Ossi Oikarinen’s job is to make Jarno Trulli quick and keep him that way

Lahti-born mechanic believes Toyota F1 team is more competitive than ever

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By Juha Päätalo in Jerez, Spain
     
      There have been plenty of unmistakably Finnish names in Formula One racing in the past couple of decades: a Keijo (known to all as Keke), a Jyrki, a brace of Mikas, a Kimi, a Jarno... *
      But... Wait a second. Jarno? You mean Jarno Trulli? I always thought he’s Italian, isn’t he?
      True, but his name is pure Finnish, given with affection by his Italian parents in memory of Jarno Saarinen, a prodigiously talented motorcycling world champion who died tragically at Monza just before young Jarno Trulli came into the world.
      It is perhaps quite fitting, therefore, that Jarno Trulli’s track engineer in the Panasonic Toyota Formula One team is one Ossi Oikarinen, another Finn.
     
And fitting, too, that Oikarinen has just completed reading a biography of Saarinen while he was spending a two-week Christmas vacation back home in Lahti. "It was very interesting", he says. "I was only three when it all happened."
      The upshot of all this is that Oikarinen knows the story behind Trulli’s first name better than the Italian himself does, and he has even passed on references from the book to his Toyota team-mate.
      "But of course we do tend to talk more about work matters", adds Oikarinen with a laugh.
     
Toyota are looking forward to the new season with great expectations.
      The team has acquired the driving services of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli, and the intention is that this duo should bring the stable its first podium finishes already this year.
      The new car, the TF105, was unveiled on January 8th, and it drove its first laps around the Jerez circuit on Tuesday of last week, getting into the fray earlier than any other F1 team.
     
On Thursday, the pairing of Oikarinen and Trulli will also begin their work together on the new model. "Everything looks good so far", Oikarinen says. "But let’s see first how the car behaves on the track."
      If Mike Gascoyne, Toyota’s Technical Director (Chassis), is to be believed, the 2005 season is going to mark a new era for the Japanese manufacturer and a great leap forward.
      "We intend to be up there competing with McLaren and Renault", says the diminutive Brit. "There’s no reason to think they are doing better work than we are."
      So does that make Oikarinen a pessimist? "No, but I’m the type who likes to keep his feet on the ground", replies the man from Lahti. "Only when I can see that the car really works and is quick will I be fully convinced. But it genuinely does feel as if this car is the best we have ever put together."
     
Last season was a disappointment for Oikarinen and for the entire Toyota stable. "Of course it’s a drag, when you are eager for success", he admits. "But the thing about this job is that you do it as well as it is possible with the tools you have, even if things are sometimes difficult."
      At least the starting-point now is better than ever. Trulli is a driver who knows what he wants and fixes the car’s set-up without any undue fuss or delay.
      "Naturally it’s great to work with a guy who has so much experience", says Oikarinen. "But even if the man has ten Drivers’ Championships to his name, ultimately it doesn’t reduce the workload."
     
Oikarinen says that it has been easy to work with Jarno Trulli.
      "We were put together for two races when he came over from Renault at the back end of last season, and things went surprisingly well", says the Finn.
      "Jarno’s a pretty shy, reserved guy by nature, but that doesn’t present problems when you are working. The main thing is that the driver is calm and peaceful."
     
Trulli has adopted the entire Toyota team as his new family. At the team’s pre-Christmas party he personally gave every member of the F1 staff a bottle of Podere Castorani, a wine from the Abruzzi region grown and bottled at a vineyard co-owned by his father Enzo Trulli. "It was a very nice gesture from Jarno", says Oikarinen emphatically.
      Sympathy and personal chemistry are very important in the Finn’s view. "When it comes down to a race weekend, there’s no way you can mask whether you like someone or not. It just shines through everything."
     
After eight years working in Formula One, Oikarinen exudes the same enthusiasm as he had when he started out with the Arrows team.
      The make-believe world of glitz, glamour, money, and high-tech has kept its allure, because he is doing exactly the sort of work he always wanted to do.
      "In my case, I haven’t yet seen a whole lot of the glamour or the money, but fortunately the technology side of things is fascinating enough. It has to be. You wouldn’t be able to do this stuff without that; this is much too tough a job to do it just by the numbers", says Oikarinen.
      "The technological development in this field takes your breath away. And it’s good that there are still challenges left to face."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 13.1.2005
     
     
* NOTE: In order of appearance, Keijo "Keke" Rosberg (World Champion in 1982), Jyrki Järvilehto (known on the track as JJ Lehto), Mika Häkkinen (World Champion in 1998 & 1999) and Mika Salo, and Kimi Räikkönen (runner-up in the Drivers’ Championship in 2003).


Links:
  Panasonic Toyota F1 2005: Jarno Trulli

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