Future still up in the air for Trulli

Trulli's current contract with the Jordan-Honda team runs out at the end of the year and he was linked a fortnight ago with a move to Benetton under his manager Flavio Briatore.

Trulli was rumoured to be a potential replacement for Jenson Button, but Briatore has since confirmed that the young British ace will be staying with the Enstone-based team until his contract expires at the end of next year.

"My contract will run out at the end of the season," said Trulli speaking ahead of this weekend's French Grand Prix. "We will see, but I will make a decision probably in a month."

Trulli admitted he finds it hard to keep his motivation high after this year's Jordan EJ11 has failed to live up to his expectations. Both Trulli and team mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen retired within five laps of each other during the European Grand Prix last weekend.

"It is very disappointing not finishing races especially when we are the in points," said Trulli. "But you have to keep the motivation up and work with the team. It is difficult, but I must say I am used to that because in five years of Formula 1, I have never had a competitive and reliable car.

The Jordan team has yet to score a podium finish while Honda stable mate BAR made it onto the third step at the Spanish GP in April courtesy of Jacques Villeneuve. But according to Trulli the hardest thing is not finding any answers to the team's problems.

"I always try to do my best at every race," he said. "I try and forget what has happened in the race before and hope that everything goes right. From last year, we have been analysing data and we have not found the problem with the car. It is not easy.

"We have a good car in qualifying and sometimes in my performance I am not far away from the top teams. But we lose a lot of performance during the race."

Trulli lies 10th in the drivers' title race and the British team is fifth in the constructors' championship.