Jarno Trulli Mid-Season Q&A
By Karl KING/Linda CAMPER
August 4 2005
Thanks go to the Linda Camper of the Jarno Trulli UK Fan Club for providing us with the transcript of the interview they carried out with JT on the Fan Club Test Day on the 3rd June at Silverstone. If you are interested in joining the club, the site address can be found at the bottom of this page.
Q. Has the start of the season been better than expected?
JT. YES! It’s been a great season, we didn’t expect to be so quick, so good, so far….we’ve had a fantastic start to the season with 3 podiums ….a bit unexpected because when we look back to where Toyota was last year, we couldn’t believe that we could get 3 podiums in 5 races, so we definitely have done a good job. But we carry on working and trying to improve our car. The championship is still very long and anything can happen….and there is a new car, the B-spec car which is being prepared, which should be quicker, but we don’t know when we can get it ready on the track…we hope for the Turkish Grand Prix, or maybe later. Anyway, people are pushing hard and I am really delighted so far with the season, and I hope we can improve our performance especially for next year.
Q. Is the TF105 an easy car to drive particularly compared to previous cars you have driven?
JT. It’s a nice car to drive, yeah, really suits my driving style and still got a lot of room for improvement. I am pushing very hard the engineers to get what I want… but it’s an extremely good car in qualifying, we still have to work on the pace for the race distance but we have done quite a good job so we are all really happy. The season so far has been good, we have achieved more than expected and also these results have given us quite a big boost for the rest of the season, for the coming races, so we know that anything that will happen will only be a bonus in terms of podiums or points. We are at the moment third in the drivers’ championship, and also the constructors’ so is not a bad thing.
Q. We talked about driving style…have you had to change your driving style to cope with the new tyre and engine rules this year?
JT. No, not at all, my driving style exactly suits these rules because I am so clean and so easy on the tyres that it makes my life very easy during the race.
Q. How do you feel the new rules are working, particularly in terms of safety?
JT. Yes, there still is some work to do especially regarding safety in testing, as we don’t have the same standard we normally have during the race weekend…so we are discussing about this with the GPDA drivers (association) and the FIA and things. In general the cars seem safer than last year, fortunately we slow them down a little bit, otherwise it would have been much quicker this year than compared to last year…but we are constantly working on it.
Q. If you had been Kimi Raikkonen in the European GP, would you have come in to change your tyre?
JT. No! That’s part of racing. Unfortunately I think he has made a mistake, he has a flat spot on his tyre, which eventually caused the vibration which caused a failure on the front suspension. He took the gamble and he nearly made it, because on the very last lap you must be a bit unlucky to have what he has had, so I think it has worked out not as expected.
Q. What do you think about the change in qualifying?
JT. It hasn’t changed anything, honestly. It does only make more sense for the people at home to look at qualifying and after qualifying understand and know who is on pole and who is not, because the first part of the season has been a bit strange, you know, you qualify in Saturday and then you have to wait for Sunday morning to see the next qualifying, how it goes, and so the people at home they don’t really know on Saturday evening what kind of Grand Prix to expect for Sunday. I think now the picture is much more clear for everybody….
Q. It’s a shame to have lost that quick lap though…..without fuel….
JT. You still have to do the quick lap, but with fuel or without fuel, the only thing it is still a shame to have is that having fuel on board makes the strategy different, and sometimes you can lose a pole position or you can gain some good result on the good places on the grid, it depends on the strategy you are playing, so that’s the only thing.
Q. And they are talking about changing it again for next season, maybe going back to the 12 lap….
JT. I would prefer, yeah, the real pole position was the one we had before… because if you look back for example at the German Grand Prix, Nurburgring, I think Heidfeld was on pole but it was so light…(laughs)… I think he was much lighter than us….
Q. You seem to have a good working relationship with Ralf, and he’s been very gracious in the media that you have done better than him so far. Can you tell us a bit about that relationship and do you feel you are a good pairing in the team?
JT. I mean…it’s a different relationship from what I had before with my past drivers. Everyone knows that Ralf sometimes can be a difficult person but as I am a very easy person, probably we can get on well without making the atmosphere heavy in the team. I cannot say we are friends but if he’s ahead I congratulate him, if he’s behind me, well, he comes and congratulates me, which most of the time happens so (laughs) …. basically, at the moment he has to accept the situation, and I will try my best to carry on!
Q. One last question….do you recall what you were thinking when you lapped Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari in Sepang, on the way to your first Toyota podium?
JT. Well, I was so concentrating to get this first podium, I did realise only when I crossed the line because I knew I was going to do something special for the team. In Japan everybody went mad, all the Japanese people, the Toyota supporters, the Toyota managers, that really appreciate what I have done. The rest of the podiums also, so far they are very very happy about what I am doing, so it’s gone very well so far and the Toyota team are extremely happy about myself and the performance.
