Enzo Trulli has always borne a famous surname, but now he is making a name of his own in motorsport on the Japanese single-seater ladder. We spoke to him about his first year in Super Formula Lights in 2023 and what could be on the horizon for this year.

By Finjo Muschlien

Trulli is used to attention. As the son of 2004 Monaco Grand Prix winner Jarno Trulli, who raced in F1 from 1997 to 2011, the 18-year-old has grown up with cameras around him and big shoes to fill in the world of motorsport. Barely a decade after his father’s retirement, the young Italian too raced in front of F1 crowds as one of Carlin’s F3 drivers for the 2022 season.

So when he alludes to feeling nervous under the microscope at a test, his words carry special weight.

“I was far away from home. There were a lot of people looking at me, to see how I work, how I drive,” Trulli told Feeder Series. “[But] already on the first day, I was second fastest by half a tenth.”

He is speaking about his attendance at a two-day selection test run by Toyota-aligned squad Team TOM’S ahead of the 2023 Super Formula Lights season. It was a career-defining moment – an opportunity for a new start in single-seaters after his lacklustre F3 season stalled his rise in Europe.

Despite the pressure of being with the two-time defending teams’ champions, he impressed at the test, so it came as no surprise that the team announced he would run the full season in February.

The move to Japan turned out to be ideal, with ample practice time before the races helping him adjust to the new circuits and deliver notable performances such as his two victories at Fuji.

Trulli was not the first driver to head to Japan after running out of options in Europe, but he was one of few in recent years who made the jump successfully. Strict COVID-19 restrictions in Japan from 2020 to 2022 made it hard for foreigners to enter the country, never mind go back and forth between Japanese racetracks and a home European base.

Trulli told Feeder Series he had even explored the move to Japan for the 2022 season after finishing seventh in his maiden season of Euroformula Open but nonetheless struggling to put together the budget for a European programme before his last-minute F3 deal.

Fellow F3 racer David Vidales also made the move to Super Formula Lights in 2023. His management, Monaco Increase Management, previously had good experiences with an alternative career route via Japan, when then-member Álex Palou used a 2019 Super Formula campaign as a stepping stone to a successful IndyCar career.

Brazilian Igor Fraga, who previously raced in F3 with Charouz in 2020, also joined the series, making it the first time since 2019 that a Japanese F3 series had multiple international full-time drivers participating.

How Trulli evaluates his 2023 season

Taking on the Japanese Super Formula Lights series as a European teenager is difficult. Trulli said he had set himself very realistic goals ahead of the season, aiming “to learn as much as he could and understand both the cars and new tracks”.

Soon, Trulli understood how Japanese motorsport was unique and that this new experience would come with a steep learning curve.

“Motorsport is different from Europe,” he said. “They race very hard [in Japan], push the car to the extreme limit.”

Trulli was in good company alongside experienced and decorated teammates: 2020 Japanese F4 champion Hibiki Taira, 2021 Japanese F4 champion Seita Nonaka and 2021 Formula Regional Japan champion Yuga Furutani, all of whom had raced for TOM’S the previous season alongside 2022 drivers’ champion Kazuto Kotaka.

Though they helped him, he contended that each of them had their own driving style and that it was difficult to implement all of their suggestions. He said he and TOM’S struggled with the cars at the final rounds, which was apparent from his and championship-contending teammate Taira’s results.

Moreover, they had all raced on these circuits for years, while he would be driving some for the first time upon arrival. So how did he prepare?

“For sure the simulator helps, but I also watched videos of last year. Once you drive, you understand much better how the track works.”

Amid the newness, there was one key element of familiarity, for he had already raced the series’ the Dallara 320 chassis in Euroformula Open in 2021.

Even though he remained based in Europe, where he attends secondary school, and flew to Japan only for the races, he still had to take time to adapt to Japanese culture. The language barrier was a bigger problem, for his race engineer and other team members only spoke a few basic words in English. “It was quite hard to even tell them how the car felt,” he recounts.

