Jarno Trulli says he was offered Ferrari seat while racing for Toyota – Formula 1 news
Jarno Trulli has recently revealed that he had been offered to drive Ferrari in Formula 1 but could not accept it as he was driving for Toyota team.
Trulli has lost his seat for the upcoming 2012 Formula 1 season as the grid was full while he was replaced by Vitaly Petrov at Caterham.
The Italian driver started his Formula 1 career in 1997 with Minardi team. Trulli won one Grand Prix with Renault team in 2003 and remained with Toyota from 2004-2009. Then he moved to Lotus and finally joined Caterham.
Trulli mentioned that he was offered a seat in Scuderia Ferrari by the team principal, Jean Todt but he had to refuse the offer because of commitment with Toyota. However, Trulli expressed that he has always been immensely grateful to Todt for helping him
in the early years of his career and for considering his potential talent for driving Ferrari.
“Nobody knows this, but at this point I think I can publicly thank Jean Todt for having been one of the few top team managers to consider me during my career. No one knows this, but Todt offered me a seat at Ferrari,” Trulli told Autosprint. “I won't tell
you when exactly: I was racing for Toyota and I was doing very well. But I had signed a rather long contract with the Japanese, and in my career I've always honoured my commitments. In 15 years of F1 I've never needed lawyers.”
Trulli expressed that he felt like Ferrari driver for a moment when he was offered the Ferrari seat but refused to state the year in which he received the offer.
Furthermore, Trulli has claimed that he has many opportunities other than driving in Formula 1 but will not make swift decisions about the future prospects of the career.
Trulli has also assured that he has not set any limitations on his options and will welcome any kind of prospects including the American based series of auto racing like NASCAR and IndyCar.
Toyota is planning to come back to Le Mans with LMP1 programme this year and Trulli has disclosed his willingness to Toyota in another series while he was saying that he had plenty of options on the table.
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