Trulli, Madly, Deeply

When you hear Jarno Trulli's name, what springs to mind? Chances are, you're thinking 'great qualifier, not such a good racer'.

The era of the mixed-up qualifying format has made good old-fashioned Saturday specials a thing of the past, but his reputation was set long before that. The fact is, the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix winner is one of those drivers who lends himself to shorthand, even dismissive, labels. So much so that he risks being condemned forever as a one-lap specialist who can't deliver over 50 or 60 times around the track. Yet this is a driver who has proved he can match, or even eclipse, the best of them in equal equipment - just ask 2004-spec Fernando Alonso.

Now in his 12th F1 campaign, Jarno has become a piece of the furniture. A driver so entrenched on the grid that he has almost become invisible to those who are happy to accept the conventional wisdom of the Italian as a Saturday, not a Sunday, driver.

Take last week's Singapore Grand Prix, which he started on a one-stop strategy. On a track which punishes excess weight particularly heavily, Trulli had a queue of cars parked behind him in the early stages that included eventual top two Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg. The phrase 'Trulli train' could be heard every now and again in the media centre as the Toyota bottled up the second half of the field in his wake.

So there you have it - proof he's not such a good racer. Or maybe not. Consider the evidence. He was one of the few drivers risking a one-stop strategy, and had he not been put out of the race with a hydraulic failure, Trulli would have finished in a creditable fifth place. Granted, there were times in the early laps when he was really struggling, but given that the balance of the Toyota is transformed by the extra weight in the fuel tank, there was at least a good reason for it.

So the labels slapped on Trulli don't necessarily hold true. Dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that the fourth longest-serving driver on the grid - he made his debut back in Australia 1997 for Minardi - is far more complicated than being simply a Saturday superstar and Sunday slogger. You may be able to transcend a car over a lap in qualifying, but come the race all those drivers in faster cars who hadn't hit the same heights in qualifying will inevitably have a pace advantage.

And the Italian with the Finnish first name is not happy about his reputation. Mentioning the 'Trulli train' in his company elicits a kind of snorting noise which makes very clear his contempt for a phrase which has shadowed him for a long time.

Jarno Trulli heads a train of cars in the Japanese Grand Prix © XPB

"It's not frustrating," he says of the perception of him as F1's most likely cork in the bottleneck. "You understand how poor some of the people who are looking at F1 are, because they cannot really understand what is happening. The easiest thing for them is to get the perception and say that.

"They are blind. If you look deeply at the results, you can seen it's not true what they are saying. This year I have found things better in the race than in qualifying - look at the laptimes. In some ways I have learned not to listen and to carry on, but it's nice to show them that they are wrong. Even if they still talk about it, I can still prove to them they are wrong on track."

That's fighting talk and clear proof that even with over a decade in F1 under his belt his competitive spirit has not been dulled. Look at his robust defence against the late-race attack of Heikki Kovalainen at Magny-Cours earlier this year.

Was that the drive of a poor racer struggling to cling on to the podium, or rather one of a driver holding off a quicker car with some clever racecraft and, on one occasion, emphatic door-slamming? To answer that question, you only have to ask how much quicker a McLaren is than a Toyota.

It was Toyota's first podium since 2006 - and Trulli's first since '05 - and after two dispiriting seasons it was just the kind of lift that the team needed. Ironically, it came at the same track where four years earlier he had angered Renault team boss Flavio Briatore by letting the faster Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello by at the last corner of the race.

It was that mistake which proved to be if not the final nail, then certainly the most important one, in the coffin of his relationship with the Renault team. To the watching world, despite shading Alonso in the first part of the year, he was firmly established as a tried-and-tested number two driver. It's a very different story with Toyota today, though.

The response of the team after the French Grand Prix - carrying Trulli on its shoulders - is clear proof he still has the confidence of a team on the rise after two pretty miserable seasons. With new regulations for next season, Trulli is hopeful that Toyota could take another step forward and maybe even lose its unenvied status as the only team or constructor on the grid never to have won a grand prix in one form or another.

"Toyota is on the up again," says Trulli. "I believe I can win the first race for them.

Jarno Trulli through Eau Rouge in the Toyota TF106 © LAT

"For next year, I am confident but on the other and I am experienced in how F1 works! I say we can do it because of the way the team has progressed, but on the other hand the rules have changed. So I'd prefer to be cautious but confident.

"In previous seasons, Toyota has said, 'We will win, we will win,' but before that you need to build. When you build a house you first need a basement - you don't start from the roof. We have now made that basement and I really believe we can build a winning car and become one of the top three teams."

The confidence doesn't go only one way. Toyota has recognised that, provided it gives him a car which suits his style, he can deliver.

Gianluca Pisanello, who has worked as Trulli's race engineer since 2006, believes that with the right kind of car, he's as good as anyone. "He's one of the top drivers in the field," says Pisanello. "This year he is driving very well - particularly as the car fits his driving style better.

