Trulli says he was offered Ferrari drive
Jarno Trulli has revealed he was offered a seat at the Ferrari team while he was racing for the Toyota team in Formula One.
The veteran Italian is set to be absent from the grid this year after losing his seat at Caterham following a Grand Prix career that started in 1997 with the Minardi team.
Trulli, a one-time Grand Prix winner with the Renault team, raced for Toyota from the end of the 2004 season until 2009, when he moved to Lotus, now Caterham.
The Pescaran says former Ferrari boss Jean Todt offered him a seat to drive for the Italian squad, but he turned it down because he had committed to Toyota for the long term.
Trulli did not specify the year in which he was offered the drive, but said he felt like a Ferrari driver briefly.
"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 was quoted as saying by 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.
"I thank Todt not only for having offered me a drive at Ferrari, a chance that unfortunately I couldn't accept, but also for every time I asked for advice and received fine indications with a friendly approach.
"He has always been very honest with me. I've always kept this thing for me, but since today it's thanking time, I've felt like doing that. Regardless how things went, for a moment I felt I was a Ferrari driver."
Toyota is returning to Le Mans this year with an LMP1 programme and Trulli, who said he had a series of offers on the table, admitted he would like to return to the Japanese squad in another series.
"Toyota remains for me unfinished business," he said. "With them I started in a great way, with provisional pole in Japan. In 2005 at the second race I got on the podium, the team's maiden one, and in the first part of the season I was second in the standings behind Alonso.
"However we still lacked that development capability that was achieved later, so we lost ground. In 2009 I did everything in order to win the first race, but for many reasons we didn't manage to. Since I didn't manage to in F1, it would be nice to win a race for them in another series."
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AUTOSPRINT is an italian-language motorsport magazine............................................STR ONZO!
I invented the Internet.
A man of honour keeps his word. I admire Jarno and would remind everyone slagging him off now that he drove in F1. Did you? The green doesn't always rub the way of the nice guy.
Autosprint??????? yahoo you stupid twit Its AUTOSPORT the greatest magazine in the world!!!
Truly MIGHT have been asked to drive for Ferarri, as a TEST driver! In the last # of years Ferari have had guys like Schumacher, Barrichello, Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen! Truli as a test driver-MAYBE!, but NOT as a 'team driver'! As someone said in an earlier post, ASK Todt, or the present Ferarri management for an answer to that question!
If you read the fheadlines recently, why in the world this guy who was fired keep talking in the F1 media? reason is simple... Trulli can't accept the reality that he is being FIREDDDDD! Dear Mr. Trulli, before your name getting worst, please STOP all the 'oh ya,,,I was offered by Ferrari', 'maybe tomorrow he will say I was offered to drive 'Red Bull' to replace Mark'...all the stupid reasons. NO ONE WANT ITALIAN DRIVER, PERIOD!!! People want German, UK, Spain, Finland, Brasil, .....sorry ITALIAN drive is last in line!
Don't read too much about Trulli... because he is TRULY sucks at what he did as driver. He could not even steer a much better car Toyota earlier to contention. I bet when he offered Toyota advice on track, he iis probably talking 'trash' as compare to a real racing driver like Hamilton, Button, Mika, etc... but not Trulli !!! Even ForceIndia is far more better than this loser!!! Enough said... let's concentrate on this year's line-up instead of this never shutup loser! Oh...Todt, please HELP to shut the loser Trulli up before he spoils your good name and Ferrari!
Well, now all the media has to do is pose the question to Todt: "did he or didn't he make the offer?"
Jarno should be recognised as a good bloke, unlike a lot of the lying, scheming prima donnas who call themselves great drivers.
He gave many years of dedicated service to the sport.
I am so pleased that at least he has his Monaco victory to remember.
A real gent - just a shame about the hairstyle!
Why do these ar*h*les have to knock a perfectly sound and decent fellow like Jarno Trulli? why would he say he was offered a drive for Ferrari if he wasn't? He's Italian, has won a race and has been well placed enough times . What more did he need but a winning car.
This site gets more like a girly magazine every day.
If you are replaced by Petrov that pretty much says it all
@#$%!!! C'mon Trulli, you really expect us to believe that you, as an Italian driver, turned down Ferrari...to stay at Toyota!!! Please!!!! Trulli is a talented driver, he would have to be to stay around as long as he as but you've got to be realistic in your attempts to promote yourself to other teams!!
I was offered a Ferrari drive, too
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