Q & A with Jarno Trulli

Jarno Trulli: At the moment, for me personally it's difficult to judge, because the last two days were not so good. The last day was wet and difficult, while on the first day ... in morning I think we made some progress, and then we had a problem, which cost us some track time.

And afterwards it was so windy that it was difficult to judge every little bit that we put on the car. But I'm confident, because apparently the same kind of aero update has been tested at the beginning of the week with Timo and showed good performance, so I think we are moving on.

Q. Why has team found new momentum now?

JT: I believe that last year's car, honestly, was not up to the performance that we should be at. Not because the performance was wrong, but there were a few things which would not allow the drivers and the engineers to get the best out of the car. It was so tricky; the working window was so small, so you couldn't find a way to work around the problems. So you were stuck in a corner. Once you hit the track, straight away you would know whether you were half-competitive, or not competitive at all.

With this year's car I think it has improved a lot in that respect. It hasn't been a huge step forward in terms of the pure performance of the car, but it has been a huge step forward in terms of using the car, how you handle the car, you can set up the car, and how to get the best out of the car. That makes life much easier for me, for the drivers, for the engineers, for the team, for everyone. So at the moment, with the experience we have and the capability, I can get the best out of the car and put it exactly where I want.

Q. Guys like Mark Gillan and Frank Dernie have helped?

JT: I think so. I think everybody has understood a lot from the previous mistakes. We have moved forward, we have understood it, and we are learning more and more about the direction that we want to take in order to improve the car.

Q. Is the team working well together?

JT: When you have troubles, it is difficult for everyone inside the team to find the motivation and say, 'we're working well'. When things are much better, like this year, I think it comes easier, and straight away, you see ... you will call it 'motivated', but I never found myself not motivated last year.

You're just frustrated after the race, or after qualifying, because you know you're not going to go much better than that. So you look frustrated or whatever, but it's not the motivation which is missing. It's just the fact that you can't get any more out of it.

Q. It's still tightly packaged in the midfield...

JT: Very tight.

Q. Can you improve the car to move ahead of that?

JT: We know that we have some areas where we definitely have to make some progress - which I am not going to tell you! But definitely, we have a few areas which we are concentrating on, and where we know that we can get more our of the car. I believe that we have a strong car, basically.

But now it's time for Toyota to move on, and step up quicker in terms of development work through the season. Nowadays in Formula One, how you start is important, but how you develop along the season is extremely important. This is not the key. Toyota has got the resources and the potential, so we have to make it. We have to make it.

Q. Is there a bigger push this year?

JT: I don't think so. The commitment from everyone is the same. The effort that everyone is putting in is the same. Obviously, people now are more motivated because we have found the light at the end of the tunnel. So you can feel this atmosphere. But I don't really feel that people are now working harder or better than before. They are just seeing that we can make it, we have now got everything, and we have to push.

Q. Do you expect a lot of changes this weekend?

JT: I don't think so. Personally, we will settle down a bit more in terms of seeing the real performance of every team. It will be a tight weekend like it always is here, because we all know the circuit. But I don't really think we will see a great deal of change.

Q. Will Renault be in front of you?

JT: That is something they have to prove. I don't know. We will see.

Q. Have you talked to Fernando about Renault?

JT: Well obviously he is having a hard time. That's part of the job for every driver. Unfortunately F1 is a lot down to the car and the team, and this year it doesn't seem that he is experiencing a very good season. On the other hand, I am moving ahead with Toyota and am really pleased, because I have been part of this project for a long time and it's good to see things moving on. But I cannot really comment on him.

Q. David Coulthard believes you are the first team after the top three...

JT: I strongly believe that at the moment we can be fourth in the championship. We have got a car that can fight with Red Bull, with Renault, with Williams. It's a lot down to the weekend, and down to the track circumstances. But more or less, I think we can be there. So far we have done three races, I made no mistakes and we were always where we should have been. But obviously I can make some mistakes as well, and maybe with one mistake you can slip down two or three positions and you are out of the top 10, and then it becomes a little more difficult.

If I look back to the Bahrain weekend, that was ... I won't say an easy weekend, but it went exactly as planned without putting in any extra effort. I did exactly what I was supposed to do, and the car did exactly what it was supposed to do. The problem is that the gap between us and the teams in front is still too big. During the race I tried to catch Kovalainen, and we were close, close, close, but something was wrong in his car, because as soon as he put on the last set of tyres he was flying - he was the quickest man on the track. That shows that our car is not as quick as their car.

Q. After Melbourne people thought that the traction control ban was making the racing better but it seems that there has been no real change..

JT: People get used to it. We are drivers, so we are used to driving a quick car and we will get used to any changes. For drivers it takes more time, for other drivers it takes less.

Q. Is it easier to overtake?

JT: I never say that it is easier. What I said was that without the traction control and without the engine braking and whatever, you can have more chance of mistakes. And when you have mistakes, maybe you have more chance of overtaking. But you're not going to see races like overtaking everywhere.

Q. Do you think about life after F1?

JT: I don't know. The only thing I think about it is that I don't want to stop driving, because driving is part of my life. It has been like that forever; since I was born. And I don't think that I can do anything else, but especially, I don't think I will enjoy anything as much as I am enjoying driving.

It's like a drug. In the wintertime ... sometimes we are tired, because we work so much, we travel, we do so much promotion. And then we've got some space in the winter, maybe one month, and then we have Christmastime. But after two or three weeks, you don't want to stay home. You just want to drive. And this is the feeling.