Trulli dropped for Germany

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 21 Jul 2011, 09:27

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula ... 220866.stm

No great surprise, as he's looked pretty miserable in recent races. Not sure Chandhok is necessarily going to be a faster option, but he seems like he deserves another chance in F1, so I'm glad he's getting a go.

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 21 Jul 2011, 09:32

I know he's not been particularly good, but I'm still a little bit surprised. Lotus struck me as the kind of team who'd stick with him. Oh well...

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 21 Jul 2011, 09:33

I find amusing that the picture BBC chose for the piece was Chandhock's embarrassing crash in Australia.

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 21 Jul 2011, 09:36

This might signal the end for Trulli

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 21 Jul 2011, 09:41

sswishbone wrote:This might signal the end for Trulli

They'll give him another chance with the new steering system in Hungary, but I think he's going to have to be very good with it to retain his drive beyond the end of the season, regardless of what Chandhok's like.

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 21 Jul 2011, 09:43

DanielPT wrote:I find amusing that the picture BBC chose for the piece was Chandhock's embarrassing crash in Australia.

It's better than that - if you're in the UK, it's the actual video of it!

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 21 Jul 2011, 09:46

Hmmm. I was expecting Chandhok to be in the car for the Indian Grand Prix, but never thought he'd be seen on race day before that...

Faustus · Post by **Faustus** » 21 Jul 2011, 09:55

Hooray! At last! Good riddance! Thank you for the memories and off you go!

Collieafc · Post by **Collieafc** » 21 Jul 2011, 09:58

About time. Trulli is a waste of Formula 1 space. Time for him to move on to let others have a try.

jpm · Post by **jpm** » 21 Jul 2011, 10:07

Autosport are also confiorming the story.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93199

Prehaps Trulli is thinking of a management role, a la Niki Lauda?

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 21 Jul 2011, 10:16

Faustus wrote:Hooray! At last! Good riddance! Thank you for the memories and off you go!

He might come back again for the Hungary GP to haunt you! :lol:

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 21 Jul 2011, 10:23

Perhaps more importantly, why is Fernandes looking at extending Trulli's contract? It's a complete waste of a race seat, if you ask me.

fjackdaw · Post by **fjackdaw** » 21 Jul 2011, 10:25

It does indeed seem to just be for one race.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93201

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 21 Jul 2011, 10:39

Captain Hammer wrote:Perhaps more importantly, why is Fernandes looking at extending Trulli's contract? It's a complete waste of a race seat, if you ask me.

If the new power-steering doesn't improve Trulli's performance then he might change his mind. Besides, I think this is a neat idea: to give Chandhock some experience before the Indian GP. I willing to bet that in that race too, Chandhock will replace Trulli!

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 21 Jul 2011, 14:17

kovelinen was the first guy to outqualify trulli as a team mate. i had known that meant things might not be going too well for trulli.

Peter · Post by **Peter** » 21 Jul 2011, 15:39

I think TL wants some fresh blood in their car, since they are their second year in, have over $100 million at disposal, and have Kovy to lead the team, so they don't really need a lineup full of experience anymore.

Good to see Karun finally getting a chance though, despite that little brain fade in Australia. This is the beginning of the end for Jarno, and i'm expecting to, if Karun does well, see him in the car a bit more often than the Indian GP alone.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 21 Jul 2011, 16:37

Peter wrote:I think TL wants some fresh blood in their car, since they are their second year in, have over $100 million at disposal, and have Kovy to lead the team, so they don't really need a lineup full of experience anymore.

Another argument in support of that idea is the fact that Toyota also had a line-up full of experience and Trulli made part of it. Yet, except the odd podium, they went nowhere...

Henrique · Post by **Henrique** » 21 Jul 2011, 16:54

I'm looking forward to see Chandok in action, especially after his little verbal battle with Mallya. This may be a big chance for him.

whatisdeletrazdoing · Post by **whatisdeletrazdoing** » 21 Jul 2011, 16:55

So after Germany, Chandhok of India will have driven for a team all about Malaysia and a team all about Spain, and he still would have never even been associated with Force India!?

fjackdaw · Post by **fjackdaw** » 21 Jul 2011, 17:09

Is this the first Grand Prix since 1997 with no Jarno Trulli? (Not counting USA 2005, where he took the grid).

Peter · Post by **Peter** » 21 Jul 2011, 17:10

As far as I know, the only thing Indian about FI is Mallya and his sponsors, which he pretty much owns all of. FI's base is in the UK, I believe where Jordan's used to be, close to Silverstone.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 21 Jul 2011, 17:11

whatisdeletrazdoing wrote:So after Germany, Chandhok of India will have driven for a team all about Malaysia and a team all about Spain, and he still would have never even been associated with Force India!?

Sack both Force India drivers and replace with Chandok and Kartikeyan. Let Sutil and di Resta drove in Lotus and HRT, respectively. Problem solved, I wish...

James1978 · Post by **James1978** » 21 Jul 2011, 17:18

fjackdaw wrote:Is this the first Grand Prix since 1997 with no Jarno Trulli? (Not counting USA 2005, where he took the grid).

He definitely missed the 2004 Chinese GP becuase he'd been fired by Renault but didn't start with Toyota until Japan.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 21 Jul 2011, 18:05

James1978 wrote:
fjackdaw wrote:Is this the first Grand Prix since 1997 with no Jarno Trulli? (Not counting USA 2005, where he took the grid).

He definitely missed the 2004 Chinese GP becuase he'd been fired by Renault but didn't start with Toyota until Japan.

've only just read that question and you've beaten me to answering it!

