Career Stats Team Toyota Nationality Italian Podiums 7 Points 183 Grand Prix entered 184 World Championships 0 Wins 1 Pole Positions 3 Date of Birth 13/07/1974 Place of Birth Pescara

Jarno Trulli's Formula 1 career is in danger of fizzling out anonymously unless his Toyota team can find some consistent form.

His first season with the Japanese manufacturer was full of promise, but since then Toyota has faded back into obscurity – taking Trulli with it.

The Italian remains something of an enigma – producing astonishing speed on some weekends, only to go totally unnoticed at the next race.

On talent alone, there is no doubt that Trulli is among F1's very best, especially in qualifying, where he has achieved some miraculous positions with middling cars.

There are more question marks over his race pace, although in 2007 his Sunday slumps were more to do with Toyota's lacklustre start system than Trulli's driving.

He qualified in the top 10 for 14 out of 17 races last year, yet managed a paltry four points finishes.

Having invariably blitzed Ralf Schumacher during their three seasons as team-mates, Trulli faces a new challenge in the form of Timo Glock this year.

But unless Toyota can turn its faltering F1 programme around, neither man has much hope of reaching the podium.

Career log

Trulli made a low-key F1 debut with Minardi in 1997, then switched to Prost at mid-season to replace the injured Olivier Panis.

He initially failed to replicate Panis' impressive early-season performances, but made a breakthrough in Austria, where he led for much of the race.

Trulli was rewarded with a full-time Prost contract, but unfortunately the 1998 car was disastrous.

After a better 1999, when Trulli fought for third in Australia and took his first podium at the Nurburgring, Jordan chose him to replace Damon Hill.

It was during this period that Trulli's reputation as an ace qualifier but a suspect racer was established.

Although unreliability played a part, the statistics showed that Trulli started in the top five far more regularly than he finished there.

The theme continued when he joined Renault in 2002 and dominated team-mate Jenson Button in qualifying only to score fewer points than the Englishman.

Trulli was overshadowed by new partner Fernando Alonso the following year, but started 2004 very brightly – beating Alonso several times and finally taking his first win at Monaco.

Then it all unravelled horribly as relations with his manager and team boss Flavio Briatore collapsed.

Renault was furious when Trulli lost third place to Rubens Barrichello at the final corner in France – just one of several off-key moments during the summer.

He was sacked following an anonymous ninth place at Monza, but soon reappeared with Toyota, having signed a 2005 deal with the squad.

Trulli's first season with Toyota was arguably his best ever.

He invariably qualified in the top five, comprehensively beat team-mate Schumacher, and scored Toyota's first ever F1 podiums.

Since then there has been little to celebrate, though, as Toyota struggled for both speed and reliability in 2006-7.

The early years

Trulli had just 30 car races under his belt prior to his F1 debut.

Following an awe-inspiring karting career, he had stepped straight into German Formula 3 in mid-1995 and ended the year with a pair of wins.

That performance earned Trulli a management deal with Briatore, and having underlined his future star status by dominating the 1996 German F3 Championship, the Italian was swiftly promoted into F1.

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