Jarno Trulli, who doesn’t have a seat for 2012 after 15 consecutive seasons, told Autosprint magazine that he got offered a seat at Ferrari a couple of years ago, which he declined. The former winner of the Monaco Grand Prix drove for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault, Toyota and Lotus, which led him to drive for Caterham. This year however the Italian has been replaced by the Russian Vitaly Petrov.
The offer from Ferrari came when he was driving for Toyota. The offer came from former Ferrari boss Jean Todt, who is currently the FIA president.
Trulli said: “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.”
“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 honored my commitments.’’ He then added: “In 15 years of F1 I’ve never needed lawyers.”
