Jarno Trulli shares his pre and post Long Beach weekend thoughts with Danielle Crespo.
First off, I'm curious about your wine business - how is it going?
Doing very well in the US, which is one of our main markets. Some of our distribution is here in California, and gives us the chance to visit some restaurants. The wine is doing really well, considering that we are a relatviely young company, which carries on my grandfather's passion. In 15 years, we've reached a million bottles in distribution around the world.
You're here on all types of business - as a team co-owner, as a driver, the wine business - you're very busy. You have quite a large stake in your team. How does that affect your driving, and does it make you more or less aggressive on the track?
I try to balance it, to get the best out of the situation. It's not easy in my position. But, I didn't have a choice when I started the team. It was the only way to start the team in such a short time. I think we're doing well. The team is becoming stronger, even though the results haven't been so positive recently. But we'll look ahead.
Post Race
Not so good of a weekend for the Trulli team.
Terrible weekend! And the car took on some damage as well. The guy (Charles Pic) hit me from the back, on the sidepod, the front end, rear end, so... the guys have some work to do over night. It's a shame. We were running pretty well, but in qualifying, we hit the problem with the hydraulics on the gearbox, which prevent me from going quickly. Starting from there, when you are in the middle of the pack, anything can happen. It was bad luck.
You had no chance to maneuver away from Pic, as you couldn't see him coming at you through the hairpin.
I was going after the corner, and what I was told is that the guy was coming from far behind, and was overtaking another guy, so he was 2 or 3 places back.
It was kind of a divebomb! As you have a larger stake in this team as a co-owner, do sponsors understand when something like this happens, and that racing has these incidents?
Yes, it's part of motorsport. Those who do not understand should not be involved in motorsport. I've spent most of my life in this kind of business.
Were you involved in approaching and selecting most of your sponsors?
We talked with a lot of sponsors, and we do try to get them on board, but obviously it's not easy!