16 replies to this topic

[holiday]

From autosport, a typical description of Trulli' race:

Trulli had been tumbling down the order since the outset, and had to retire with severe rear end damage....

The question of the Trulli train is receptive to quantification, isn't it, but I am not sure whether this has ever been attempted. One does only need to compare the number of times of Trulli overtaking vs. being overtaken until his first pit-stop. Voilà. So, is the Trulli train a fact or a myth?

[Madras]

Well, what do you think?

[Ruud de la Rosa]

a better way to examine is to compare the average time gap with the competitor in front and behind trulli.

[Scotracer]

Singapore 2008 is the only evidence you'll ever need ;)

[BrawnsBrain]

The Trulli Train is a bit old now.

Kubica prefers to ride on the roof of the Trulli train...Indian style

[Dunder]

I think in this case perception is all that is needed, no amount of quantification can deny that the Trulli train is a reality.

The reasons for this, however are more difficult. We all know that Jarno is fantastic in qualifying but that his race pace is, at least relatively, slow on many occasions. I have no idea what the truth is but the most logical, to me at least is that Jarno is great when he has absolute faith in the grip given by a new set of tyres. Once they start to go off he loses a degree of confidence.

[tkulla]

Being great over one lap and great over a long stint are two entirely different things. IMO Jarno is the best qualifier on the grid, but for whatever reason (tire management, driving style, concentration?) doesn't string together consistent laps.

[brunopascal]

Trulli is good in qualifying, so start higher up than he 'should' sometimes. This Trulli-train thing comes from 2003/2004 smth IIRC, where he often dropped down the order in the races after great qualy.

I read somewhere that he has great ability in concentrating on and be very accurate with brake points on single laps, but finds it harder too keep it up during races. His race pace is still decent I'd say, except for in rain where he tends to be a bit circumspect.

If there's a Trulli-train to talk about, we might as well talk about a you-name-the-driver-train in basically any GP. Eg: Raikkonen held up some cars for a while in China, Alonso held up a few in Malaysia etc...

[derstatic]

Trulli never was a great driver in the rain. He needs alot of confidence to deliver and when things start to feel different his performance drops slightly. Be this related to rain or tyrewear or different track temperatures, winds whatever it might be. It seems he has a quite small operating window where he's possibly quicker than anyone, but also drops more when he's out of this narrow window.

Of if one want to put it another way. Same has been said about Webber, another quallie master. If you constantly keep putting the car higher up the grid than it deserves, obviously you are going to go backwards when the race starts. Putting together one mega lap to get grid position is one thing, doing it 56 times in a row while dealing with traffic, pitstops and everything that go on in a race, noone can do that.

[Fudce]

Originally posted by BrawnsBrain
The Trulli Train is a bit old now.

Kubica prefers to ride on the roof of the Trulli train...Indian style

Nah, he just misunderstood the term, "Overtake".

[Imperial]

You printed this quote from Autosport: "Trulli had been tumbling down the order since the outset, and had to retire with severe rear end damage....". What has tumbling down the order remotely got to do with holding people up at the head of a train? The Trulli Train refers to him holding up mot of the field behind him (partly due to their lack of talent preventing them from overtaking him while at the wheel of faster cars, but that's just my opinion).

Reading your question regarding the number of times he is overtaken, versus the number he overtakes, it actually looks as if your understanding of The Trulli Train is at odds with what the name refers to.

[Buttoneer]

If Trulli could learn to string together a few qualifying laps in the race at the start and at pitstop time he'd be a legend. Not sure why he seems unable to do this.

[Slowinfastout]

Gascoyne kind of explained this weekend what many people have already figured out is going on with Trulli..

Jarno probably isn't the best at adapting his driving to the changing status of his car in race conditions, otherwise though, Jarno is just about the fastest guy out there..

[Rob]

I think half the problem is that Toyota are always way too conservative on strategy. Too often they put as much in the tank as they can. You're always going to hold people up like that.

[Victor_RO]

Some people said that the last few Toyotas (except for the TF109, obviously) caused the biggest amounts of turbulence behind the car, which would make following the car for a pass very difficult. That's probably the best explanation for the fact that drivers weren't able to pass Trulli and had to stay behind him while he was going around at a relatively slow pace.

[HoldenRT]

He really struggles in the rain.

But about the train as a whole.. some days he's horrible, especially if the car isn't 100% and they tank the car up with fuel. On the days where he and the car are happier, he's fine and can attack the race track better. On his bad days, he's pretty bad though. On his good days, he's as good as anyone.

[Poltergeistes]

Originally posted by Rob
I think half the problem is that Toyota are always way too conservative on strategy. Too often they put as much in the tank as they can. You're always going to hold people up like that.

I don't know about that, whenever it rained during the last laps of the gps they would gamble high and stay with the grooved tyres instead of switching to intermediate and they almost changed the fate of the wdc. I don't think they are conservatives, when they have the chances, they do gamble, and it ends up grabbing them points that otherwise they wouldn't have had.

this was 08, i think this season they feel more confident with their car, that they don't need to take too much chances, and it has worked, 2 podiums.