Jarno Trulli

Jarno Trulli gave his name to a phenomenon discussed every Sunday. The «Trulli train» was the queue of cars that formed behind his whenever he started at the front and could not hold that pace in the race, and the label, fair or not, ended up defining him for the public more than his four poles.

Over a single lap he was extraordinary, and Monaco 2004 proved it beyond argument: pole and victory, controlling the race from start to finish at the circuit where a mistake is hardest to hide. It was his only win in fifteen seasons. That same year, with the championship half run, Renault took him out of the car before the season ended despite his sitting fourth in the standings.

He then spent six years at Toyota, the best funded project on the grid and the one that extracted the least from its money, collecting podiums without a single win. He closed his career at Lotus and went off to make wine in Abruzzo. He leaves the question that never got answered: what would have happened with a car that held up on Sunday what he delivered on Saturday.