(b.
May 30 ,
1981 ) is an
Italian Racing driver who in
2004 drove in
Formula One with the
Minardi team, and is now racing in the F1-supporting
GP2 Series .
Bruni was born in
Rome ,
Italy ; at age ten he lied about his age (twelve was the minimum age for competition) to the director of La Pista d'Oro, a kart racetrack in Rome, in order to begin an amateur
Karting career.
His first experience racing cars was in Italian
Formula Renault in
1997 ; he won the title in
1998 and moved on to
Europe an Formula Renault. He won the European title in
1999 and moved on to
British Formula 3 , where he came fifth in
2000 and fourth in
2001 . After racing in various similar European series, he caught the attention of Minardi, for whom he tested in
2003 ; the biggest struggle of his career, however, was finding enough sponsorship to compete for Minardi in
2004 .
Bruni did, in fact, join Minardi for the
2004 Formula One Season , though he struggled in a car which was considerably less developed than the rest of the grid. He was one of only two drivers that season to not score any World Championship points.
For
2005 , Bruni is competing in the
GP2 Series , a single-seater championship which is part of the F1 support package and which is intended to be its feeder series. He won his first GP2 race in
Barcelona on the
7 May . Bruni left the Coloni GP2 team in September, just before the races at
Monza . Joining up with the Durango team, Bruni won the pole for the next event at
Spa Francorchamps in Belgium.
(Note: grands prix in denote '''points scoring''' races.)
