was paired with James Calado during his final Ferrari year in 2016, before heading to Weissach for 2017. But Bruni says they still message a few times each month: “We always speak when we have time,” he adds.
