TONI VILANDER

TONI VILANDER

He began with karting, winning the Junior Finnish championship in 1995 and the German Oceanic series in 1999. In 2004, Vilander moved up to Formula 3 and in 2005, he took part in Formula 3000 and the Italian GT Championship, where he immediately took the title along with team-mate Alessandro Pier Guidi. Again with Pier Guidi and Giambattista Giannoccaro, in 2006, Vilander won the GT1 class of the Italian GT Championship, while in 2007 and 2008, he won the GT2 class of the FIA GT championship, at the wheel of a Ferrari F430 GT2. In 2008, he also took part in the American Le Mans Series alongside Jaime Melo, at the wheel of a Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia, while in 2012 he came to victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours, alongside Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni.

Since 2011, Vilander has continued to race an AF Corse 458 Italia GTE in the FIA WEC. In 2013 he partnered Kamui Kobayashi in the 458 Italia run by the AF Corse team in the WEC. But he went on to take his only win of the year at Bahrain alongside Bruni, helping the Italian to gain the Drivers' championship, along with the Constructors' crown for Ferrari and the teams’ title for AF Corse. The following year Toni was in a fixed pairing with Bruni, going on to take his first drivers’ GT title in the WEC and doubling up with glory for his team and constructor. Among the duo’s four wins of the year the most prestigious was no doubt the Le Mans 24 Hours, which they won with the help of Fisichella. In 2015, still with Bruni, he won at Silverstone and Fuji in the WEC ranking second among drivers. In 2016 he competed in the IMSA SSC championship on the 488 GTE of Risi Competizione team, and followed the same program also in 2017, completed with five podiums. He participated in some Blancpain Endurance Cup races with the AF Corse 488 GT3 but the main achievement of the season was the victory at the Bathurst 12 Hours.

In 2018 he took part in some IMSA races and in the Le Mans 24 Hours on the no. 52 AF Corse car alongside Antonio Giovinazzi and Pipo Derani but was above all involved in the Pirelli World Challenge championship in which he won two titles: the Overall one and the SprintX one together with Miguel Molina on the R.Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3. In 2019 Vilander will take part in IMSA with the Scuderia Corsa colours, again alongside Cooper MacNeil in the GTD class, while in Blancpain GT World Challenge America – that is replacing Pirelli World Challenge – he won the title racing for R. Ferri Motorsport together with Miguel Molina and Daniel Serra. In 2020, the Finn continued to compete in the IMSA series with Scuderia Corsa and also took to the track for the final race of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with SMP Racing.