Trulli is Mr. Unlucky!

By role
April 28 2004

Jarno Trulli has been known around the paddock for his lack of luck. The Italian has outqualified this year twice his teammate in four races and has finished in front of him also two times though in both, Malaysia and Bahrain, the Spaniard started from the back of the grid.

It seems, however, that the R24 suits better Alonso driving style as the Spaniard has shown in all races to have the edge over his more experienced teammate. As a matter of fact Alonso has had a quicker faster lap in all races of 2004 something that was also quite common during the 2003. The Italian has seen also that the only podium this year has gone to Alonso at the Australian Grand Prix.

In a recent column in Autosport the Italian made reference to his continuous bad luck and compared it to 2003:

“If I compare this year's bad luck with last year's bad luck, it's definitely changed a lot! So I'm happy with the way it's going now, even if I've got some troubles. I've been unlucky with some circumstances, especially in traffic.” He said.

Looking back at all the press releases of Renault F1 after each one of the races we see that Trulli has complained about the handling of the car in each one of the races.

In Australia Trulli was disappointed to finish 7th in a car that had scored a podium with Alonso:

“Overall, it was a disappointing race from my perspective. I got a very good start, but somebody – Sato I think – hit me and damaged the diffuser. After that, the car just lacked grip and the rest of the race was very tough. It is obviously disappointing to finish seventh after having been as high as fifth, but it is nevertheless positive to have finished in the points with a damaged car.” Said the Italian after the race.

Next step was Malaysia where the team expected to do better based on the 2003 form:

“It’s a satisfying result, given that I started eighth and all our competitors were very strong today. I got a very good start, but must apologise to Jenson: I touched his car on the way to the first corner. I had a good battle with him and Rubens in the first stint, very clean, and I was enjoying the race. However, after my first stop, the front tyres started graining, and I lost time in the second and third stints relative to my closest rivals. The car was understeering a lot during this part of the race. Having said that, we were reliable and once again have two cars in the points: we can’t be too disappointed.” He said after finishing 5th, two places in front of Alonso who started at the end of the grid.

Next step was Bahrain and here Trulli had a really big shot on the podium after fighting with Button for third position. A battle he lost due to traffic and also handling problems with his car:

“I’m very pleased with the result, but cannot help feeling it is slightly incomplete: we were capable of getting on to the podium this afternoon. The car was perfect during the first three stints, and I was very quick, but after the final stop, it became harder to drive as I lost grip: it was quite a strange phenomenon. Also, I lost time in traffic on every out-lap after my stops, and that allowed Jenson to get by. It is a shame that we didn’t get a podium, but the overall situation after this race is fantastic: Renault is second in the Constructor’s Championship, we have finished all three races with both cars and still come away thinking we could have done much better. I’m looking forward to getting to Imola.” The Italian lamented after finishing 4th two places ahead of an Alonso that had to go to pits on his first lap because of a shunt with Klien.

At the San Marino Grand Prix Trulli started 9th but was soon able to overtake several drivers among them Fernando Alonso that had lost time due to a bad start and a hit by an out of control David Coulthard. However, Trulli had to settle for 5th behind his teammate, once again blaming problems on his car during most of the race:

”To be honest I was very happy to finish fifth. I had a lot of troubles, and because of that, I was pleased to get some points at the end of the race. I had a problem with the engine, and also there was a problem with the tyres, the brakes and the HANS device as well! So I couldn't expect better.


You might have seen a big cloud of smoke from my car at the start! They're still investigating the engine, but obviously something was wrong. There was no power, and the engine just didn't accelerate. For the whole race I was struggling a lot. Every time I came out of the pits just from the pit limiter coming on to the first corner I was losing nearly a second to Fernando, and that's just a few hundred metres. When I was actually running, it was a little inconsistent. Sometimes it was good, sometimes not.” Said the Italian.

It seams that the strike of bad luck is not finished for the Italian driver who has to encounter difficult conditions in each race.