Jarno Trulli
Jarno Trulli was a star in karting from 1983 and, by the time he moved into cars, the slightly built Italian had racked up successes all around the world. His mid-1995 debut in German F3 was sensational – in his half-season, he amassed enough points to place fourth in the final rankings, signing off the year with wins in the last two rounds at Hokenheim. It was not surprising therefore, that Trulli was the hot favourite for the title with his KMS Motorsport Dallara in 1996. The little Italian delivered with six wins and it was only the late-season appearance of Nick Heidfeld that gave him cause for concern.
Benetton boss Flavio Briatore had the Formula Three star under contract and duly found him a seat in the Minardi team for 1997. Paired with the experienced Ukyo Katayama, Jarno soon proved the faster driver and his already astonishing rise towards the top was further fast-tracked when he was moved into the Prost line-up to replace the injured Olivier Panis. Sixth place on the grid on his debut for the team at the French Grand Prix was a sign of good things in the offing, and a fourth-place finish in Germany was followed by a brilliant performance in Austria, where he led the race before his engine failed.
Naturally impatient for success, Trulli had to endure a largely barren season in 1998, when his car was overweight and unreliable. The frustrated driver hardly got a decent run throughout the year and his motivation was given another searching examination at the beginning of 1999, when the Prost was still a midfield runner at best.
It is fair to say that the Prost team was not the happiest of ships during the season, both Trulli and Panis having their differences with the demanding proprietor. Trulli, not unnaturally, grabbed his big chance by signing for Jordan for 2000, and relationships subsequently soured to the point that Jarno's second place in the European Grand Prix was dismissed by Prost as 'lucky'.
Paired with a resurgent Heinz-Harald Frentzen, the youngster had his work cut out dealing with the less than successful EJ10, but featured at the front on several occasions when the car allowed, including an appearance on the front row at Monaco after an inspired qualifying lap. Tenth in the championship was poor reward for his efforts, however, and Trulli could not better the fourth-place finish he achieved at round two in Brazil. The Italian remained at Jordan for 2001, convinced that the now Honda-powered EJ11 could only be an improvement over the 2000 car. Testing times showed both car and driver to be close to the leading midfield pace, but Trulli was to be frustrated once again when the season started in earnest.
Still an occasional flyer in qualifying, the Italian seemed to lose his momentum in races, clocking a best finish of fourth on two occasions (Spain and USA), but again failing to break onto the podium. Good for top six finishes when he wasn't retiring, however, Trulli ended the season in ninth overall, and was still a target for envious eyes. This led to an end-of-season 'struggle' for his services, after manager Flavio Briatore exercised an option on the Italian on behalf of Renault. Although Trulli was initially reluctant to leave Jordan for what, on 2001 form, was a lower ranking constructor he was still destined to appear in a different set of overalls for 2002. Given Renault's pedigree in F1 – and the rate at which the company was known to develop its programmes in the formula – the move proved to be a good one. While the Jordan team struggled, Renault finished the 2002 season with 23 points, although Trulli failed to find a podium to top best performances of fourth at Monaco and Monza. His true form was again seen in qualifying, and it was here that he consistently outperformed team-mate Jenson Button 12-5.
For 2003, Trulli had a new team-mate in the form of Fernando Alonso and, although both got on well, it was the more experienced Italian who found himself overshadowed. Alonso scored the team's first win since reforming, while Trulli notched up just 33 points - 22 less than the Spaniard - with a best of third place at the German GP. Despite the disappointment, Trulli continued with Renault in 2004, initially doing well and notching up a lot of points before eventually taking his first pole and race win convincingly at Monte Carlo. After that, however, his season went downhill, leaving team boss Briatore increasingly frustrated. The inevitable result was that the two went their separate ways before the season was out, as Trulli switched to the Toyota team for races in Japan and Brazil.
With the challenge of his new team mate Ralf Schumacher to deal with in 2005, Jarno certainly stamped his authority proving to be the pacesetter at a number of races and scoring Toyota's first ever podium with a superb second place in Malaysia, a result which he matched in Bahrain. However as the season wore on the Italian struggled to match his early season promise despite regularly picking up points. Nevertheless Jarno felt very comfortable with his team, and despite a hugely disappointing 2006 campaign. His car was rarely a contender, and it was only at Monaco, where he held a superb third place did a podium place beckon.
Toyota still had great faith in the Italian however, signing him up until through until 2009 to spearhead the team’s continued drive for success. After another moribund year in 2007 when the team completely lost their way, and Trulli’s drive seemed in danger when Fernando Alonso was approached following his acrimonious departure from McLaren.
In the end, the Italian remained Toyota’s team leader, with the promising Timo Glock acting as support. Having failed so dismally to impress in the two previous seasons, there was some surprise when the 2008 season started in anger in Australia. The Toyota TF108 was suddenly possessed of more than a fair turn of speed and Trulli’s immediate prospects were buoyed by a splendid fourth place in Malaysia. Another false dawn for the Japanese car giant, or the start of real progress a long last?
