The road to Le Mans 24 hours – discovering the Ferrari #51 of team af corse

Maranello, 14 June 2016 – #ferrari.com brings you to discover the #ferrari crews entered in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Today our introduction tour to the #ferrari crews comes to an end with car number 51 of AF Corse is the all-winning ace of the GTE-Pro category, as it won the drivers and teams title with “Gimmi” Bruni and Toni Vilander, made a decisive contribution to Ferrari’s win of the Constructors Championship, and, especially, brought home the win in the 2014 edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours with the contribution of #giancarlofisichella. In 2015 the crew won at Silverstone and Fuji but for 2016 only Bruni remained in the car. The Italian driver new teammate is #jamescalado even if for the Le Mans 24 Hours the pair will be joined by Alessandro Pier Guidi.

The team. AF Corse has been one of Ferrari’s main customers teams for a number of years. The cooperation between #ferrari and AF Corse generated a good deal of the GT successes during the past few years and all those obtained in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) since its inception in 2012. The first year brought team and constructors titles, as well as the win in the Le Mans 24 Hours; in 2013 there were the three titles for drivers, teams and constructors, a feat duplicated last year when the team also won for the second time in three years the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Bruni. Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni was born in Rome on 30 May 1981. He raced single-seaters until 2007 when he moved on to compete in the FIA GT2 championship with AF Corse and in the American Le Mans Series with the Risi Competizione team. In 2008, he dominated the FIA GT2 championship along with Toni Vilander, winning two of the three races in the Le Mans Series championship, teamed with Robert Bell. He also won the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans, paired with Mika Salo and Jaime Melo. In 2009, Bruni came in second in the Le Mans Series and in the FIA GT championship and, in 2010, he obtained the same position in the American Le Mans Series. The Roman driver renewed with success alongside #giancarlofisichella in the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Since 2012, Bruni races for the AF Corse team at the wheel of a #ferrari 458 Italia GTE, in the World Endurance Championship (WEC); in this class, he took first place in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, together with Toni Vilander e #giancarlofisichella. In 2013 he teamed up with Fisichella for the whole season except for the last race, in Bahrain, where he won with Vilander, thus earning, individually, the GT WEC Drivers Championship, while making a substantial contributions to Ferrari’s and AF Corse’s titles for constructors and teams. In 2014, he made a regular pair with Vilander and confirmed himself WEC world champion. With a practically perfect season, the two brought two more titles to #ferrari and AF Corse and returned to the top the podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans together with #giancarlofisichella, thus repeating the feat of 2012. In 2015, still paired with Vilander, he won at Silverstone and Fuji. From this season he’s #racing with #jamescalado.

Calado. #jamescalado began his career in the kart world in the Cadets category in 1999, to reach the top class (the KF1) in 2006. He then moved on to the English Formula Renault series in 2008 keep #racing in singleseater until 2013 when Calado fulfilled the role of test driver for the Force India Formula 1. In 2014, James teamed up with Davide Rigon at the wheel of one of the 458 Italia GT fielded by the AF Corse team in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in which he earned five podium positions and contributed to Ferrari’s win in the Constructors’ Championship. In 2015 he continued to be Davide’s partner in the WEC while for 2016 he was promoted on the 51 car alongside Bruni.

Pier Guidi. Alessandro Pier Guidi is a very talented Italian driver. Born in 1983, this is his debut in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, he has previous experience in endurance #racing and over 10 years of GT competition under his belt. In 2005 he won the Italian GT title with the 360 Modena of Playteam SaraFree. Since then he has competed in all major Gran Turismo championships with many victories to his name.In 2015 he won the 24 Hours of Spa with Bruni, Stephane Lemeret and Pasin Lathouras in the Pro-Am class of the Blancpain Championship.This season he has alternated races in the American IMSA championship with the European Le Mans Series at the wheel of the 458 Italia of AT #racing.

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