Jarno Trulli’s performance this season for Team Lotus hasn’t been great. The Italian, who was “rested” to make way for Karun Chandhok at the German GP, but reclaimed his race seat at Hungary, has been highly uncomfortable with the T128’s power steering. The issue became so serious that he started to lose confidence and question his own abilities.
“The worst was at Silverstone. I was totally lost. At Silverstone I stepped into the car and I didn’t know where I was or where the limit was. I was trying to feel it but I didn’t have any feeling. I was not in control of it, and sometimes you ask questions, ‘is it me?’ and you start you have these question marks,” Trulli revealed.
“It’s a much better feeling now. They did a good job with the new power steering system, which is giving me the exact feeling with the car. I think we can still improve the system, but the feeling is okay. For the first time this season I started working with the car and changing many things because many things were becoming very clear for me.
“It’s totally another world. The way I drive is totally different. Before I was a passenger in the car. I just hope now I can build up my confidence day after day and move on. It’s, let’s say not my fault, but my driving style. I’m extremely precise. This has been my weakness and also my strength and when we had this power steering the feeling I was getting it was not the real one. What was happening with the car it was not was transmitting to me,” the old timer added.
“Because I’m so precise, I was reacting to something that was not true. So I was basically chasing something that was not real. I’m not going to say that I’m going to fly now, but I’m now in control of the situation.”
Sounds scary to not feel anything when one’s on the limit in a 300 km/h machine. With that sorted, will Trulli, or Heikki, score Team Lotus’ first points ever in the coming races? Now on a summer break, F1 will be back in Spa on 28 August.
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most probably because it’s not the real “handling by lotus”
maybe “handling by Renault” would be better
Jarno, Give us a top ten finish please!
Dream on bro, it’s not JT, it’s the car that is not performing.
yup , dreaming for 2 years.