English is Best, Says Trulli

Jordan Formula One driver Jarno Trulli has banned his race engineer Gabriele Delli Colli from talking to him in his native Italian.

"I told him I don't want to speak Italian at all since I am working for an English team and it is important to feel really involved in it," said Trulli.

Delli Colli worked with Trulli in his debut season with the Italian Minardi team and they were reunited this year when the engineer joined Jordan from Sauber.

"I want to make sure that there are no doubts inside the team that me and Delli Colli are fully open and working together with everybody."

Trulli said he had a tough time communicating at his former French team Prost and did not want any misunderstandings at Jordan.

"I don't want to give the team any opportunity to tell me that I am doing something wrong inside the team or doing something illegal together with my engineer.

"I just want to make sure that everything works well with everybody. So when I talk, I talk in English and if someone is listening they can hear what I am talking about.

"It's very important...if you are doing very badly, someone can say 'yes, but you are not fully 100 percent inside the team, sometimes I can hear you are talking in Italian'. I don't want any of this."

Disappointment

Trulli, who was named after the late Finnish motorcycle racer Jarno Saarinen, admits he is not a typical Italian. He has little interest in soccer and spent much of his youth competing outside Italy in karts.

When he joined the team last year, boss Eddie Jordan describing him as his "jewel in the crown", but the season proved a big disappointment.

He started on the front row at the Belgian Grand Prix but a fourth place in Brazil -- after McLaren's David Coulthard was disqualified -- was his best finish. He was 10th overall in the title race.

Trulli also failed to finish three successive races after crashes in the opening laps, and after the third failure vented his anger on British newcomer Jenson Button.

"I regret the last one, in Indianapolis against Jenson, but it was really hard for me," he said.

It was still his best season yet, after finishing 11th overall for Prost in 1999, and the Italian said he did not regret his decision to join Jordan who have a new works Honda engine deal for the new season.

"We proved many times last year that we can do a good job. We started from the front row and this year we will have a much better engine," said Trulli.

"I feel all right inside the team, everyone is really nice, they are really professional. I do not regret it at all even if I had a very disappointing 2000 season."

Trulli said his aim was to regain the front row and to give Ferrari and McLaren a hard time.