Known as Drayson Racing right up till pre-season testing, a last minute buyout and consequently renaming of the team took a toll on their preparations, and the Trulli Formula E team struggled, foreshadowing what was to come for the first half of their Formula E campaign.
Headed by the experienced F1 veteran and wine connoisseur Jarno Trulli and his young female Auto GP protege Michela Cerruti, it seemed that the line-up was more a platform for the old teaching the young. With Drayson staying on board as a supplier, they approached the first race with not much mileage under their belts. It showed. Both drivers qualified towards the back of the grid and Cerutti finished 14th with Trulli retiring. Saying it was a poor start might be a slight underestimate. Putrajaya was up next.
It’s safe to say the Malaysian round was a marked improvement from the first with Trulli qualifying a spectacular fifth and Cerruti 14th. However, the race was far from the fairy tale the team had hoped for after qualifying. With a time penalty for causing a collision as well as picking up damage, Trulli limped home three laps down while Cerruti was taken out in the first few laps by fellow female racer Katherine Legge.
Nevertheless, in Punta del este, Trulli qualified a solid seventh on the grid while Cerruti was again well down the order. But at last, the team scored their first points of the season, picking up a haul of twelve crucial points as Trulli secured fourth place while Cerruti improved her pace to finish twelfth. The future was finally starting to look bright as it seemed the team had finally caught up with the rest of the other constructors on the grid. Therefore they headed to Buenos Aires with their heads held high.
However, it was an abysmal qualifying with Trulli last after being unable to set a time and Cerruti only a few places in front of him, and in a hectic race both drivers retired. Not the best way to head into the long break before Miami. However, there is cause for optimism, with Cerruti ever-improving her race craft and Trulli’s experience netting the team twelve points. They might have had a few more were it not for some accidents, but they were on the back foot from the off and so to see the team’s proper potential realised, we’ll have to wait until the next season in all reality.
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