Although Jarno Trulli was an incredibly fast driver, he never attained the kind of success that some of his rivals achieved. The Italian, who was teammates with Fernando Alonso at Renault in 2003 and 2004, was often able to match the Spaniard during their time together.
In fact, in 2004, he was even ahead of Alonso in the championship standings. Yet, Renault decided to sack him, with three races remaining that year.
So, what went wrong for Trulli at Renault? Per the 50-year-old, he was never able to achieve success at the Enstone-based outfit because of then team-principal Flavio Briatore’s close relationship with Alonso.
It was in 2000 when the Italian businessman spotted Alonso, and soon after, he became his manager. With Briatore having such a close relationship with Alonso, Trulli knew his days at Enstone were numbered.
“I understood that the team would never let me win, because they were banking on Alonso, since Flavio had become his manager and my contract was expiring,” explained Trulli as quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport. This meant Trulli had to take a driving role with the up-and-coming Toyota team.
2004 FRANCE
Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari) overtook Jarno Trulli (Renault) on the final lap.
Trulli would never score another point for Renault after this and eventually was fired by Flavio Briatore post-Monza #f1 pic.twitter.com/DsuIHsVR1d
— F1 Icons That Go Hard (@CrystalRacing) July 4, 2020
Trulli raced with the Japanese outfit for five full seasons in Formula 1, bagging one pole position and seven podiums. However, he still regrets not having the opportunity to stay at Renault when they became title contenders in 2005 and 2006.
“Everyone says I didn’t win, but at Renault I beat Jenson Button and Alonso, two who later became world champions. Unfortunately, I wasn’t driving their cars when it was the right time,” he adds.
In fact, Renault’s glory years benefited Alonso the most. He beat seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher to win back-to-back titles with the Enstone-based team.
To this day, the two titles Alonso won with Renault remain the only championships he’s won so far. Despite coming close with Ferrari on a couple of occasions in 2010 and 2012, the 43-year-old is still chasing that elusive third title with Aston Martin today.
Trulli, on the other hand, bowed out of F1 at the end of the 2012 season, with just one Grand Prix win to his name. Now, Trulli is an avid winemaker as the co-owner of a vineyard in the Abruzzo region in Italy and produces his own wine.