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 21 Jul 2011, 18:07

If I'm not mistaken, Tony Fernandes said they were going to keep Jarno Trulli in the team, and went as far as saying they were planning on offering him a contract for next year. Why did they drop Trulli for the next race, though, is a mistery for me but welcome back Karun!

PS: Here's one hoping that some supernatural thing will happen and Chandhok becomes the first man to score points for Lotus since Johnny Herbert in 1993.

Yannick · Post by **Yannick** » 21 Jul 2011, 18:41

Yeah! Karun! It's a nice surprise. This driver change must be the reaction of Lotus to the "Reject Of the Race Award" they received for Silverstone. They surely must know we love the driving style of Karun Chandhok in these parts of the web.
Here's hoping they will be able to beat the Virgins with both cars.

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 21 Jul 2011, 19:24

fjackdaw wrote:Is this the first Grand Prix since 1997 with no Jarno Trulli? (Not counting USA 2005, where he took the grid).

Got pole there too IIRC.

Post by **mario** » 21 Jul 2011, 19:51

whatisdeletrazdoing wrote:So after Germany, Chandhok of India will have driven for a team all about Malaysia and a team all about Spain, and he still would have never even been associated with Force India!?

That's probably because Mallya is rumoured to be too vain to want to share the limelight at Force India by having both an Indian owner and Indian driver - coupled to that, there were the allegations that Chandhok's sponsors defaulted on their payments.

Now, here's hoping that Chandhok doesn't stuff this up - this could well be a way in for Chandhok to a permanent seat at Team Lotus, or at least significantly boost his chances of getting a seat for 2012.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 22 Jul 2011, 00:37

mario wrote:That's probably because Mallya is rumoured to be too vain to want to share the limelight at Force India by having both an Indian owner and Indian driver - coupled to that, there were the allegations that Chandhok's sponsors defaulted on their payments.

It doesn't help that Chandhok and Mallya recently went three rounds with one another:

Vijay Mallya wrote:“If Ferrari is on the podium, the whole of Italy applauds. If Ferrari wins a race, the whole of Italy celebrates. Nobody ever asks the question of where is the Italian driver? Why suddenly in India? Be thankful for the fact you have an Indian team, sporting the Indian colours on the grid to begin with. The Indian driver will follow but let’s not put the cart before the horse.”

Karun Chandhok wrote:“I think it’s a bit sad that in one breath the chairman of our Indian ASN (national sporting authority) is talking about how much he has done for Indian drivers and then in the next breath he is criticising India’s only two Formula One drivers. If you are going to criticise people, at least do it with some facts. Having never tested either Narain or myself in one of his cars, he doesn’t have the facts.”

They are comments that have not endeared Mallya to me.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 22 Jul 2011, 04:54

jpm wrote:Autosport are also confiorming the story.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93199

Prehaps Trulli is thinking of a management role, a la Niki Lauda?

NASCAR, hopefully.

Benetton · Post by **Benetton** » 22 Jul 2011, 08:53

A big difference between Force India and Ferrari that FI is mostly based in Britain with British people working behind the scenes (AFAIK) when again Ferrari is based in Italy and many Italians work in the team. It's completely different and how Mallya doesn't realize that (and compare FI to Ferrari to begin with) is really getting negative points, from me atleast.

S951 · Post by **S951** » 22 Jul 2011, 10:48

well new contract in the bag for Jarno there

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 22 Jul 2011, 10:59

Someone at Lotus, probably TF wrote:Now, Trulli, you will sit out of the next GP for us to prepare Chandhok for the Indian GP, ok? You will sit out of that too, ok? Now to compensate you of all this nuisances I will offer you a contract for you to keep trundling along when you are not busy taking care of your vineyards, ok? Right, you are a good lad.

DonTirri · Post by **DonTirri** » 22 Jul 2011, 22:30

Meh, only for one race? Bummer. And here I was thinking we'd finally gotten rid of the Trulli Train. the guy's a waste of space. Has always been and always will be.

Peter · Post by **Peter** » 23 Jul 2011, 01:19

DonTirri wrote:Meh, only for one race? Bummer. And here I was thinking we'd finally gotten rid of the Trulli Train. the guy's a waste of space. Has always been and always will be.

I disagree. Trulli was just poor in terms of race pace, or at least compared to his one lap wonder qualifying pace.

If Karun impresses this weekend, I think we may see him stick around or be back later on in the season. I think there is a desire for TL to find themselves a young, quick driver to make the team interesting, because their lineup is somewhat a snoozefest at the moment.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 23 Jul 2011, 07:13

DonTirri wrote:Meh, only for one race? Bummer.

One race. For now.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 23 Jul 2011, 09:14

I thought it was for both this race and the Indian GP?

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 23 Jul 2011, 11:11

dr-baker wrote:I thought it was for both this race and the Indian GP?

It will be, they probably just haven't announced it yet. I can definitely see it happening though.

Whis · Post by **Whis** » 24 Jul 2011, 13:16

At the moment Chandok has been lapped three times. all the other drivers just one time. 'nuff said. take back Jarno, please

Yannick · Post by **Yannick** » 26 Jul 2011, 11:36

It seems like our man Karun still needs some practise to be able to outscore the Virgins and the former Campos cars in India.

Fernandez saying Trulli will get a contract prolongation might mean that another team from further up the grid might have already picked up Kovalainen who really deserves a better seat. Who could it be? In which team would you like to see Kovalainen next year? Maybe he could replace: a retiring Barrichello at Williams? a dropped Massa at Ferrari? one of the two Sauber drivers who moves up to Ferrari?