Jarno Trulli (; born 13 July 1974) is an Italian former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Trulli won the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix with Renault.
He regularly competed in Formula One from 1997 to 2011, driving for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault, Toyota and Lotus. His best result in the World Drivers' Championship was sixth place in , also the year in which he scored his sole victory at the . Throughout his Formula One career, Trulli was renowned for his skill in qualifying, regularly achieving far better grid positions than rivals with superior cars to his own.
Trulli was set to remain in Formula One for , but retired before the season began. He competed in the inaugural season of Formula E, founding and competing for Trulli GP. Trulli is the father of racing driver Enzo Trulli.
Early life and career
His parents were motorsport fans and named their son after
Jarno Saarinen, the
Finland Grand Prix motorcycle racing champion who was killed at Monza in 1973. He started racing in
Kart racing at an early age; after winning the Karting World Championship in 1991, the Italian karting championship and several other
Kart racing championships in different categories up to 1995, Trulli won the German Formula Three Championship in 1996.
Formula One career
Minardi and Prost (1997–1999)
In 1997, Trulli made his debut in Formula One with
Minardi. After 7 races he replaced the injured
Olivier Panis at Prost and impressed immediately, finishing fourth in Germany
and even leading in Austria, looking set to finish second until his engine blew.
He stayed at the Prost team for the next two seasons and eventually scored his first podium in wet conditions at the 1999 European Grand Prix.
However, this was a rare highlight in a race few of the main front-runners finished, and the poor performance of the Prost team convinced him that a switch to Jordan would bring improved results.
Jordan (2000–2001)
In he moved to the Irish squad,
but the team was no longer the force it had been in the late 1990s. In his two years with Jordan, Trulli failed to score a podium, but did impress with a series of brilliant qualifying displays. During this period suggestions were made that Trulli was more of a qualifying specialist than an out-and-out fast race driver, a charge he frequently denied. Under a long-term contract with his personal manager (and Renault manager)
Flavio Briatore, Trulli secured a contract with the Anglo-French squad for .
Renault (2002–2004)
Alongside
Jenson Button, he often outqualified his British teammate, but was generally shaded in races. Regardless of Button's improved pace that season, it was Trulli who stayed at Renault for 2003 to partner promoted test-driver
Fernando Alonso.
The 2003 Renault was a strong car and in Alonso's hands won in Hungary.
Trulli struggled to attain similar results, but did achieve a podium in Germany, his first since leaving Prost.
Mindful of how much Alonso had outperformed him in , Trulli improved markedly the next year. For the first half of the season he was the better of the two Renault drivers, racking up regular points and podiums.
At Monaco he finally took his only victory after a brilliant display from pole position.
Having performed so well, the Italian was eager to stick with the team for 2005, but his relationship with team-boss Briatore soured. A last corner error which allowed
Scuderia Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello onto the podium in France enraged the team,
and from that point his days with the French manufacturer were numbered.
He did not score any points after the French Grand Prix and was consistently off the pace during races. He later accused the team of favouring Alonso, but the reasons why his 2004 season deteriorated have never been properly identified.
He was sacked three races before the end of the season and replaced by World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, despite leading his teammate in the championship at that point.
Trulli had already agreed to drive for Toyota in 2005, and his early exit from Renault allowed him to take up his new seat for the last two races of the 2004 season, replacing
Ricardo Zonta.
Toyota (2004–2009)
2004–2005
In 2005, early season podiums demonstrated Trulli's speed and at Indianapolis he took Toyota's first Formula One pole.
However, he, his teammate and the majority of the grid, did not enter the race due to using
Michelin tyres, which were not safe to race.
For the vast majority of the year he outpaced his highly paid teammate
Ralf Schumacher, but a late season dip in form saw him slip to seventh in the championship, two points behind the German.
2006
In , Trulli suffered a very poor start to the season. On the first lap of the , he was taken out by
David Coulthard.
He seemed to be outpaced by teammate
Ralf Schumacher more often than not, but finally scored his first points of the season when he raced to 6th from 4th on the grid at the .
Following this was a 4th place in the .
From then on, he would only score 3 more times, with a couple of 7th-place finishes in the and the and also a 6th place in the , where his car became troublesome to drive mid-race, and
Ralf Schumacher was delayed in the process.
Trulli was racing very well in the season finale at Interlagos, but his car suffered suspension failure in the first 10 laps, a fate which befell his teammate at the same time.
