Jarno Trulli won many World and Italian kart titles and Benetton boss, Flavio Briatore bankrolled his German Formula 3 entry midway through 1995, where he won the remaining two races of the season for the KMS team. Continuing on the same way in 1996, he easily took the title.

His Formula One debut came in 1997, when once again, Flavio Briatore stepped in. Tarso Marques, the driver for Minardi was to be replaced, and Trulli took the drive. Racing in Australia, he finished ninth after starting from 17th on the grid, but the season was hampered by mechanical failures, and lack of power.

Marques returned for the French Grand Prix, and Trulli moved to Prost Grand Prix after Olivier Panis was injured in Montreal. He finished fourth in the German Grand Prix, and shocked everyone by leading for more than half the race at Austria before his engine blew. He signed for Prost in 1998, and his best finish was sixth in Belgium.

The 1999 season didn't see him fare much better although towards the end of the season there were some strong qualifying performances.

Eddie Jordan could see Trulli's potential and signed the Italian to replace the retiring Damon Hill and to partner Heinz-Harald Frentzen for the 2000 season. Here he put in some very strong drives, and was the only none McLaren and Ferrari driver to take a front row grid position throughout the entire year. However due to incidents involving other drivers or reliability problems with the EJ10, Trulli couldn't manage to turn theses strong starts into point scoring finishes.

The 2001 championship produced a year of constant failures despite strong qualifying performances. Switching places with Giancarlo Fisichella at Renault for 2002, Trulli had hoped that he will finally get the opportunity to show his talent. He finished the season with nine points overall, five behind team-mate Jenson Button, the best results being fourth placed finishes in Monaco and Italy.

2003 saw Button leave the team and replaced by up and coming star Fernando Alonso. Despite finishing eighth in the 2003 championship and feeling slightly overshadowed by his team-mate, Jarno Trulli started the 2004 in style.

Trulli's 2004 season can divided neatly into two. The first part of the season ran from the Australian to French Grand Prix in which Trulli excelled. The second part of his season was Silverstone to Monza where Trulli simply looked out of his depth in the sport. It is hard to explain how a driver that dominated the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position in May could be sacked by his team a few short months later after failing to show any pace in a reasonable Renault package. But this is what happened.

Renault made clear mid-season that Trulli would not be with the team in 2005. Despite a pole position at Spa Francorchamps, his relationship with former manager and team boss Briatore deteriorated. Following the Italian Grand Prix, Trulli was released from his contract and joined Toyota for the final two races of the season. Despite all this, Trulli still managed to finish in sixth position in the championship.

2005 marked the first full season as a Toyota driver and Trulli made the best of his opportunity. As was the case in 2004, Trulli had a fantastic start to the season, claiming three podium positions in the first five races, while the tail end of the season was a disappointment. The TF105 was an impressive package and Trulli made best of his supreme qualifying efforts to help Toyota up to fourth position in the Constructors' Championship and until the final races of the season, Trulli showed the way to his new team-mate Ralf Schumacher.

Trulli would however lose out to Schumacher as the duo took sixth and seventh positions in the championship respectively. Trulli's form continued into the 2006 season and in fact it was not until the ninth round of the championship that he scored a championship point. The damage already done, Trulli soldiered on with a package that was not as competitive as in 2005 and would end the season a distant 12th in the standings.

Things would get no better in 2007 with Toyota as the team struggled with its uncompetitive TF107 package. There would be few highlights in what was a dismal season for the German-based team and Trulli would score just eight points on his way to 13th in the standings. Trulli remains with the team in 2008 and is joined by rising star Timo Glock.