Team Lotus’ Jarno Trulli is an unhappy man. How do we know? Our man Harvinder caught up with the veteran Italian driver recently and managed to coax this out of him: “It has been so far my worst season ever, all my life, all my career,” he said. Click here to view the full interview.
Not only is Trulli unhappy with last season’s racing, he’s also not pleased with the direction Formula 1 is heading. “In the last couple of years F1 has taken an ugly turn: contracts are worth less and less, the only thing that interests is the big money brought by various ‘little’ drivers,” Trulli told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Only four teams can guarantee excellent drivers; as for the rest the level is extremely poor. When I started there was a lot of quality because many constructors aimed at having winning drivers. Nowadays many teams’ budgets are made of the money brought by the drivers,” he added.
One can sense that he misses the old days in a well funded big team as well. “Lotus is the most serious team among the newest entries, but in the event of financial troubles they too would need to find money. Serious as it is, our organisation is small, the marketing department isn’t what you’d find in a top team, it’s hard to keep going. F1 has gone back 20 years: many small teams and a few constructors.”
F1 fans, do you agree with Trulli’s views?
I absolutely agree!!
Yeah me too..
I truely agree..or should i say i trulli agree.
well said Mr Trulli…. truly right!
He is frustrated that he could not become a champion driver. All the other things are just peripheral reasons to support his views. It is true F1 has become glamorous;
fast cars, fast women and fast money.
Seems like he can’t accept the fact beaten by younger new drivers
yes and no,
Yes, that big budget teams have long gone and where contructors used to dominate the field, now we have many 2nd tier or privateers in the sport. The money is gone, the spectators have left and things are not the same now.
However that said, racing does not have to be be boring.
Look back 50 years and you’d see at its inception, they were all small teams. Look at racing legends like Ascari, Fangio, Hill, Hawthorn, Brabham and Stewart. Even Schumacher came from Jordan and Benetton…far from the established works teams.
Look at Jordan knack at identifying and grooming future world champions.
They all started small.
What did I told you ? No guarantee!
what ‘did’ i tell you… not ‘told’ ..
what i told you or what did i tell you..
of coz agree with turlli lo, hes the pro in tat game…
Yes formula one has taken ugly turn but that is also got to do with the new F1 regulations. Choosing drivers is one issue, but also the new regulations of No refueling, slick tyres. All this is killing the excitement which came with F1. F1 was all about strategy of fuelling, preserving your tyres and tyre strategy. If there is a small room for over take go for it. Now there is nothing much weird laws which has seen companies like red bull leading the championship! Sad very sad.
As for drivers: I dont really agree with trulli. If the company has objective of being in top 5, they will have to stick with quality drivers. If the company objective is to be at the bottom and be in the sport just for display then they select based on budgets they bring in.
You have obviously never seen F1 races in the 70s and 80s when refueling wasn’t available. They’re hardly boring. Yes there were processional races, but more often than not it’s fast paced and exciting all the way. F1 should not be about strategy. The very reason you stated are the causes of boring & predictable F1 races, when the only overtaking happens in the pitlane!
F1 in the new millennium has become too dependent on aerodynamic advances so that only teams who spent a lot of time and money in the wind tunnel. Back in the days of Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost etc, Formula One is about driver capabilities as well as car development. Cars were more or less equal, and costs of running an F1 team did not balloon to the level it is now.
In addition, F1 today is too sanitized and safe that it’s killing the sport. In fact, the day old F1 died in my mind was the day Ayrton Senna died in Imola. Cars were emasculated to become safe but boring cars, and drivers who pushes the edge while racing will be slapped with penalties. If the Gilles Villeneuve – Rene Arnoux fight of 1979 in the French Grand Prix (Youtube it, it’s awesome) happened today, they’d be penalized heavily for banging wheels! And all for 2nd place!
you wan to see ppl died in car race?
as long as it’s not him… yup, i think that what he said (or mean to say),,,
I felt its more like the emerging of developing countries, esp those from BRIC nations or other nations as well. Long time ago F1 and many motorsports is dominated by cash rich Europeans, be it sponsors or drivers. There are talented but unknown drivers from other parts of the world who is just unlucky or have no opportunities due to lack of funding and exposure.
