Jarno Trulli yesterday said his 2000 season with Jordan has been the "worst of his career" and admitted that he is concerned for the team's chances next year.

The Italian came to Jordan at the beginning of this year as an eager replacement for the departing Damon Hill and after initial testing of Jordan's 2000 challenger, the EJ10, said he believed that he was being given a package capable of winning races.

But from the off in Australia the reverse has proved true. The bonus of two front row qualifications, in Monaco and Belgium, couldn't compensate for a string of early season gearbox failures and then a late series of accidents which, though not the Italian's fault, scuppered any chances of improving on some superb performances in qualifying.

The accumulation of all the debris and disappointment has left the former Prost driver frustrated and worried over his future at the Irish team, which has slumped from third in the 1999 constructors' championship to a possible sixth by the end of tomorrow's season closing Malaysian Grand Prix.

Even a good performance at the Sepang circuit won't be enough to placate Trulli.

"You can't save a whole season with one race, even if you win," he complained.

"I came to Jordan to score a lot of points, to have a chance of victory, but the opposite has happened," he continued.

"It's been really bad this season. In fact, I think the worst of my whole career. We've had a very unreliable car and a lot of bad luck, but basically we weren't strong enough."

The Jordan number two also confessed that the incredible run of back luck that dogged his season did get to him at times particularly after the Belgian Grand Prix, where, after qualifying on the front row behind Mika Hakkinen, he was shunted out of the race on lap four by an over-zealous Jenson Button.

"I carried my frustration through to the United States race," he admitted of an event in which he was again taken out by Button and publicly railed against the young Englishman and his driving skills after the Indianapolis race. "But then I said, okay, it's not my year'.

"I don't really get angry or in a bad mood. It's not my fault. I've had so much bad luck this year that one day I must be paid back - but so far it hasn't happened this year." Trulli doesn't believe that Sepang will be kinder than any other circuit.

Jordan though need Trulli's luck to change this weekend as they press for a last ditch challenge on fourth place in the constructors' championship.

The team is three points behind current fourth-placed team Benetton, Heinz-Harald Frentzen giving the outfit a much-needed fillip two races ago with third place in the US.

Japan, though, was a disaster with Frentzen retiring with hydraulic failure after 29 laps and Trulli's chances wrecked by a poor qualifying showing and a mismanaged strategy that left him battling hard for a 13th-place finish. The strongest challenge to Jordan will come from BAR, Jacques Villeneuve's sixth place in Japan giving the Honda-powered team the single point that proved enough to push the team into sole ownership of fifth place in the title race.

To claim fourth though, Jordan need one of their men to finish third and Benetton to finish outside the points tomorrow. It is a tall order and Trulli is all too aware of the pressure. "We need to perform well this weekend," he said.

The team's performance in free practice ahead of tomorrow's race, while encouraging, was no indicator. Although Trulli posted fifth-fastest time, slotting in behind the alternating McLarens and Ferraris, and Frentzen ended the day 10th, Friday is, as is always said, just Friday.

If this week's statements from Flavio Briatore about Trulli are to be believed, the Italian's frustration will be ended in 2002. The driver has a long-term contract with the Benetton boss and Briatore has stated openly that he will bring Trulli to the Renault-owned squad in place of Giancarlo Fisichella at the end of next season. First though Trulli will have to battle through a 2001 season he believes may not be saved by the arrival of Honda power at Jordan.

"It does look promising," he said, "but I can't say for sure that we will be strong. We have to work hard because we are finishing this year with a gap to the other teams. As for me, I've proved many times that when I have a good car I can do my job. I have been on the front row twice this year. But my ambitions for next year? It all depends on the car."

For a team that has lost the guidance of technical director Mike Gascoyne and appears no closer to signing their stated target Eghbal Hamidy from Arrows, the possibilities for its 2001 challenger remain less than stellar.

McLaren, meanwhile, finally announced that it has signed Benetton refugee Alexander Wurz as its test driver for 2001, the Austrian joining the team as replacement for Olivier Panis, the former Prost driver whose strategy of stepping into testing in the hope of stepping up to a good drive earned him a seat alongside Jacques Villeneuve next year.