Jarno Trulli began Kart racing at an early age, winning the Italian and European Kart championships.

Trulli won the German Formula Three championship in 1996 and 1997, and in 1997 began his Formula 1 career with Minardi. Midway through his first season he moved to the Prost team to replace an injured driver. In his first race in Germany he finished in fourth place. This was a very rare highlight in his time with a struggling team, in the next two seasons he managed just one podium at the 1999 European GP. (However, the conditions were wet and many of the front runners had failed to finish).

Seeking a competitive drive Trulli moved to Jordan in 2000, the team's better days were past and once again the Italian was in a poorly performing team. He failed to finish on the podium in any race in his two years with the Irish team.

In 2002 he went to Renault, he was good in qualifying but was normally beaten in the races by his team mate Jenson Button. Staying at Renault in 2003 he raced alongside the young Fernando Alonso, who bettered the Italian with apparent ease. However, Trulli did achieve a Podium finish in the German GP. In early 2004 his performance much improved and he closed the gap with Fernando Alonso, he won the Monaco GP and seemed to be finally developing into a consistent point scoring driver. However, relations with the team had broken down, his relative performance with Alonso, a driver with immense talent, was always a difficult situation for the older more experienced driver. He was sacked three races before the end of the season.

Trulli moved to Toyota for the last two races of the 2004 season. Trulli's team mate at Toyota for the 2005 season was the very highly paid Ralf Schumacher (brother of Michael). Trulli beat Ralf Schumacher for much of the year, but was not able to sustain his form and finished just behind Ralf in the driver standings. However seventh place was a reasonable performance.

The 2006 season was a step back for Trulli, still at Toyota his team mate Ralf Schumacher consistently outpaced him. He finished the season in 12th place. The 2007 season was terrible for Toyota and Trulli, he finished in 13th place, his only solace, his team mate was 16th. Many speculated that he would not be contacted by Toyota for another season, but he was once again with the great underachieving Japanese manufacture for 2008.    

Trulli started with several points scoring finishes, the height of which was a fourth place finish in Malaysia. His form then slumped a little, with disappointing performances in Turkey and Monaco, as he finished in non-points scoring positions. A 6th place finish in Montreal was bettered in France by a 3rd place podium. A ninth place in the Championship was an acceptable result. Few now thought he was a driver capable of much more. It was surprising to many that he once again raced for Toyota in 2009.

Trulli was 'involved' in one of the most controversial incidents of the 2009 season. In the Australian GP he finished in third place. However, he was penalized by the stewards 25 seconds for an illegal move on Hamilton; he was thus relegated to 12th. After an investigation it was found that Hamilton had 'misled' the stewards in giving evidence, (a common euphemism for lied). Hamilton was disqualified and Trulli returned to third place. 

Trulli was on the podium again in the Bahrain GP, he also recorded the fastest lap, the only time he has achieved this in his career. He holds the record of having started the most Grands Prix before recording a fastest lap. The only other real highlight of the season was a second place finish in the Japanese GP. Trulli finished the season in eighth place. Toyota sadly pulled out of F1 at the end of the season.

In 2010, Trulli raced alongside Heikki Kovalainen at Lotus. They (the drivers) are similar in promising much but delivering much less. Clearly, Trulli is towards the end of his career and was not expected by Lotus to be at the front of the grid. If such were the case they would not be disappointed by the very poor results; Trulli retired from seven races, did not start one, and had a best finish of 13th at the Japanese GP.

Many F1 fans will support the iconic F1 name of Lotus; however, the lack of progress made by the team would be a disappointment to all.

Trulli in prior seasons has not always appeared to give his all; however, in 2010 even the very best and committed of drivers would have struggled to make the car perform any better.

Trulli will remain with Lotus for the 2011 season, but unless the car and team have revolutionised in the winter break they are unlikely to trouble the middle order teams. 
 

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