Now the world has changed and Europe is now caught with the debt crisis. Motorsports is getting more expensive and sponsorship from European/US companies has reduced despite there are talented drivers from Europe. That is why some F1 teams has no choice but to look for sponsors outside Europe to survive. That explains why Sauber and more recently Williams are sourcing for funds from South America.
Many pay drivers come and go, mostly failed especially if you see the case of the dying HRT. However, there are some exception as former F1 champs like the great Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and even the late Aryton Senna started as pay drivers before they rose to fame.
In the end, its money talks in motorsports esp in F1. Back then Europeans were rich and you can see why many drivers, teams and circuits are from Europe. How things were changed when the debt crisis hit Europe and the emerging economies of Asia, Middle East and Russia bringing F1 closer into those continents. That explains you see more sponsors and races from those countries, and eventually we might see more Russian, South Americans or Indian drivers dominating F1 in coming years.
Eventually one day the debt/economy crisis will hit Asia or middle east and god knows if the F1 circus will emerge at Africa…….
africa is dead. did you watch black hawk down? after that, nato left the region. no more developement.
Once Jeremy Clarkson said in a magazine, give a driver minimum pay..then when he earn points..those points becomes his bonuses! Then will see a race! Contracts are on raceday itself.If they dont perform get another driver..period!!!Cars are cars..like Stradivari said..its the violin not the violinist! Look at Schumacher…small team small car ..champion with Benetton..then big team big name Ferrari .. big champion..l8r Schumacher Big name Big team Mercedes..cant even finish!! WTF..so i rest my case..revamp the system…make it more interesting….F1 car like the Intel Processor..has come to a new limit..u cant get any more power…venture 2 new powertrain….electric, biofuel…hybrid ! New drivers..all we care is the race and skills winning it!
Not to mention Clarkson once mentioned F1 will be very interesting if there machine guns or missles allowed in F1 cars, so F1 drivers can blow each other to pieces!
back then, when Micheal joined Ferrari, they (Ferrari) haven’t win anything for a long time mate… it’s Micheal-Brawn-Todt combination that bring back the mighty Ferrari to the level they r today… & they didn’t do it in the 1st year either… so give the MercGp sometime to prove themself, 2011 car r the 1st car that was ‘truly’ the Merc car with Merc ‘money’ (plus 1st year Brawn-Micheal combination)… 2010 cars was built with Brawn money & it’s not massive…
so basically
he was saying
if somebody from malaysia
with loads of cash
comes into the team with the moolah
definitely he or the other one
is out
because that guy
comes with more moolah
than him
small but rubbish
teams are not in for the love of the sports
its now seat of money
which is very true
this is one very good confession
by a racing driver
before this,
all were good
this-and-that fantastic
we’ve got the great package
bla bla bla bla
No, that is not what he is saying. He is generalizing, not referring to his own team. Remember that Lotus Racing chose to pay for good drivers. Heikki and Jarno are paid drivers. And in reference to another interview by Gascoyne, once you go down that route it’s unlikely you’d change the business model so soon. Your results would noticably suffer when you switch. Unfortunately many teams, not just the new ones, have resorted to pay for your seat drivers due to financial pressures. This is what Jarno was lamenting
so is there any chance that Tony pay him late?? i heard that Team Lotus r the worse payer in F1 (but to be fair, there’s 2 teams with no data i.e HRT & Sauber.. so maybe it could be HRT if the data r available)… just wondering, coz Trulli didn’t seem as happy as when him joint the team.. anyway, pity Fairuz…
If you read the article.. his ‘unhappiness’ is directed at the state of affairs of the sport of F1 rather than the team. With regards to the team he only acknowledge that it is small (I’m sure he knew the team was not the size of Ferrari) and the fact that last year was the worst season of his career in terms of so many DNF which he is not squarely blaming the team since Heikki got the same equipment. Why is Heikki not ‘complaining’?
