A Trulli Merry Christmas09.12.2004

Panasonic Toyota Racing driver Jarno Trulli talks about how he will spend his Christmas holiday and how a competitive TF105 race car would be his ideal Christmas present.

After a long season of racing and winter testing, I am basically free from Christmas time until the first test in January or the launch of the new car. I suppose it ends up being around a two weeks of time off in total.

As my time is limited, I don't tend to have much time to go to awards ceremonies. I honestly prefer to stay at home with my family.

This year, I will go back to my family home in Pescara in Italy around 23 December. I plan to stay there for about four or five days. Then for New Year's Eve I will go skiing in Switzerland with my wife and some friends.

The one thing I like to do around Christmas is nothing! For Formula One drivers it is our main chance of the year to really stay at home and relax.... I just try to get together with friends and family and have fun. The most strenuous thing we do is play cards.

When I'm at the track, I'm completely concentrated on what I'm doing. I only want to know what is happening around me, and nothing else. But when I go back home I can just turn everything off.

On Christmas Day, I laze around at home with my family, and that's about it. We have more or less had the same kind of Christmas as far back as I can remember.

In Italy we have a big feast on Christmas Eve - with lots of different food. Then we generally go to church for the midnight service. On Christmas Day it's a different menu, with chicken soup, stuffed turkey and things like that. I'm not really into alcohol. I have a few glasses of wine, but never too much...

I let myself eat a lot just once a year. The problem is that it's a lot of food in one go. To eat so much is not something I usually do during the year, but I allow myself a special treat at Christmas.

As I'll be in Switzerland afterwards, my training will be mainly be a lot of cross country skiing. I really enjoy training in the mountains. I do some running as well, but mainly cross country skiing and work in the gym. That's all in preparation for the 2005 season.

Me and my wife Barbara are expecting a baby boy towards the end of April - around the time of the San Marino Grand Prix. I'm extremely happy about the news and it's a good boost for me, so I won't really mind about the noise! Hopefully next Christmas will be louder but even happier...I think I will always go back to Pescara for Christmas. I will always go back to Italy and stay with my mum and dad.

I don't like getting presents so it's hard for most of my family to find me a present. I have no idea what I want, but sometimes if I need something specific I'll ask for it. I guess the Christmas present I would really like would be a fast car for 2005...