Alonso: Who knows where it went wrong for Trulli.

It's hard to remember that before last Friday there were other things going on in the world of Formula One other than the demise of Jaguar Racing, with the main story before then being the news that Jarno Trulli was to leave Renault early.

Even though Trulli isn't taking part in the final three races of the season, having been replaced by Jacques Villeneuve, the Italian was still a topic of conversation at the Shanghai International Circuit ahead of the first ever Chinese Grand Prix this weekend.

After a strong start to the season which saw him collect seven straight points finishes, including victory in Monaco, Trulli hit a slump that saw him fail to score points in five consecutive races, culminating in a tenth place finish at Monza in the Italian GP.

With the relationship between driver and team seemingly strained once Trulli was told he was not being retained for 2005, the decision was made to release him from his contract early to allow him to focus on next season.

However it didn't take long for Trulli to be mentioned in the Friday press conference in Shanghai, with both ex teammate Fernando Alonso and his new teammate Ralf Schumacher in attendance.

Reports prior to Trulli's depature suggested the Italian felt he was getting a raw deal from the team, which was partly to blame for his poor results, but Alonso admitted that he couldn't see where it had gone for his now former teammate.

"I don't know. Who knows?" he said. "I think we have to be careful with that as well, because Jarno had an engine problem in Hungary, so we don't know what was the position at the end. And then he did pole position in Spa.

"The results are too important at the end of the race and it doesn't matter what you did before that, for you especially, for the journalists. I think Jarno maybe lost motivation a bit, or who knows, when the team announced their drivers for next year. The atmosphere was not perfect in the team from both sides and they decided to stop. They are happy. Who knows?"

However Alonso did admit that it wasn't an easy time when it became apparent that Trulli was on his way.

"It was not an easy solution," he said. "For me, I think I had to concentrate on my job, to get the maximum out of myself and to help the team and to help myself. It doesn't really matter who is with you in the garage. But, obviously, as you know, I have a very good relationship with Jarno. We still have, as if nothing happened outside the races, we can be normal friends. For the team, it is a team decision.

"I think Jarno was not completely happy with the team, the team was not completely happy as well, and they agreed to stop now for these races to improve the atmosphere for both of them. And, if they are happy with this, I am happy as well. With Jacques, I have a good relationship as well, we've been working only two weeks at Silverstone and here, but so far it has been fantastic.

Whatever disagreements Trulli may have had with Renault, his 2005 partner at Toyota, Ralf Schumacher, feels that he will be a strong teammate to help push the team up the grid, with Trulli having already tested for the team last week at Silverstone.

"It's very good, it's good for us that he could start that early," he said. "It was the best solution for us, as Toyota, that Jarno could already test last week at Silverstone. I think, as we saw, he's a very strong team-mate and so I'm really happy to have him with me.

"It will be a lot easier, with a team-mate like that, to bring the project forward."