Trulli reveals Ferrari approach

Jarno Trulli has revealed that he once turned down the chance to join Ferrari, insisting that he wasn't prepared to break the contract he had in place already with Toyota at the time.

The Italian, who is now without a drive after being replaced in the Caterham line-up by Vitaly Petrov, drove from Toyota from 2004 until the 2009 campaign, when the Japanese manufacturer elected to quit the sport.

Speaking to Autosprint, Trulli revealed that it was during his time with Toyota that he was approached by then Ferrari team boss Jean Todt about a deal to join the Scuderia.

Electing instead to honour his deal with Toyota, Trulli said he felt the time was now right to thank Todt for considering him for a role within the team.

"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," he said. "No one knows this, but Todt offered me a seat at Ferrari. 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."