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Jarno Trulli

Name: Jarno Trulli

Nationality: Italy

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• Jarno Trulli

Jarno's background, like many of his F1 peers, is in karting, where he was regarded as one of the finest talents to grace the sport.

Many believe (or believed?) that, given the right car and environment, Trulli could become Italy's first world champion since Alberto Ascari.

As a promising young Italian driver, Trulli started his F1 career with Minardi in 1997 before switching to the more competitive Prost team midway through the season following Olivier Panis' dreadful accident at Montreal.

On the Frenchman's return, Trulli handed back the drive, although a fourth place at Hockenheim and a scorching Austrian GP - where only a blown engine denied him an astonishing win - was enough to give him a permanent seat alongside Panis the following year.

But a woefully inadequate car in 1998 meant a frustrating season, the only bright spot being a sixth-place finish at Spa.

1999 brought much of the same at Prost, however, with Trulli becoming increasingly unhappy with the poor performance of the car.

For 2000 Trulli joined Jordan, lining up alongside Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

Although he notably qualified on the front row at the Monaco Grand Prix, another frustrating season brought none of the rewards he had been hoping for.

Jarno put his faith in the Honda engine making them more competitive in 2001.

But once again Trulli flattered to deceive and, in a scenario that has come to blight his F1 career, the Italian put in a number of good qualifying performances, only to fail to deliver when it came to the race.

His best results in 2001 were fourth-place finishes in Indianapolis and Barcelona and he ended the year ninth overall with 12 points.

In 2002 he headed to Renault - effectively swapping teams with Giancarlo Fisichella - and seemed to get much the better deal.

Trulli outgunned new team-mate Jenson Button in qualifying, and by mid-season Jarno was getting the more powerful evolution of Renault's engines if one were to blow up in practice.

Yet his reputation as 'a bit of a choker' was not enhanced during the year and Button easily outraced and ultimately outscored him.

Nonetheless, it has to be said that Trulli was badly handicapped by Renault's unreliability - had his car held up slightly longer, the two drivers would probably have ended all-square.

The following season was a frustrating one for Jarno. Bedeviled by misfortune and a lack of reliability, his reputation took a battering as another Flavio Briatore protégé, Fernando Alonso, took the plaudits for a series of stunning drives.

The Italian, though, more than matched F1's latest bright young thing in the first half of the 2004 season.

His run of form culminated in a faultless drive at Monaco, in which Trulli held off a hard-charging Button - the Englishman now at BAR - to earn his maiden F1 win.

Yet even in the immediate aftermath of victory, Flavio Briatore indicated that he wouldn't be renewing Trulli's contract.

From this point onwards Trulli's performances declined at the same rate as his relationship with the team.

After a series of lacklustre performances, and amid accusations by Jarno that Renault were providing him with an inferior product, the team dropped him with three races remaining.

It had been confirmed the previous month that he had signed a long-term contract with Toyota and Jarno thus made an immediate switch to his new employers, debuting at the Japanese GP.

Supplied with the disappointing TF104, his performances were steady if unspectacular.

He entered the 2005 season determined to fulfil Toyota's promise of podium finishes and it didn't take the Italian long to deliver.

By the end of the fifth race Trulli already had three podium finishes (including two P2s bagged in Malaysia and Bahrain) to his name.

However, his performances petered out as the season progressed and, at the Chinese GP, he was eventually overhauled by team-mate Ralf Schumacher in the Drivers' standings.

Remaining with Toyota for a second season, Jarno struggled to score points in the first half of 2006 as reliability issues dogged him.

In fact his first points of 2006 only came at the Canadian GP, round nine of the Championship.

It was a disappointing campaign for the Italian, who finished the year down in 12th place on 15 points.

Jarno scored his first points of the 2007 season in Malaysia, finishing seventh after qualifying eighth.

A couple more points followed in Bahrain, but he stalled on the grid at the start of the Spanish GP and dropped out during the early laps due to mechanical failure.

Monaco brought no better fortune for Trulli, as he finished down in 15th place, just ahead of team-mate Schumacher, after qualifying his season-worst - 14th.

His second retirement of the season followed in Canada, before he was back in the points at the United States GP, finishing sixth. After a series of non-scoring runs, Trulli said that the result was 'incredible'.

He also qualified well for the French GP but crashed with the Renault of Heikki Kovalainen on the opening lap, and duly retired because of the damage. Trulli accepted the blame for the incident.

Another retirement followed before the Italian started a string of seven successive races without scoring a single point. The season-ending Brazilian GP saw Jarno back in the points as he ended the year with an eighth-place finish.

As for 2008, Trulli is once again driving for Toyota and once again he will be hoping that this is the year in which he finally bags the team's breakthrough victory.