Porsche announces reduced factory driver list, with Le Mans winner Bruni dropped

Four-time Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Gianmaria Bruni is leaving Porsche’s factory drivers’ line-up after eight years.

The 43-year-old Italian was absent from the German marque’s works roster when it officially launched its motorsport program for 2025 on Saturday night.

The departure comes after two seasons in which Bruni was denied a seat at the factory Porsche and was kept proton competition Customer 963 LMDH Team in the World Endurance Championship and then the IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Bruni was recruited ferrari Prior to 2017 and became a stalwart of Porsche’s WEC GTE Pro squad from the 2018/19 season.

He claimed a fourth Le Mans class victory in 2022 in a factory Porsche 911 RSR driven by Mante, although he never emulated his WEC title successes with Ferrari, where he won the LMGTE Pro crown in 2013 and 2014.

Bruni could still be racing a Porsche next year.

The former Minardi Formula 1 racer joined the JDC-Miller Motorsports customer Porsche 963 team in official IMSA testing at Daytona last month.

Among the drivers testing the car at Daytona was Tijman van der Helm, who this year was partnered by the now retired JDC in the 963. Richard Westbrook,

According to Porsche’s press announcement from Saturday’s Night of Champions event at the Weissach research and development facility, Proton will not continue its participation in IMSA’s GTP class with one of the pair of 963s.

It added that “a customer team” would join the Porsche Penske Motorsport team in the North American series, named JDC-Miller, while also referencing Proton’s continuation in WEC with a single 963.

Porsche announced a small number of works pilots in the program.

Bruni has also left out the 16-strong line-up in 2024 andre lotterer, dane cameron and Frederik Makowiecki, who left the PPM squad at the conclusion of their respective WEC and IMSA campaigns.

Julian Andlauer Upon moving from Proton to the PPM WEC team for 2025, the former has been promoted to full-factory status, having previously been a so-called contracted Porsche driver.

The other new arrival is Nico Muller, whose recruitment by Porsche was announced in August. The Swiss is paired with the Andretti Formula E squad for the upcoming season, which uses Porsche powertrains.

This means there are now 14 Porsche factory racers.

Porsche has a second list of contracted drivers on its books who have not been granted official works status.

Ricardo Feller has also joined this list, who has moved from Audi. The Swiss, who won the Nurburgring 24 Hours this year, was part of a small group of drivers created by Audi Sport as it downsized its customer racing department.

Feller, 24, will race a Porsche 911 GT3-R in DTM for Allied Racing Team, which is moving from the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany.

His teammate in the two-car team will be Bastian Buss, another driver with a Porsche contract.

Michelle Gatting Has also signed with Porsche to become a contract pilot. She will race for the Manthey squad in the WEC’s LMGT3 class in 2025, and will also race with Proton in the European and Asian Le Mans Series as part of the all-female Iron Dames programme.

klaus bachler Will moved on from the WEC, in which he was part of the LMGT3 title-winning line-up, to join AO Racing to defend its IMSA GT Daytona Pro crown.

The Austrian will be paired for the entire season with two fellow Porsche contractees, defending champion Laurin Heinrich and alessio picariello For the Daytona and Sebring endurance rounds.

German Theo Overhaus has been named as the Porsche junior driver. The 19-year-old, who finished third in this year’s German Carrera Cup, joins the scheme that has produced drivers such as Le Mans winners Timo Bernhard And mark lieb,

Italian Alessandro Ghiretti continues as Porsche Junior for the second season.