"He likes a stable car. It doesn't have to be too neutral, but the rear of the car has to remain stable. He likes to drive with it, he doesn't like to be driven by it. He's a very predictive driver - when he goes into the corner he doesn't wait for the reaction of the car.

"If the car is unpredictable, it can give you surprises. The main characteristic is that he's very, very precise and when he can predict it he can be right on the limit.

"You could say he likes a little bit of understeer, but the important thing is it's balanced. The key is to give him a car with which he can really express his potential."

That highlights the conditions needed for Trulli to excel. Over a lap, he can live with almost any car, but give him one that suits his precise style and cultured right foot, and he is one of the best in the business.

For Trulli, the joy of driving the car doesn't just come from racing - that's part of his strength. It comes from feeling at one with the car, knowing how it is going to react, understanding how to set it up to his liking. It's why he has a good reputation as a test and development driver.

"It's a question of feeling," says Trulli. "When I jump in the car, I don't drive for racing. I drive for feeling... for understanding. In the case of driving on pure instinct, I might be slower than another driver, but it's a very rare case to be driving on instinct.

"If you talk with anyone who has worked with me, they will tell you that I am a very good test driver. It's one of my strengths.

Jarno Trulli with engineer Gianluca Pisanello © LAT

"The best thing that could happen to Formula 1 is to take the telemetry away. Then the drivers have to trust and relate and have more of an input than just looking at the numbers. Then I will be the happiest driver in Formula 1 because I know exactly what is happening. I love feeling the car. I love feeling what is happening, the way the car changes and how you have to understand. If you go in one direction and it's the right one, everyone will gain."

So if Toyota does go in the right direction and it's compatible with its lead driver, Trulli has to be regarded as a potential race-winner. Maybe he could even be a title-winner? But can a driver with 12 years on the F1 treadmill, often in very mediocre cars, really be expected to have the motivation to deliver?

Talk to Trulli for a few minutes and he'll convince you that he has the determination to match anyone on the grid.

Okay, it might be different if Toyota was going nowhere this year as it was in the poor 2007 season, but there is a real

desire to prove the doubters wrong. And there is also a feeling that F1 owes Trulli's talent. Big-time.

"I believe all I have done in the past hasn't been paid back yet," he says. "I can deliver much more than has happened so far. All I can say is that I've never had a team-mate who won the world championship driving the same car as me.

"In all my seasons I have more or less always done a good job in comparison with the car performance. Sometimes I've done great things, sometimes I've done less, but I have proved that I am talented and strong. Give me a good car and I can deliver."

And it's not just talk. Pisanello believes that his charge still enjoys every race like he's a rookie.

"He's very fresh," says Pisanello. "It's very nice at the end of a race when he is describing how it went. He's very enthusiastic, he moves a lot and he explains with his hands. He's not giving you feedback because it's his job, but because he enjoys it."

Not bad for someone who made his debut when F1's newest winner - Sebastian Vettel - was a mere boy of nine years old!

"Honestly, I don't know how many races I've started [it's 197] because I don't look at this number very much," says Trulli. "But I love driving and the challenge of racing is part of my life. If you take this away from me, I might be in trouble. You always have to be on the case and committed if you want to be part of Formula 1. The day you decide to relax or be lazy is time to stop. And driving alone is not enough. You have to be competitive - and I am competitive!"

Jarno Trulli (Prost JS45 Mugen-Honda) leads the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix © Rainer Nyberg/FORIX

Regrets? I've had a few...

Jarno Trulli took his first - and so far only - Formula 1 win at Monaco in 2004. But he believes his career would have been very different but for a badly-timed Mugen Honda engine failure.

After Olivier Panis broke both legs in the 1997 Canadian Grand Prix, Trulli - with just seven starts under his belt - found himself in a potentially podium-finishing car with Prost. He led 37 laps of the Austrian Grand Prix before his powerplant billowed smoke and he ground to a halt while he was running second.

He almost certainly wouldn't have won - Jacques Villeneuve was on his way to victory - but the Italian believes he probably wouldn't have ended up wasting the next two seasons in uncompetitive Prost-Peugeots.

"It was my first season," remembers Trulli, "and the whole course of my career would have been different, because with that result I could have signed a contract with a better team.

"When you drive a good car it's much easier. But then I had to go through a different path, starting at the bottom again."

Although Trulli naturally wishes his engine had held together for another 13 laps, he refuses to dwell on it. But when it comes to regrets, there are two other years that he does look back on with a tinge of sadness.

"There are two seasons which are a bit... not a regret as such, but sad," says Trulli. "2004, because of what happened with Renault, and 2005 with Toyota. We started very well, then mid-season I lost something like three podiums with mechanical gremlins and bad luck.

"From third in the championship I ended up seventh. That was one of the disappointing things - when you think you can do it and it doesn't happen through no fault of your own."