He finished 12th overall.
2007
Trulli scored his first points of in Malaysia, finishing in 7th place after qualifying 8th.
A couple more points followed in Bahrain,
but he stalled on the grid at the start of the and dropped out during the early laps due to mechanical failure.
Monaco brought no better fortune for Trulli, as he finished down in 15th place, just ahead of teammate Schumacher, after qualifying his season-worst 14th.
Points were collected by Trulli at the Indianapolis for 6th place. After a series of non-scoring runs, Trulli said that the result was 'incredible'.
[ ] He also qualified well for the but crashed with the Renault of Heikki Kovalainen on the opening lap, and duly retired because of the damage.
Trulli accepted the blame for the incident. The second half of the season was disappointing with Trulli's only point coming in the final race of the season at Brazil.
Trulli finished the championship in 13th position, collecting only 8 points. Post season there had been reports that Trulli's contract was not safe, and that he may have been replaced in the Toyota team for 2008 by Heikki Kovalainen.
2008
In , Trulli was hoping Toyota would make a big step forward.
was confirmed as his teammate for the season.
Trulli started the season quite well, with several points scoring finishes, the height of which was a fourth-place finish in Malaysia.
Trulli's qualifying performances were also very good throughout the first few rounds of the Championship. His form then slumped a little, with disappointing performances in Turkey and Monaco, as he finished in non-points scoring positions.
However, he bounced back from this with a 6th-place finish in Montreal.
He qualified on the front row alongside pole-sitter Felipe Massa for the season-ending , which was to decide the 2008 world championship between Massa and Lewis Hamilton.
2009
Trulli was confident going into .
In the first race of the 2009 season, the Toyotas of Trulli and Glock started the race from the pitlane as their qualifying times were disallowed due to Toyota's flexible rear wing breaching regulations.
Although Trulli started from the pit lane, he finished in an impressive 3rd place before being penalised 25 seconds, dropping him to 12th position for passing Lewis Hamilton under the safety car.
A few days after this decision, Hamilton was disqualified from the race results for 'misleading' the race stewards by insisting that Jarno Trulli had passed him under the Safety Car although Hamilton in fact let him pass on purpose due to an order given by the team from the pitlane.
Jarno Trulli therefore regained his third-place finish.
At the , Trulli qualified on
pole position but due to an unconventional tyre strategy, he finished third.
However he did record the fastest lap, the only time he has achieved this in his career. He holds the record of having started the most Grands Prix before recording a fastest lap.
He crashed out of the after being forced off the track at the second corner and being collected by Adrian Sutil,
He then qualified fourth in torrential conditions in Brazil,
Lotus (2010–2011)
2010
On 14 December 2009, Trulli was confirmed as one of the newly formed Lotus team's drivers, joining former
McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen.
He only finished one of the opening four races, a weaker reliability record than Kovalainen, leading him to note that "everything happens on my car and my car only – so to this day, my expectations have not been met".
At the launch of the Lotus T127, Trulli admitted in an interview with Autosport that US F1 and Sauber had been in contact with him.
2011
Trulli continued to drive for Lotus in , with Lotus Racing being renamed Team Lotus. He again partnered Heikki Kovalainen.
Trulli's season started with thirteenth in Australia,
Caterham (2012)
Team Lotus was renamed to Caterham F1 ahead of the 2012 season.
Trulli drove in one pre-season test, but on 17 February 2012 it was announced that Trulli was replaced by
Vitaly Petrov.
Following, Trulli stated that he was "really proud" to have helped Caterham become a Formula One team.
This left Formula One without an Italian driver for the first time since , until Antonio Giovinazzi competed in the 2017 Australian Grand Prix.
Other ventures
Trulli GP (2014–2015)
In 2014–15 season Trulli drove in the inaugural
Formula E for his own team
Trulli GP in partnership with
Drayson Racing and Super Nova Racing, as announced on 18 June 2014. After failing to pass scrutineering of their new drivetrain for the first two races of the 2015–16 season, the team withdrew from the championship.
