Jarno Trulli

- Published on Dec 7th, 2010 by The Badger

Life Before F1
Jarno's only pre-F1 experience came in Formula 3. He made his home in the German series in 1995, finishing as runner-up, before winning the title in 1996. And that's about it for the Italian - he stepped up to F1 with Minardi the following year.

F1 Career
Jarno Trulli looks set to be another F1 could have been, a Jean Alesi for the 21st century. In his fourteen years in F1 the wine-loving Italian has scored four pole positions and just one victory. After Toyota's withdrawl from the sport Trulli landed at Lotus in 2010 for what look like being his twilight years in the sport.

In fairness to Trulli he's never had a winning car. In the two seasons for which Fernando Alonso was his Renault teammate they took a win apiece - not a bad match-up against a man who is now two-time champion.

Before that he raced for a declining Jordan team and a woeful Prost squad. From 2005 through 2009 he was at Toyota who, despite their cash and ambition, never built a car capable of F1 success. Five years at a team whose management once thought paying Ralf Schumacher twenty million dollars per annum was a smart investment can't have been easy.

He's a great qualifier, that much we know. In fact it's fair to say that could Jarno race as well as he could qualify he'd have had a lot more success than he's ended up with. He regularly puts a car two or three places up the grid from where it belongs. That's his party trick.

But then the race pace doesn't match it, and we get that most frustrating of F1 phenomena known as the Trulli train. Jarno heading an ever increasing number of cars, all quicker than him but unable to find a way past. Sadly this will be his F1 legacy: that bloke who held people up because he was too quick in qualifying.

 

And another thing...

• It's a pretty well known fact that Jarno is a wine lover; he is currently the owner of the Podere Castorani vineyard, near Pescara, Italy.
• Trulli also has his own range of karts - imaginatively named 'Trulli Kart' - having himself been a hugely successful karter in his youth.