Panasonic Toyota Racing Driver Jarno Trulli Looks Back on His Life in Motorsport - VIDEO FEATURE

COLOGNE - September 9, 2008: Ahead of his home Grand Prix at Monza circuit on 14 September, Panasonic Toyota Racing’s Italian driver Jarno Trulli looks back on the road he has taken to reach the pinnacle of motorsport – Formula 1. Born in Pescara, which hosted one of the most famous races of the early 20th century, Jarno took part in his first karting race at the age of eight and won numerous karting world championships before reaching Formula 1 in 1997. His parents have supported his career throughout while his wife Barbara has been at his side since 2004.

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Panasonic Toyota Racing is quickly back in action this weekend with the Italian Grand Prix at Monza coming just seven days after a disappointing Belgian Grand Prix. This weekend's race marks the end of the European season, with the final four events coming in Singapore, Japan, China and Brazil. The team is determined to leave European races behind for 2008 with another strong result and is well prepared for the unique high-speed challenge of Monza, having conducted a productive three-day test at the parkland track last month. Monza's long straights mean high speed is the priority, so Toyota has developed a race-specific low downforce aerodynamic package for this weekend's race, including different front and rear wings as well as other bodywork changes. This was tested last month by both Jarno - on home ground - and Timo, with encouraging results.

"The Italian Grand Prix is my home race so I am naturally very excited to race in front of the Monza crowd again. It is always particularly enjoyable for me to race in my home country but it doesn't give me any extra motivation - I am already more motivated than ever this season!", said Jarno Trulli. "I hope I can give my Italian fans a result to enjoy but we will have to wait and see because all teams will have Monza-spec packages and we don't know yet how the competition will shape up. Having said that, we have adapted well to different tracks this season and I know the team have worked very hard to prepare for this race so I believe we can be competitive again. It was very frustrating not to score points in Belgium after such a fantastic start when I was fighting for third place going into turn one after starting 11th. I had a great chance but once again in Spa I was very unlucky."