Jarno ready to bounce back

By role
September 7 2004

Italian Jarno Trulli had a difficult race at Spa. After leading for the opening 9 laps he started to struggle after his first pit stop and finished the race a dissapointing last and without any points.

He is, however, confident to bounce back on his home Grand Prix:

"I am sure things will go much better in Monza. When you have a result like Spa, you need to have the confidence in yourself to bounce back, and I do. This is my home race, so I will have a lot of supporters and that brings added motivation, not pressure. The team have responded brilliantly to build a completely new car for this race, so I just hope I can get back to a normal level of performance at this race." He said.

Jarno will be working hard to set up the car to the requirements of such a fast circuit as Monza:

"The car is very light to drive: the downforce levels are extremely low, and that has an effect under braking and acceleration, not just in the corners. You have to brake very early compared to any other circuit, and the car is more nervous as well. We also have to get the right tyre choice, and find the right combination of consistency and performance. But overall, whatever areas we focus on, our aim is the same as at any other circuit: the find a good balance which gives the driver the confidence to push the car to the limit." He added.

Jarno believes Renault can fight for the podium at this weekend's race:

"We have focused on obtaining a good car set-up during testing so that on the race weekend itself, we are ready to attack and run an aggressive weekend. Over the past two years, our car has suited Monza well, and we should have the baseline performance to fight for the podium. If we can put ourselves in that position, then anything can happen in the race, especially with the heavy braking into the chicanes and the potential for incidents." He concluded.

Jarno has been complaining about the handling of his R24-04 for quite some time so the team has decided to make hima new chassis. The intention of the team is to have a motivted driver that can help them maintain te second place at the Constructor's Championship:

"Jarno clearly struggled during the race in Belgium. He is a very technically sensitive driver, and can often detect problems with a car that cannot always be seen on the data. However, it is equally fair to say that when he detects a problem, he struggles to extract maximum performance from the car. In giving him a different chassis, built with completely different parts, we want to eliminate the possibility that some hidden problem in the car is affecting his performance. Although we have dismantled his race car from Belgium and found no problems at all, we are all wise enough to know that there are some subtleties even our data logging cannot detect. Our approach to the forthcoming Grand Prix is a reflection of our total commitment to supporting equally both drivers. From the team's perspective, it is vitally important to extract maximum performance from both cars and drivers until the end of the season." Said Bob Bell, Renault F1 Technical Director.