Is Trulli truly good enough for F1?

[esorniloc]

How long is Trulli's contract at Renault for?

[krt917]

Originally posted by stevebrown
I voted for the IRL as there wasn't a "I wouldn't stick him a FFord" option. Never had any talent. Had a trendecy for taking other drivers out. I even stopped supporting Jordan when he joined them and I had been a fan Since Eddie's days in lower formula. I think MrSal sums up my other reasons for not rating Trulli Awful. Yeah he's a good qualifier but nobody won a race during qualifying.

Steve B

I think that this is a bit over the top. He clearly has talent - noone would be able to pull out the qualifying laps that he has if he didn't have "any talent". Clearly, he's not the world's greatest racer, but he's not THAT bad.

And, although HHF did beat him in 2000, if I remember correctly he had several points scoring finishes snatched away from him with poor reliability.

[LindaC]

Originally posted by mac
I said this in another thread - why change things just for the sake of it? Trulli and Alonso are performing very well at the moment, and are pulling Renault in the right direction. Trulli has had some excellent races, but more often than not he has his races spoiled by bad luck. He would have finished ahead of Alonso in Monaco if it wasn't for his pit stop taking 3 seconds more. Trulli's pace is right on Alonso's, so why does Trulli cop the flak, when the reasons for him not scoring points are not his fault? I think the media have a lot to answer for in current F1 politics.

Absolutely right, mac.

Jarno has a lot of critics for no real apparent reason, or opinions with no basis in fact. He has been on the same race pace as Alonso all season apart from San Marino when Jarno had to use the spare car.....that was later found to be a second slower than his race car when the team did a back to back test on the chassis. In fact, whenever Jarno is perceived to have been "slow" in races, there has always been a technical reason, and quite often the tyres are to blame.

Taking the last race in Monaco as an example as it is fresh in our minds, both drivers were doing similar lap times all race, and at the time when Alonso is supposed to have driven 5 blinding laps to enable him to jump Trulli and Coulthard in his second stop, his lap times were no quicker on average than Jarno's 5 laps before his own second stop. Indeed, it wouldn't have been an issue, if Renault hadn't made a mistake and called Jarno in on the wrong lap for his first stop.....if they had kept the original strategy then Alonso would have had no chance of getting past. The team also believe their lack of race pace on both cars was due to the tyre compound they chose. They were the only team on that compound and it affected them in the race.

Unfortunately, many people do not want to know the explanations, or take the trouble to find out the technical reasons, for a driver's problems in a race. Jarno is a driver who has suffered from reliability issues more than most in his career, but when he has had a car that works he has always done a good job. I don't understand why he suddenly appears to have a reputation for accidents either. Taking races in the last four years after Canada 1999, which accidents with other drivers have been blatantly his fault? Usually, another driver has hit him from behind (or the side, a la Jenson at Monza 2001) and punted him off the track! I believe the accidents with Coulthard were at worst 50/50, because Jarno was on the racing line both times and didn't deliberately turn in....and this is 2 incidents in almost 2 years, not exactly every race.

Jarno is a very committed and extremely competent and professional driver who doesn't deserve the slagging off he gets these days. Of course he deserves to be in F1.

[Super Tourer]

I'm not sure why we get so emotive about these issues.

Car maker's are in F1 to win, beat their 'showroom' rivals and bask in the reflected glory via increasing the brand profile, and ultimately car sales.

Trulli and Alsonso are paid to win by Renault, with millions of pounds and man hours provided for them to do their job.

The fact is the Trulli has 13 points to Alonso's 29. In terms of Trulli, it's barely relevant whether this is due to poor performance, accidents, reliablity or some other factor.

Probably the board of Renault, (Trulli's employer) neither know or care why, they will see the facts on paper and which ever way we cut it Alonso has performed better and delivered the results.

To claim they are matched on race pace is not reflected in the results, and in reality anyone would have a hard time convincing the Renault heirachy that the drivers performance is in any way equal. Particularly when one is only in his 2nd full season of F1, whilst the other is vastly more experienced and should be 'leading' the team - not scoring less than half the points of his young team mate.

But this is a feature of Trulli's career, for whatever reason he fades in the races and often can't make the finish at all - it doesn't even matter why, so it's almost pointless looking for endless reasons, for whatever team he is in, or car he has driven , it's the same - therefore the only constant in the equation is Trulli himself.

He deserves to be in F1 to a lesser degree, probably with a less aspirational team. But with Renault emerging as an increasingly serious contender in F1, the pressure on everyone to deliver will increase and this is the one area where Jarno has a weakness.

Both Trull and Coulthard find themselves in the same boat. Both on the back foot against very inexperienced team mates, both looking at a deficit of 50% in points to their team mates already, both had ample opportunities and machinary to prove their worth, both failing to deliver suffciently.

Harsh but true, and I would guess, not going unnoticed by their respective employers.

[x_dt]

Originally posted by krt917
And, although HHF did beat him in 2000, if I remember correctly he had several points scoring finishes snatched away from him with poor reliability.

Not to mention that dubious stop-go penalty he got in Hockenheim in 2000 (the race where that Mercedes man wandered onto the track) when on course for a decent points finish.

[LindaC]

Originally posted by Super Tourer


Both Trulli and Coulthard find themselves in the same boat. Both on the back foot against very inexperienced team mates, both looking at a deficit of 50% in points to their team mates already, both had ample opportunities and machinery to prove their worth, both failing to deliver sufficiently.

Machinery? Not sure that you can compare Trulli's Minardi, Prost, Jordan and his first year's unreliable Renault with Coulthard's use of a McLaren for many years.

[x_dt]

Is Trulli truly good enough for F1?

Looks like that one's been answered....

Clearly he's raised this game a lot this year.

[Knowlesy]

The criticism he was given in the past was justified....which makes it more impressive today. He drives faultless, fast races nowadays and has been doing so for nigh on a year now.

He seems to have the measure of Alonso this year, which is absolutely mindblowing when you consider fernando's rise!

[EERO]

Good call resurrecting this thread, x_dt


.

I'm tickled pink I must say. Since last season he's looked so much better and there was a feature in F1 Magazine last season that showed his vineyards and the little Italian hill town he spends so much time in. The people there seemed to really care for him. He's an interesting guy, deeper and and more sensetive than one would expect of an F1 driver. The victory is all the more sweet for the effort he has made to meet Alonso's challenge.

[Dani Filth]

good find x_dt i thought he proved it at Ligier

[ralf fan]

Fantastic proved his worth today... Quly lap was magical considering he had much more fuel than Jenson

[Panzer]

I think he deserves his place.

[gert]

Not my favorite driver by any means, and I would have picked Montagny or Boudais over him for 2004 based on his past performances, but he's been doing really well since the start of this season.

If you ask me today, I'd say he can keep his seat for 2005 too.
Great race at Monaco today, and a deserved win!

[Armco Bender]

Some days you get lucky

[N I Tram]

The last few races of 2003 seemed to mark a turning point in his form. He's now much more committed and consistant, without the mistakes and petulance his team-mate occasionally shows. I don't think this'll be his only win.

[Adam43]

Well it was a deserved win at Monaco. What summed it up was the way he lapped the Minardi on the final lap. Bosch! it was done, thus finally sealing the win from Button.

[Bononi]

I just hope he doesn't become another Panis or Alesi...