At the end of the 2009 season Toyota announced its withdrawal from F1, ending an eight-year adventure that saw a huge amount of money spent, and no wins achieved.
Would even one triumph have encouraged the company’s top bosses to stick with the programme through the global financial crisis that also claimed Honda and BMW? We’ll never know, but on April 26 that year the team came close to getting it right in Bahrain, only to drop the ball, as it seemed to do so often.
Trulli started that race from pole position, and come the race, he also set fastest lap. And yet he ended up crossing the line in third, some way down th …