Caterham driver Jarno Trulli says that struggling teams opting for pay drivers to keep their financial operations going is "not worth" the effort, saying that employing the best available drivers and securing higher prize money was a better tactic.
Trulli's comments, that are almost certainly in no way motivated by recent rumours linking monied Russian driver Vitaly Petrov with a switch to the Caterham team at the Italian's expense, came in an interview with the La Repubblica newspaper in Italy.
In it, Trulli said that while he had struggled to adapt to the team's power steering systems throughout 2011, his performances in the races had still been strong.
And he said the team's top ten constructors championship finish had been worth more to them than a pay driver could have given them.
"In the races I think I did a fine job for my team. You just need to look at the points table: the best results of the season came from me," he modestly explained.
"I scored the two 13th places that ensured the team the 10th spot in the constructors' championship, a result worth plenty of money for us in F1 for only the past two years."
He added: "Some teams are small and to survive they need to count the beans and so are forced to put the seat up for rent. These are economic decisions. In my opinion it's not worth it."
As an example, he flagged up the issues that rival Lotus-branded team Renault suffered throughout the 2011 season.
"Just look what happened to Renault: while they had Kubica, a fine driver able to bring out the best from the car, they were considered the [championship] outsiders," he rambled.
"As soon as Robert was out, they were finished. Petrov wasn't able to lead the team and the car, and [Bruno] Senna has demonstrated to be not good enough. Nick [Heidfeld], with his experience, despite having done only half a season was able to score almost as many points as Petrov.
"So now they're trying to fix the situation by resorting to Raikkonen, who is no rookie, and Grosjean, who has [risen] through the ranks."
He added: "These days it's a pursuit of survival, so a different kind of approach is necessary. But as soon as the ambitions grow a bit, that approach becomes a loser in my opinion."
And after trying to persuade the team not to replace him with a pay driver for 2012, Trulli also threw in some compliments as well, suggesting that he was sure the team could challenge for a place in the F1 midfield next year.
"Things are getting really promising," he bellowed, "We'll finally have the KERS we didn't have last year, and that's a big help. I remember that when I didn't have it, in Toyota, it was a problem that made the difference.
"The team's technical structure will improve too: new engineers are coming in all the times and the hiring of John Iley confirms the team's ambitions."
He added: "I don't want to say I'm going to win races but I think the ambition to leave the group of newcomers and to get into the midfielders one is legitimate.
"We'll begin showing what we're capable of in the races and score our maiden points."
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