Drivers don’t whine about payments because they are protected by legal recourse. Everything is contracted. There is even a contract review board for F1 to protect teams and drivers and their contracts.
ic.. but he did mentioned that contract r worth less nowadays.. :)
oooouuuhhh,ouuuuhhhhh
uglu turns? whaaat? f1 have been in “rich-man toys” right now, after Ferrari dominating its for hell of some years. Only rich get trophies?? what is that. F1 really need a leverage to put back the respected competitive level of racing.by then, only skilled driver will won. its a guud news for all the petrolheads n motorsports fans…sharp firing turn,4 cylinder n turbos! bring it on!
what the fall . lol.. he himself never been a good driver. he just embarrassed himself
Team Lotus was revealed by the FIA to be the WORST team in paying the bills being nearly 180 days late in payments.
Of course the gwailo is pissed off!!!!
http://crash.net/f1/news/165798/1/f1s_best_and_worst_bill-payers_revealed.html
I always wondering when the F1 can become as advance as StarWars Pod Race.
F1 should be the place where automotive technology blooms. The place where scientist trying their hypothesis and engineers fights for their innovation. The place where wealthy racing enthusiast pour their money and involve themselves through the process. And finally the technology can be commercialize and making the world safer, greener, relevant and most of all, exciting… just like the race itself.
The problem started when unnecessary people involve themselves in F1. Businessman with sole focus to get return without even bother what ‘down force’ is, Magistrate and lawyers who always wants to amend the race rules for the sake of annoying others, Drivers who thinks they can drive and even pay to drive but ended up spinning by himself at the back of the pack (u know who?) and not to forget the Politician in FIA.
These people been polluting F1 and its a disaster to the sport…
watch WRC la. :) for men only
only got citroen(?!) and ford, where got fun lah, bring back Subaru and Mitsu and maybe Lancia or even Audi barulah syok! now just, Seb Loeb winning everything not really exciting still WRC is closer to roadcars than even the f1 medical car. LOL!
The constant and recent changes to regulations have forced smaller teams to accept average drivers with big money rather than good drivers with less money.
I think one thing that killed F1 is definitely limited testing. Honestly I’d rather be a racing GP2 or GP3 driver than an F1 test driver. When Massa first entered F1 via Sauber, he was a brash racer. Then he spent some time as a Ferrari test driver and showed improvement in a race seat. Without the amount of test driving like Massa had as a rookie, the new drivers will take a longer time before they start to shine. Especially if they’re average drivers with big money.
2 words to describe Truli
Sour Grapes
Poor Trulli. New jamban sure nice to sh*t wan. After awhile the team will be run down by typical 3rd world maintenance of Bolehland.
Rich ppl dont understand current economic climate….luckily f1 still run, or perhaps almost the end. Maybe we shud introduce Formula Electric in near future
‘Rich ppl’ are rich BECAUSE they understand the economy. ‘Poor ppl’ are poor because they don’t understand economy or don’t utilise it
I think on the contrary, F1 massive changes was too major creating a gap between the fans. Those that were the Schumacher, hakkinen, montoya era vs the current era. I think now it has become even more exciting from the perspective that more teams are fighting for championship vs back then it was only a two way slugfest between ferrari and mclaren. And if we are talking bout small team vs big team, true that the sport has open up the channel to allow smaller team to compete. But I think this will create a better competition. Smaller team will use their fund more efficiently to purchase the best and cost efficient engine. Smaller team will try to get younger or cheaper driver. Smaller team will strive a lil harder to gain more exposure. Smaller team will benefit the sport in totality as the will bring in that something extra where money can’t buy. I think trulli’s complain is because now teams has put in incentives if you want to get paid. Gain points. If trulli is saying that 20 years back there is alot of small team and few constructors, then I think there seem to be some mismatches in history, unless he is talking bout big funded team versus small funded team.
if i’m the fia sponsors in formula 1 would only be from a european company. other regions such as asia, africa, russia, america should just build tracks and not sponsored formula 1. because in my mind these people don’t understand formula 1 at all ( its true story) only europeans do.
what im saying is let F1 be european with its right politician ( means kicking out bernie)