Trulli: We can be very competitive!

By role
March 15 2004

Italian Driver Jarno rulli is looking forward to this weekend Malaysian Grand Prix. The Malaysian race is one of the toughest for the drivers taking under consideration the excessive heat they have to go through.

Trulli, is however, one of the fittest drivers of the grid and he should benefit from it:

"For the drivers, the weather conditions are the extreme challenge: it is terribly hot, and also very, very humid. Fernando and I have done some training in the Maldives over the past week, to get used to physical effort in similar conditions, but you can’t make that much difference in one week: this is the first race where your winter preparation really begins to count. In the car, we try and keep as cool as possible, and I run with my visor open a little further than usual to try and generate airflow in the helmet. But overall, the key is physical preparation and endurance to maintain concentration and speed." He said.

Trulli recognizes that Sepang is a technical circuit that puts heavy demmands on the car:

"Sepang is an interesting, very technical circuit, and in terms of tyres and the forces they are subjected to, the most demanding of the year. The track itself is extremely high quality and the surface smooth: it was well designed, and has good run off areas everywhere except Turn 1. The layout is interesting, and overtaking is possible although, as always, it depends on having a big enough performance gap between the cars." He added.

Trulli has big hopes for Malaysia after a hard race in Australia:

"Obviously, Australia was disappointing from my point of view, but in Malaysia, we can hope to be very competitive. I qualified on the front row last season and in spite of the collision with Michael, I think it was a kind of breakthrough race for me: from the back of the pack, I came through to finish fifth. Last year’s car was very good there, and as the R24 is stronger in every area, that shouldn’t change. I believe we can be very competitive." He concluded.