San Marino: Return to Europe, return to Success?

By Nick Sparkes
April 20 2006

The start of the European season is an exciting one for the whole Panasonic Toyota Racing team after going fastest in Paul Ricard and Barcelona during testing. This has fired up Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher who are keen to put their disappointing start to 2006 behind them.

Ralf Schumacher who leads Toyota charge in the points standing, has fond memories of the Imola racetrack, having taken his first Grand Prix victory there back in 2001. “The venue has been kind to me in the past and I've always enjoyed good results - particularly when I took my first ever grand prix win there in 2001.” But, when it comes down to Toyota, the team’s track record hasn’t been as rosy. “By contrast the circuit has not been that good for Toyota down the years although both Jarno and I scored points last year. We could face cold conditions in Imola but you never know what the weather will bring there.” But the ever-optimistic German is keen to put their disappointing start to 2006 behind them, as the team aims to return to the front of the grid. We struggled at the start of the year in cool conditions but we made the podium in Australia so that shows how far we've come. Of course the season has started off harder than we expected but Australia was much better and the team is strong enough to keep bouncing back."

Jarno Trulli is yet to score a single world championship point, but putting the last 3 races behind them, and after setting some good times in testing at Barcelona, Jarno is keen to put on a good performance in front of his home town of Pescara. “It always makes for a slightly different weekend when you are racing at home. I will have more support than usual and my fan club usually pays me a visit but I will also be busier out of the cockpit.” Jarno, like Ralf, is hoping to repeat the teams success’ of last years San Marino Grand Prix. “Last year I was able to celebrate the birth of my son with a points finish and we have to hope for another top eight finish this time.” Therefore the Italian seems to be in a positive mood before this weekends event. “I didn't have a good weekend in Australia but our pace was much better so we can only be confident. We have had two hard weeks of testing and we hope to find suitable tyres for the conditions and to reap the benefits this weekend."

Looking at the circuit itself, Ralf finds the Imola circuit a challenge. “The Imola circuit is technically very demanding - with lots of long straights and slow corners which are especially tough on brakes.” Whereas Jarno admits this track isn’t one of his favorites. “Despite being in Italy, I don't particularly like the circuit at Imola. It's often cold there in April but the most important factors for performance are braking stability and traction, as well as a car that can ride the kerbs.”