Overview

Jarno Trulli is an Italian racing driver born on the 13^th July 1974. He is best known for driving in the Formula 1 series in which he has started 256 times. Out of 256 starts he has had just 1 win for Renault in 2004.

Jarno was a young karting star, winning the 1991 Karting World Championship and Italian Karting championship as well as a number of other series. He graduated to open wheeled car racing in 1993 in the Italian Formula 3 championship. He raced in 6 races but did not finish in the points on any of the 6 occasions. In 1995 he moved to the German F3 championship and finished 4^th in the series 2 wins, 3 podiums and 1 fastest lap. He also competed in the Macau F3 race in the same year coming 2^nd.  A year later Trulli took the German F3 title 10 podiums, 6 of which were wins, 7 pole positions and 206 points. He also competed in the F3 Macau Gp again finishing 3^rd.

In 1997 Jarno graduated to Formula 1 for the Minardi team. He raced for the Italian team 7 times before replacing Olivier Panis at the Prost team. He finished 4^th on his debut for Prost at the German Grand Prix. This left him 15^th in the overall championship. He stuck with the Prost team for 1998 but only scored 1 point. He was 15^th in the championship again but an uninspiring season left both his and the teams confidence down. 1999 saw Jarno's 1^st podium however at the European Grand Prix. It was a rate result for the team, owned by 4 time world champion Alain Prost, with Trulli leaving the team at the end of 1999.

2000 saw a move to Jordan for the promising Italian. In this season the world saw his true qualifying talent, with a number of high grid positions. He was known from then on as a qualifying specialist as he often dropped back in the races. Just 6 points were scored in his debut year for the Irish team owned by Eddie Jordan. His 10^th in the overall drivers' championship was bettered the following year by 9^th with 12 points. His second year at the Jordan team was more promising with a handful of points scoring finishes, but no podium came to him.

2002 saw a move to the Renault squad. Formerly Benneton, he partnered Jenson Button. He often out qualified the British driver but rarely finished in front of him. 9 points and 9^th in the championship contrasted with his team mate Jenson's 8^th place in the standings with 14 points, despite it being his 3^rd season. Jarno was retained by Renault for 2003. A return to the podium after a 4 year absence saw Trulli score more points than ever before. This was helped by the points system being changed from 1-6 scoring points to 1-8. His podium at the German GP was his best result of the season, often being shadowed by team mate Fernando Alonso who took the same car to a win at the Hungarian Grand Prix in just his 2^nd F1 season. 2004 was better for Trulli. He bettered his point's haul of 33 in 2003 by a large amount and took his maiden win at the Monaco Grand Prix. Trulli led home Jenson Button and added the trophy to his 3^rd place one he scored the previous round in Spain. Despite this strong season his performance dipped and after struggling to score in the final few rounds he was dropped by the team before the year was out. He took refuge at the Toyota squad, racing in the final 2 rounds of the season for them and signing a deal to race with the team for 2005.

2005 was Trulli's best year in F1. He took 3 podium finishes, 2 of which were 2^nd place finishes in Malaysia and Bahrain. His inconsistency to finish races in the points was seen but despite scoring fewer points than 2004, 46 to 43, it was one of his best seasons. He scored the team their first podium at the US GP but did not race due to the Michelin Tyres they raced with being too fragile and the team chose not to risk getting a tyre failure. With 7^th place in the standings being slightly disappointing due to his early pace, Trulli was hoping 2006 would be a good year for him. Unfortunately it was not. The 2006 car was uncompetitive and Jarno was unlucky, being collected in accidents on a number of occasions. He scored some the odd good result but 15 points was no consolation for a disappointing season. 2007 was no better with only 8 points being scored. A handful of lower point scores were the best he could do and 13^th place in the final standings was not what was expected.

2008 saw his return to the podium and a top 10 finish in the championship, 9^th with 31 points. His podium came at the French GP where he held off Heikki Kovalainen and Robert Kubica to finish in 3^rd position. His form still wavered from race to race but the result was needed to boost morale and confidence. 2009 started messily with Jarno's incident with Lewis Hamilton in Australia. He started from the pit lane and finished 3^rd before having a penalty added to his time. This dropped him to 12^th but it was later taken away giving him 3^rd again. The Bahrain Grand Prix saw him take pole position but a bad tyre strategy saw him fall to 3^rd. He did record the fastest lap of the race, the only and only time he has done this in his career. His mid-season pace was unclear, one race he was in the top 8 scoring points and the next he was outside the top 10. He did score a 2^nd place in Japan and that boosted him to his overall 8^th place in the championship with 32.5 points.

A new era began in 2010 after Toyota's withdrawal from the sport. Trulli moved to the new Lotus Racing team. His experience and knowledge was very valuable to the team and led to them consistently improving over the 2 years he raced for them. 2010 saw the car let him down significantly; he finished only 1 of the first 4 races. A best result of 13^th at the Japanese Grand Prix helped the team hold on to a much needed 10^th in the constructor's title. In 2011 Jarno complained about the power steering in his Lotus. The team were rebranded Team Lotus and with the new brand came a step forward in development. Instead of being 5 seconds off the pace in 2010 they were more like 2-3 seconds off the leading drivers. Drivers, Trulli and Finnish driver Heikki Kovalainen, battled with the midfield drivers on more than a few occasions and the latter even managed to qualify in the top 16. Trulli however was outshone by Kovalainen.

Jarno was confirmed to be staying with the team in 2012, now rebranded Caterham F1 Team.