Recently-ousted Formula One driver Jarno Trulli has excitedly proclaimed that he was once offered a Ferrari drive by former boss Jean Todt, without revealing too many details about precisely how and why the offer emerged.
Trulli's F1 career was all-but brought to an end last Friday when Caterham confirmed that they were replacing him with Vitaly Petrov for 2012.
The Italian's long F1 career was one of midfield frustration, with Trulli racking up just one GP win in over 250 starts.
His removal from the grid also leaves the 2012 season without an Italian driver, which has led to Ferrari getting some flak for not supporting home-grown drivers.
But Trulli has revealed that he could potentially have driven for the Italian giants, saying that Jean Todt offered him a race seat.
He didn't specify which season the offer came in, but said it was during his time with Toyota, putting the timeframe between 2005 and the end of Todt's role at Ferrari in 2008.
"No one knows this, but Todt offered me a seat at Ferrari," Trulli was quoted as bragging to the Autosprint magazine this week.
"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."
He added: "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."
Trulli appears set to leave F1 for good after his ousting from Caterham, but he has insisted that he is not planning to end his motorsport career entirely.
And in a separate interview with the Autosport website this week, he revealed that he has had a number of offers for the future.
"I was very surprised by the fact that one or two days later, I had already received some offers," he grinned.
"But I don't want to take any decisions now. I want to put all of the offers on the table and see what is the best for me. At the moment, I have no plans."
As far as where he would prefer to go, he added: "I'm happy to work hard, to go testing, to develop a project but I want something with a structure that at least gives me the potential for performance.
"NASCAR and IndyCar could be a possibility, but obviously I don't have sponsors. I've never had that in my career so I've had to deal with my talent and nothing else."
Trulli tested in NASCAR back in 2009, before confirming a move to the Caterham team - then known as Lotus Racing.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
