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.
Source: Autosport