Trulli GP (officially Trulli Formula E Team) was a
Swiss
Swiss most commonly refers to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Swiss may also refer to: Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss Café, an old café located ...
motor racing
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...
team founded by former
Formula One
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
driver and
Monaco Grand Prix
The Monaco Grand Prix () is a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco, in late May or early June. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigious automobile races in the wo ...
winner
Jarno Trulli
Jarno Trulli (; born 13 July 1974) is an Italian former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Trulli won the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix with Renault in Formula One, Renault.
He regularly competed in Formula ...
to compete in the inaugural
FIA Formula E Championship for electric cars.
History
On 18 June 2014, Trulli GP was announced as the tenth and final confirmed entry into the
inaugural Formula E season, taking over the entry originally held by
Drayson Racing. Drayson stayed on as the teams' "principal technology partner", whilst
Super Nova Racing
Super Nova Racing was a British racing team that has competed in International Formula 3000, Formula 3000/GP2 Series, GP2 and the A1 Grand Prix series.
History
Super Nova first entered racing in 1991. Super Nova was a new incarnation of the p ...
were tasked with operating the team. Jarno Trulli announced that he would drive for his own team at launch, while Italian
Auto GP
Auto GP, sometimes referred to as the Auto GP World Series and formerly known as both Euro Formula 3000 and the Euroseries 3000, was a European formula racing series.
The series' roots can be traced back to 1999 and the Italian Formula 3000 serie ...
driver
Michela Cerruti was later announced as the second driver for the team.
At the opening round in
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, the two Trullis qualified on the penultimate row of the grid. Trulli retired with battery problems on the second lap whilst Cerruti finished the race in 14th and the first car off the lead lap. In
Putrajaya
Putrajaya (), officially the Federal Territory of Putrajaya (), is the administrative centre of Malaysia. The Seat of government, seat of the Government of Malaysia, federal government of Malaysia was moved in 1999 from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajay ...
, Cerruti was taken out by
Katherine Legge
Katherine Anne Legge ( ; born 12 July 1980) is a British professional auto racing driver who competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, IndyCar Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship. She holds the record for the fastest qu ...
whilst Trulli lost three laps in the pits with crash damage having run as high as second early in the race. Trulli scored the team's first points with fourth place in
Punta del Este
Punta del Este () is a seaside city and peninsula on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. Starting as a small town, Punta del Este grew to become a resort for the Latin and North American jet set and tourists. T ...
, and Cerruti finished twelfth by way of staying out of trouble – but both cars failed to finish in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
with mechanical problems. At the
Miami round,
Vitantonio Liuzzi replaced Cerruti at the eleventh hour having been on holiday in the region – but both cars eventually finished the race a lap down.
The next two races in
Long Beach
Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
and
Monaco
Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...
yielded no points and one retirement apiece before the team found some success in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. Trulli scored a surprise pole position but sank through the field and finished two laps down in 19th, however Liuzzi went the opposite way and scored two points for finishing ninth. At the penultimate round in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, Trulli drew the ire of rivals
António Félix da Costa
António Maria de Mello Breyner Félix da Costa (born 31 August 1991) is a Portugal, Portuguese professional racing driver for the Porsche Formula E Team, TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team and the 2019–20 Formula E Championship, 2019–20 Formul ...
and
Justin Wilson – as well as commentator
Dario Franchitti
George Dario Marino Franchitti (born 19 May 1973) is a British motorsport commentator and retired motor racing driver from Scotland. Franchitti won the IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011; the Indianapolis 500 in ...
– for consistently cutting a chicane and retaining position. Liuzzi and Trulli ultimately finished 17th and 18th respectively multiple laps off the lead. For the
2015 London ePrix The 2015 London ePrix, officially known as the 2015 Visa London ePrix, was two Formula E motor races that took place on the 27 and 28 June 2015 on the Battersea Park Street Circuit in Battersea Park, London. It was the tenth and eleventh rounds of ...
, Liuzzi was replaced by
Alex Fontana, as Liuzzi was competing in the
GT Asia Series
The GT Asia Series was a sports car racing series based in Asia. The championship combines Group GT3, FIA GT3 specification cars as the elite class of the series with Ferrari Challenge, Porsche Cup and older GT3 machinery competing in the GTM cl ...
round at
Okayama
is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...
on the same weekend. The season ended poorly for the team, with Trulli finishing the first race 15th and retiring from the second with brake problems whilst Fontana retired from the first race with suspension issues and finished 14th in the second race. With just two points finishes and the points for pole in Berlin, Trulli finished last in the teams' championship with 17 points.
From the
second season, teams were allowed to independently develop powertrains and Trulli confirmed a partnership with Italian manufacturer Motomatica. Trulli himself meanwhile stood down from driving duties and was replaced with Mexican
Salvador Durán, who had completed most of the first season with
Andretti. The Motomatica powertrain proved perennially unreliable and dangerous during private testing, with Liuzzi claiming the car was "not even able to drive one metre out of the garage" due to constant breakdowns and that at one point he had been
electrocuted. Following speculation the team could switch back to the season one powertrain as
Team Aguri
Team Aguri, formerly Amlin Aguri and officially the Team Aguri Formula E Team, was an international motor racing team founded by former Formula One and 24 Hours of Le Mans driver Aguri Suzuki (Executive Chairman) and Mark Preston (businessman), Ma ...
had done, they ultimately elected to persist with the troubled unit. The team organised private freight to the opening round in
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
to continue troubleshooting, but failed pre-race scrutineering with most of its parts stuck in customs. Following withdrawal from the second round in
Putrajaya
Putrajaya (), officially the Federal Territory of Putrajaya (), is the administrative centre of Malaysia. The Seat of government, seat of the Government of Malaysia, federal government of Malaysia was moved in 1999 from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajay ...
, the team's future looked uncertain and it was ultimately withdrawn from the grid on 15 December 2015 in favour of new OEM
Jaguar Racing
Jaguar Racing is the name given to Jaguar Land Rover's racing interests. The Jaguar brand currently competes in Formula E under the name Jaguar TCS Racing for sponsorship reasons. It is the defending Formula E World Teams' Champion, having wo ...
's debut in the
2016–17 season.
Results
;Notes:
* – In the inaugural season, all teams were supplied with a
spec
The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) is a non-profit consortium that establishes and maintains standardized benchmarks and performance evaluation tools for new generations of computing systems. SPEC was founded in 1988 and i ...
powertrain by
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...
.
* † – Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
*
* – Season still in progress.
References
External links
{{Trulli GP
Swiss auto racing teams
Formula E teams
Auto racing teams established in 2014
2014 establishments in Switzerland
2015 disestablishments in Switzerland
Auto racing teams disestablished in 2015