MAY 24, 2001

Trulli becomes drivers representitive

JARNO TRULLI joined Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard as an elected member of the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) on Wednesday.

JARNO TRULLI joined Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard as an elected member of the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) on Wednesday.

The Jordan driver, 26, was voted in to replace McLaren test-driver Alexander Wurz as a director of the association at a meeting in Coulthard's Monaco hotel, the Columbus.

The GPDA was founded in another Monaco hotel, the Metropole, on May 11 1961, and among the star drivers involved at the time were Jack Brabham, Tony Brooks, Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Stirling Moss.

Despite a lull in the eighties, the association has been an ever present and important contact between the drivers and the governing body.

After the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at Imola in 1994, the association was re-established in December of that year.

Since then it has instigated massive safety improvements in the sport, improved the Superlicence arrangements for drivers, and improved communications with the FIA once again.

Trulli joins McLaren driver Coulthard and triple world champion Michael Schumacher at the head of the association.