• Jarno Trulli exclusive interview

'F1 is important for my soul'

Laurence Edmondson February 14, 2011

At 36 years old, Jarno Trulli is about to enter his 15th consecutive season as a grand prix driver. It's an impressive achievement, particularly in the current environment of pay drivers and 23-year-old world champions, but it also raises the question of why?

It's not meant as an impertinent question or one that casts judgement on his ability, but purely one of curiosity. When you have a family, a healthy sum of money and, in Trulli's case, a stake in a successful 30-hectare vineyard, why risk it all at the wheel of a Formula One car every other weekend?

As a grand prix winner, Trulli has experienced the highs of the sport but now faces another season towards the back of the grid with Lotus. His chances of winning another grand prix are slim at best and it's clear that, while a consummate professional, he does not enjoy his media responsibilities or the trappings of being a celebrity. Early in our interview we discuss the new Lotus T128 and he seems distracted, looking out of the second-story motor home window at the scrubland surrounding the Valencia paddock, giving full but emotionless answers.

Then comes the question of why? Why is he sat on the top level of a glorified juggernaut, at a circuit on an industrial outskirt of Valencia, waiting for his turn in a car that has absolutely no guarantee of being competitive?

"The passion, the love for this sport and the challenge, which will never end," he responds, this time clearly meaning every word and looking me directly in the eyes. "Every first day of testing is like my first day of Formula One. I'm excited and really fired up and emotional when I see the car there on the first morning. It's always special."

The answer may sound a little clichéd, but he means it. Trulli first went to a kart track aged three to watch his father race and has never known life without motor racing. Unlike most Italians he couldn't care less for football, motorsport consumed him from an early age and there is still nothing he would rather do. But more than anything it is his desire to compete and perform that keeps him coming back, he cannot imagine sitting in a racing car and not wanting to drive it to the very best of his abilities.

When asked if he ever gets tired with life in F1, he says: "Before I can say that I need to feel it. At the moment it still feels great, but especially you have to feel quick if you want to stay in Formula One. As long as I am quick I can probably stay, but there are many valuable things to me that I also have to take into account."

But is racing at the back of the grid, like Trulli and Lotus did in 2010, enough?

"For both of us, me and the team, we both need to score points," he admits. "For myself because I am a racing driver who has always been racing at the top and, after a difficult season that I was personally aware of last year, I want to get back to the scoring points and fighting. It is important for my soul. It is also important, because for this team, for Team Lotus, they cannot live at the back of the grid. We need to live in the midfield for this year and get back to the front for the future."

It's clear that Trulli has a lot of passion for Team Lotus, it's a place where he fits in, where he sees himself surrounded by professionals and there's no doubt that it helps build his motivation. He admits the historic name - which is a barbed subject due to the upcoming court case - adds to the special atmosphere, but for him it's more about the people.

"For sure it's an additional motivation," he says. "It's a responsibility as well and it makes me happy. But on the other hand I'm not going to feel extremely upset if we lose the name, because the soul of the team, the team itself, will still be a Formula One team with all the experienced engineers. You can call it what you want but it won't change anyone's attitude."

It seems the people and atmosphere are crucial for Trulli and for his motivation to keep coming back. Talking about Minardi, the team that gave him his break in F1 but with which he scored no points and left mid-season to drive for Prost, he smiles and says: "Minardi was nice. I was starting with nice people, Italians, at a small team. It was very familiar."

In stark contrast he spent five years at Toyota - one of the most highly-staffed outfits ever to take part in the sport - but again it's the people that made the difference.

"At Toyota I was feeling good," he says. "I was happy, it was a good professional team with professional people."

His only regret is that the huge corporation behind the team pulled the plug in 2009, just as he felt there were signs of promise.

"It was a very big shame that we never reached the top," he adds. "It was a good adventure, even though it left me a bit with a bitter taste, but that's part of the business. I didn't really succeed there because I wanted to take Toyota to the top flight, which I nearly did, but I just missed out. I gave Toyota its first podium its first pole position, but just missed the victory. That was something that really gave me a bitter taste."

A "bitter taste" might be an understatement for how he felt when he left Renault in 2004. After a brilliant first half to the season, during which he took his first win and outscored Fernando Alonso, a mistake on the last lap of the French Grand Prix cost him a podium and enraged team boss Flavio Briatore. From that point onwards he failed to score another point and by the Chinese Grand Prix had left the team, complaining that it was favouring Alonso. The reasons behind the slump in his performance have never been fully explained and when asked about his time there, he laughs and says: "I take it on the side." But again he goes on to talk about the "many good people" at the team that he was sad to leave behind.

No matter what has happened in his career Trulli has kept coming back. He's outstayed most the drivers of his generation in F1 - the likes of Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher were big names that started at the same time but have since lost their position - yet has never quite lived up to his full potential. But it doesn't bother him, he keeps coming back because he loves the sport, it's good for his soul.

Laurence Edmondson is an assistant editor on ESPNF1

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.