Helmet
Trulli's original helmet design was white with a blue shape around the visor with a blue circle in the top and a green J with a red T in the sides. A ring around the blue circle was incorporated when he raced at Jordan and Renault, being coloured after the team's main sponsor. In 2004 his helmet changed from white to chromed silver and the shape, the J and the T became chromed with black outline. Later, in his first Toyota years the top became red and was added a white ring around the red circle. Finally in 2008 the helmet turned red with the J and the T of the original colours (and white outline) plus a white line on the chin area. From his Lotus years, the helmet design remained intact, with the change of the shades of colour from chromed to normal shades (the chromed silver becomes white).
[ Trulli's 2009 helmet ]
Personal life
Trulli is married to Barbara and they have two sons,
Enzo Trulli (b. 2005), named after Trulli's father, and Marco (b. 2006), and a daughter Veronica (b. 2014). He is the co-owner of a vineyard in the
Abruzzo region in
Italy and produces his own wine.
He also has his own range of
Kart racing named 'Trulli Kart'; Trulli himself was a World Champion at Karting level.
His son Enzo is also pursuing career in motorsports he competed in the WSK karting series,
before starting single seater racing in F4 UAE in 2021, and for 2022 at present in FIA Formula 3 Championship.
Racing record
Career summary
|
|
|
|
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| Macau Grand Prix | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | N/A | 2nd |
|
| Macau Grand Prix | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | N/A | 3rd |
| Grand Prix de Monaco F3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 18th |
| Masters of Formula 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 18th |
|
| Prost Gauloises Blondes | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Panasonic Toyota Racing | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Complete German Formula Three results
(
key) (Races in
bold indicate pole position) (Races in
italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete Formula One results
(
key) (Races in
bold indicate pole position; races in
italics indicate fastest lap)
|
|
| !nowrap Minardi
!nowrap | Minardi M197
!nowrap | Hart 830 AV7 3.0 V8 | AUS
| BRA
| ARG
| SMR
| MON
| ESP
| CAN
| !rowspan=215th
!rowspan=2 | 3 |
|
| !nowrap Gauloises Prost Peugeot
!nowrap | Prost AP01
!nowrap | Peugeot A16 3.0 V10 | AUS
| BRA
| ARG
| SMR
| ESP
| MON
| CAN
| FRA
| GBR
| AUT
| GER
| HUN
| BEL
| ITA
| LUX
| JPN
12 | ! 16th
! 1 |
| !nowrap Gauloises Prost Peugeot
!nowrap | Prost AP02
!nowrap | Peugeot A18 3.0 V10 | AUS
| BRA
| SMR
| MON
| ESP
| CAN
| FRA
| GBR
| AUT
| GER
| HUN
| BEL
| ITA
| EUR
| MAL
| JPN
| ! 11th
! 7 |
| !rowspan="2" nowrap Benson & Hedges Jordan
!nowrap | Jordan EJ10
!rowspan="2" nowrap | Mugen-Honda MF-301
HE 3.0 V10 | AUS
| BRA
| SMR
15 | GBR
| ESP
| EUR
| MON
| CAN
| FRA
| AUT
| !rowspan="2" 10th
!rowspan="2" | 6 |
|
| !nowrap Benson & Hedges Jordan Honda
!nowrap | Jordan EJ11
!nowrap | Honda RA001E 3.0 V10 | AUS
| MAL
| BRA
| SMR
| ESP
|
| MON
| CAN
11 | EUR
| FRA
| GBR
| GER
| HUN
| BEL
| ITA
| USA
| JPN
| ! 9th
! 12 |
| !nowrap Mevius Renault F1 Team
!nowrap | Renault R202
!nowrap | Renault RS22 3.0 V10 | AUS
| MAL
| BRA
| SMR
| ESP
10 | AUT
| MON
| CAN
| EUR
