Coelho joins Infinity – World Champion explains motivation behind move
Following the announcement on Monday of his departure from Xray after a hugely successful decade racing for the Slovakian manufacturer, reigning 3-time Touring Car World Champion Bruno Coelho has announced a new project that sees him join Infinity. Making the announcement in a video on his social media, in which he only reveals he is teaming up with the Japanese brand right at the end, the Portuguese ace explains that the driving factor for the move was a desire to work once again with his long time mechanic Francesco Martini. With this a project which Coelho instigated himself, his relationship with Martini, who is the driving force behind online RC retailer Monaco RC, is akin to that of Valentino Rossi and his race engineer Jerry Burgess who moved manufacturers as a package and amassed seven 500cc/MotoGP World Championship titles together. With Martini leaving Xray in February and Coelho’s contract up for renewal with a new 6-year contract on the table, these were the catalysts for one of the GOATs of RC Racing to devise this unique project that will bring back together that partnership and fuel new motivation for the 31-year-old into the future. Coelho spoke with Red RC to explain his motivations for the move that few probably expected from a driver widely seen as an ‘Xray for Life’ driver given his success and standing with the Hudy family.
Speaking with Bruno about what is one of the biggest Touring Car shake-ups since Marc Rheinard found himself without a drive when Tamiya announced it would no longer run a full factory TRF race team, the first thing he was keen to highlight was that he has left Xray on good terms. Explaining his appreciation for Xray who picked him up when he made a last ditch effort to remain in racing by attending the 2014 Touring Car World Championship in Florida, he is well aware a lot people will question him joining what is only the second ever chassis manufacturer of his career. He said, ‘This whole project is all about working with the right people, people I have believed in for many years, that is the key reason why I joined Infinity. I can tell you it was only when Francesco said yes that it was my green light to make the move happen.’
While Bruno has only ever driven for Xray in his professional career, he does have a strong track record working with his other sponsors and has built strong relationships with them based on his respected work ethic. During his rise as one of the greats of the sport, he teamed up with relatively unknown brands at the time and helped them to become market leaders, companies like Hobbywing and Sunpadow, and Xtreme who didn’t even have a touring car body when he joined them. His relationship with Hobbywing is as long as his professional career. Bringing them World titles in both onroad and offroad, he is quietly proud of not just the results he has given them but the work he does with them in the background to assist them in continually improving their products. Casually chatting with Bruno during our coverage of the recent SIGP Offroad race in China, which is located at the Sunpadow factory, it came up that he had been mixing his racing with 3 different meetings with the battery manufacturer who valued his direct input on new product developments and even new packaging graphics it is working on. When giving us his reaction to his win at the FEMCA ISTC Championships held at the 2026 IFMAR Worlds host GDC track in Foshan just before Christmas, Bruno highlighted that attending the race was an important opportunity to meet & talk with the brands he works with and who make up his racing package. An example of his desire to engage more with his sponsors and try to bring more to the table than just winning was perfectly highlighted at a dinner with Hobbywing during the FEMCA Championship. Bruno’s RC schedule is pretty full, but in his limited downtime he enjoys testing his 1:1 kart and sharing the track with Portuguese National Championship contenders as they test with the team that also look after his kart. In conversation over dinner, Bruno had a discussion with Hobbywing’s Application Engineer Jason He about the possibilities of converting his kart to electric power using some of the technology Hobbywing has access too and using it to generate additional exposure for the brand. While we witness many driver changes each ‘Silly Season’, it is this track record with his sponsors that makes Bruno’s move to Infinity something that should be exciting to follow.
Getting more into the finer details of his move from Xray to Infinity, Bruno first explained that Francesco’s departure from Xray in February is for reasons only between Francesco and Xray, adding he and Francesco don’t want to be negative towards Xray in any way. Admitting he was in the middle of negotiating his new Xray contract to continue in 2025 when the idea came to him for this project, he said, ‘It was my idea this project. After Francesco left (Xray) it was really a sad moment for me because it was like losing a brother who is there in all occasions to help you. It doesn’t matter if that occasion is that the car is not working or an occasion that you need to take a decision and you talk about it.’ With the 2024 TITC Bruno’s first major touring car race without Francesco, he said, ‘We had a big conversation about it before he left but one thing is when you talk about it, it’s no problem, but then when you are actually without them then the reality sets in’. Putting the idea of his Infinity move to Francesco, he said the Italian asked for a few days to think about it during which time Bruno then contacted Kenji Taira. He opened that conversation with ‘are you motivated for a new project?’ to which Bruno said the Infinity owner replied, ‘yes, tell me about it’.
Mentioning to Bruno in our conversation that his move to Infinity was in ways similar to Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes for Ferrari in F1, he replied, ‘Kenji said exactly the same that my move was like Hamilton going to Ferrari and I think yes & no. Hamilton’s move was because he wants to drive a Ferrari and every driver wants to drive a Ferrari, here I think for me the move was to follow and still believe in someone I that I don’t just see as a friend but as a brother that has been teaching me through all the years, not just about mechanical stuff but also about lifestyle and things outside of RC. For me it’s not that it made no sense to continue (at Xray) without Francesco, because tomorrow if he decides not to do this then that’s what he will do, but if I can continue with someone who means so much to me then I am more driven to succeed. Having something new to work on gives you so much motivation again as does the need to prove again to everyone that the work you have being doing is correct. Everyone in this project is fully motivated for this to happen and move forward. We have a really good relationship with Kenji, every year we used to have dinner together at the TITC, me, Francesco, Martin Hudy and Kenji, so I have always had a big respect with Infinity. This was the only brand I approached about this project because of the level of respect I have for them.’
Another factor Bruno mentioned that had an influence on his decision to move was that at Xray he was driving in 6 categories, the plan with Infinity being to race in only two. This will free up more time for himself, we know ourselves how much travel can take its toll on the body, and more significantly will also allow him more time to focus on touring car testing something he said he had lacked in recent years, instead just doing the races but not testing. He explained, ‘If I want to keep fighting for my main category, which is touring car, I need to be more focused on that. In Xray I was losing this, I was practicing a lot with offroad because it’s a category I am not as strong in as touring car so I was practicing a lot and basically doing nothing with Touring car. Of course the results start to go down and also other started to become super strong in touring car.’
Asked about the car for the project, Bruno explained, ‘the first plan was I am going to start the year with the old car from Infinity or if I want I can drive a car from a different manufacturer to be competitive but then we were like OK Francesco can start working already on a new design. So basically in the background he has drawn a car and we now have a new car to start with. In order to have that ready for January we needed to make it in Europe to have it fast as possible.’ While Bruno has yet to sample the car himself, it has already been tested by Jilles Groskamp and Viktor Wilck and two other drivers, with all of them reporting very positive feedback on the car’s initial performance. Despite the positive start for the new car, Bruno said he doesn’t want to ‘dream too much’ this early on and needs to test the car for himself and be sure what the car can do. He will officially make his Infinity race debut at the legendary TITC in late February, opting to miss races such the season opening GP3F in France so as to focus on testing. On the TITC he said it will be a special race to make his Infinity debut at given the Infinity RC Addict track is named after his new team and has been an important venue in their team’s history. Now that the New Year has arrived and the news he’s now an Infinity is official, Bruno said he fully motivated and excited to get started on this new chapter in his racing career.
