Bruni leaving Ferrari for Porsche

Gianmaria Bruni

The long-running saga of Gianmaria Bruni’s potential move from Ferrari to Porsche has been exploded by Italian magazine Autosprint who have revealed with much background detail that Bruni is no longer a Ferrari driver.

That comes despite a long-term (believed to be 5 years) contract issued only at the end of 2015 to Bruni, that coming after an approach from Porsche to bring the Italian star to a full Porsche GT driver contract, sweetened by the offer of an LMP1 test.

Bruni though is reported by Autosprint as having been unhappy with developments at Ferrari, in particular feeling as if his number 1 status was threatened by the arrival in the team of Sam Bird for the 2016 season.

Currently unconfirmed though is whether Bruni would be free to join Porsche, Ferrari sources having made it clear that a clean contractual break was not on their immediate agenda, and clearly having a known quantity aboard one of their strongest potential rivals is not in their competitive interests, particularly when there is a possible contractual obligation that might prevent the move from occurring immediately.

A not dissimilar situation occurred just a few years ago with Fred Makowiecki when he opted to move from Aston Martin to Porsche despite an existing contract being in place, the subsequent legal and contractual ripples taking some time to settle before Mako could drive for his new employer.