| GBR
| FRA
| GER
| HUN
| BEL
| ITA
| USA
| JPN
| ! 8th
! 9 |
| !rowspan="2" nowrap Mevius Renault F1 Team
!nowrap | Renault R23
!rowspan="2" nowrap | Renault RS23 3.0 V10 | AUS
| MAL
| BRA
| SMR
| ESP
| AUT
| MON
| CAN
| EUR
| FRA
| !rowspan="2" 8th
!rowspan="2" | 33 |
|
| !nowrap Mevius Renault F1 Team
!nowrap | Renault R24
!nowrap | Renault RS24 3.0 V10 | AUS
| MAL
| BHR
| SMR
| ESP
| MON
| EUR
| CAN
| USA
| FRA
| GBR
| GER
| HUN
| BEL
| ITA
| CHN | !rowspan="2" 6th
!rowspan="2" | 46 |
|
| !rowspan="2" nowrap Panasonic Toyota Racing
!nowrap | Toyota TF105
!rowspan="2" nowrap | Toyota RVX-05 3.0 V10 | AUS
| MAL
| BHR
| SMR
| ESP
| MON
| EUR
| CAN
| USA
| FRA
| GBR
| GER
14 | HUN
| TUR
| ITA
| BEL
| BRA
13 | !rowspan="2" 7th
!rowspan="2" | 43 |
|
| !rowspan="2" nowrap Panasonic Toyota Racing
!nowrap | Toyota TF106
!rowspan="2" nowrap | Toyota RVX-06 2.4 V8 | BHR
| MAL
| AUS
| SMR
| EUR
| ESP
| !rowspan="2" 12th
!rowspan="2" | 15 |
|
| !nowrap Panasonic Toyota Racing
!nowrap | Toyota TF107
!nowrap | Toyota RVX-07 2.4 V8 | AUS
| MAL
| BHR
| ESP
| MON
| CAN
| USA
| FRA
| GBR
| EUR
| HUN
| TUR
| ITA
| BEL
| JPN
| CHN
| BRA
| ! 13th
! 8 |
| !nowrap Panasonic Toyota Racing
!nowrap | Toyota TF108
!nowrap | Toyota RVX-08 2.4 V8 | AUS
| MAL
| BHR
| ESP
| TUR
| MON
| CAN
| FRA
| GBR
| GER
| HUN
| EUR
| BEL
| ITA
| SIN
| JPN
| CHN
| BRA
| ! 9th
! 31 |
| !nowrap Panasonic Toyota Racing
!nowrap | Toyota TF109
!nowrap | Toyota RVX-09 2.4 V8 | AUS
| MAL
4 | CHN
| BHR
| ESP
| MON
| TUR
| GBR
| GER
| HUN
| EUR
| BEL
| ITA
| SIN
| JPN
| BRA
| ABU
| ! 8th
! 32.5 |
| !nowrap Lotus Racing
!nowrap | Lotus T127
!nowrap | Cosworth CA2010 2.4 V8 | BHR
17 | AUS
| MAL
| CHN
| ESP
| MON
15 | TUR
| CAN
| EUR
| GBR
| GER
| HUN
| BEL
| ITA
| SIN
| JPN
| KOR
| BRA
| ABU
21
! 21st
! 0 |
| !nowrap Team Lotus
!nowrap | Lotus T128
!nowrap | Renault RS27 2.4 V8 | AUS
| MAL
| CHN
| TUR
| ESP
| MON
| CAN
| EUR
| GBR
| GER | HUN
| BEL
| ITA
| SIN
| JPN
| KOR
| IND
| ABU
| BRA
! 21st
! 0 |
|
Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
Trulli did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he had completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete Formula E results
(
key) (Races in
bold indicate pole position; races in
italics indicate fastest lap)
|
| 2014–15
!nowrap | Trulli Formula E Team
!nowrap | Spark SRT01-e
!nowrap | SRT01-e | BEI
| PUT
| PDE
| BUE
| MIA
| LBH
| MCO
| BER
| MSC
| LDN
| LDN
! 20th
! 15 |
| 2015–16
!nowrap | Trulli Formula E Team
!nowrap | Spark SRT01-e
!nowrap | Motomatica JT-01 | BEI | PUT
| PDE | BUE | MEX | LBH | PAR | BER | LDN | LDN | ! NC
! 0 |
|
†Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Pre-Formula One career
-
1996: Champion in German Formula 3 (KMS Dallara-Opel)
-
1995: 4th in German Formula 3 (KMS Dallara-Opel), 1st in Italian Kart racing class 100 FA, 1st in World karting class 125FC, Senna Memorial World Cup winner
-
1994: Senna Memorial World Cup winner, 1st in North American class 100SA, 1st in European class 100SA
-
1993: 2nd in World karting Champion class 100 SA, 1st in Grand prix of Japan Class 100 FSA
-
1992: 2nd in World karting class 125 FC
-
1991: Champion in Karting World Championship 100 FK
-
1990: 1st in Grand Prix of Hong Kong Class 100 FA
-
1988–1990: Three times Champion in Italian National 100 Class
-
1983–1995: Kart racing
See also
-
Formula One drivers from Italy
External links