With much more practice opportunities than he had in past series, two full days of practice with two 1.5-hour sessions in each, and promising results in pre-season testing, the 2021 F4 UAE champion expected to be involved in fights for race wins. First, though, he had to learn the tracks in very difficult conditions, which made it hard for him to find a rhythm.

“To be honest, I expected even more, but we were quite unlucky at Sugo and Autopolis. [At both rounds the] two days of practice took place in the wet, but qualifying and the race was completely dry. I went to qualifying without knowing the track in dry conditions.”

Eventually he got the hang of it. In his sixth race in the series, the third race at Sugo, Trulli finished second after making up five places to secure his first podium of the season.

That gave him confidence entering the third round at Suzuka, where for the first time that season, the races were affected by wet weather. Despite having qualified seventh, Trulli was initially bullish about his prospects, but then things turned.

“I was feeling very strong, I expected to win, but in race one, we were quite unlucky with the strategy, as we were with slicks. I asked for wets, but the team decided to not do this,” he recounted. “I accepted the decision. We learn from mistakes like this.”

And learn they did. At the following round at Fuji, the Italian took two lights-to-flag wins in the first and third races in what was the highlight of his season.

Following the highs of Fuji, TOM’S struggled in the final two rounds at Okayama and Motegi, and Trulli only managed a best result of fifth.

“We lost a lot in the final two rounds. We only scored two points [in each] because we had so much trouble with the car. It was quite hard, because I had the mindset that I want to win, but you need everything to go your way.”

At the end of the season, Trulli took fifth in the championship with 44 points, having finished in the top six and thus scored in 11 out of 18 races. It was notable that his best performances came at Suzuka and Fuji, the two most famous tracks in Japan, and that he outscored both Nonaka and Furutani.

The next steps

When the line-ups for the Super Formula post-season rookie test in December were announced, several drivers were present from Super Formula Lights, including international racers Fraga, who is 25, and Vidales, who is 21. But not Trulli, who was by several years Super Formula Lights’ youngest driver in 2023.

“It’s [a] private test and Toyota doesn’t support [it]. They search for other drivers who bring sponsors or budget. But they told me I am too young, which I understand because Super Formula is not Formula 3. It’s a big car. If you see it from live, you get scared sometimes. It’s the only car that can prepare you for F1 even if there is still a big gap.”

His youth gives him more time to develop his skills, but he won’t always be too young. “I want to get there as a professional driver, not a driver who brings budget or sponsors,” he says. “The goal is to be there in 2025. The seats there are limited, but it’s a goal for the future.”

First, Trulli must arrange his plans for 2024, which are once again uncertain. His target is to stay in Japan for a dual campaign in Super Formula Lights and Super GT’s GT300 class, though he said he was open to international opportunities as well.

“Even I don’t know what I do next year, unfortunately, it is out of my control. I will work hard to be ready,” he said. “A step to WEC would be really nice. I‘m open to everything. The more mileage I can do, the better it is for me.”

Trulli did gain mileage outside Super Formula Lights on several occasions already in 2023, participating in two rounds of Formula Regional Japan. He took three out of three possible podium finishes at Motegi, but luck wasn’t on his side at Sugo, as he couldn’t finish any of the races and didn’t even start the second race after being taken out in the first one. Still, he impressed by securing pole position for the first race there.

He also raced part-time in Europe in two rounds of Euroformula Open, taking a win and a second-place finish in the season opener at Portimão. His second appearance came at Barcelona, the final round of the season, and he took another win in the first race of the weekend.

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Compared with his goals for 2023, Trulli’s targets for the upcoming year are far bigger.

“If we have the car next year to do well, my goal is to win everything in the series I compete in. For sure, also making some experiences in Super Formula and Super GT, I think they are two of the best cars in the world.”

But it’s not just about on-track performances for the Italian driver.

“I think there is something I need to improve, especially mentally. I am working a lot on this side right now [to] try to get more relaxed, more calm,” he said. “I am more ready, I know the tracks, I know the people. I will be better on everything and feel more home and improve from this year.”

Header photo credit: Super Formula Lights