DECEMBER 19, 2008

Rumours in Tokyo

There are persistent rumours in Japan that Jarno Trulli may be replaced at Panasonic Toyota Racing next year by Kamui Kobayashi and that Toyota is on the verge of disassembling its young driver programme because of the need to cut costs.

Trulli has a year to run on his Toyota contract but has been with the team since 2005 and in the four years has failed to produce much in the way of results. He is very fast over one lap but tends to race poorly although he does seem to have improved this in recent years. In 2008 he managed to get a podium in France but otherwise was soon being matched by his novice team-mate Timo Glock.