Jarno Trulli only ever won one Formula 1 race in his career - the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix. But he was a cult hero for his qualifying prowess.
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Formula 1 is a sport where it is often not fair to compare a driver’s capability solely on his race wins. After all, every year there are at most three cars that could regularly compete for wins. That means that, at any given time, only 6 drivers are in contention for a win – or even a podium finish. Due to that, there have been a number of F1 drivers who, over the years, became fan favourites for more than just race-winning ability. Maybe they had a devil-may-care attitude no matter the car they were in. Maybe they were the perfct #2 driver. Or maybe they knew how to overachieve in smaller cars. In the case of Jarno Trulli, the third example rang true.
The Italian driver, although never getting much of a chance in race winning cars, had a perfectly competent F1 career. His 15 years in the sport saw him race for six different teams.
He claimed just the one F1 win in that time; but what a win it was. And even if he never won that race, he would go down as one of the sport’s overachievers.
On his 47th birthday, we take a look at the driver whose one race win came in arguably Ferrari’s most dominant season of the sport.
Trulli will perhaps always be remembered for his win at Monaco in 2004. Till that point, the season was all red everything as Ferrari dominated.
Michael Schumacher won the first five opening races of the season, thus becoming the first person to pull that off since Nigel Mansell in 1992.
He entered the Monaco GP favourite to win the race, but could only qualify fourth on Saturday. Trulli, already known as a specialist in qualifying, got pole position.
The Italian went on to win the race too, masterfully finishing more than half a second of second-placed Jenson Button. Schumacher ended up retiring from the race after a collision.
Afterwards, Trulli was left speechless – literally. In a truly bizarre scene, teammate Fernando Alonso had to answer interview questions on his behalf!
The race win was a just reward for a man who, for a number of years, seemed likely to be someone who could challenge for points and maybe the occasional podium.
Incredibly, there was to be no happy ending for Trulli at Renault. He fell out with team principal and personal manager Flavio Briatore after the 2004 French GP and left the team three races before the end of the season.
He already had an agreement to join Toyota for the 2005 season but ended up joining early due to the firing. But the time in the Japanese team brought him no more race wins.
Besides his Monaco win, there are two other notable things worth remembering about the F1 career of Jarno Trulli. The first, of course, was his prowess in qualifying.
Trulli began his career at Minardi, then joined Prost before jumping ship to Jordan. None of these teams were regularly even among the points, but he did manage a rare podium at Prost.
However, it was his spell at Jordan that really shone light on his qualifying pace. Jordan in 2000 were not the same team as the one that challenged for points and even had an outside chance of winning the world championship in 1999.
Nevertheless, he dragged the car to a number of excellent qualifying timings; better times, many would argue, than the car had any right to post.
He was also well known for his defensive driving on track. Due to him often being in the midfield of the pack, he would end up holding up a number of cars.
This phenomenon eventually got named the ‘Trulli Train’, a term used by fans and experts alike.
Trulli’s career came to a close ahead of the 2012 season, when he retired from the sport. However, his status as one of F1’s cult heroes was by then well and truly secured.
