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Trulli was offered Ferrari seat

Jarno Trulli says the approach came when he was driving for Toyota © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Jarno Trulli

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Jarno Trulli claims he was offered a drive at Ferrari during his career but couldn't accept due to a commitment with Toyota.

Following his replacement by Vitaly Petrov at Caterham last week, Trulli is without a drive in 2012 as every seat on the grid is taken. After Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali bemoaned the lack of Italian drivers in Formula One, Trulli revealed that he was offered a seat with the team by the then-team principal Jean Todt but was not willing to break his contract with Toyota at the time.

"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."

Reflecting on his Formula One career to date, Trulli added that he was grateful for Todt's help throughout his early years.

"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."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.