Jarno Trulli has revealed he was offered a seat at Ferrari some years ago.
After fifteen consecutive seasons in formula one, the 37-year-old Italian has lost his Caterham race seat to the well-backed Russian Vitaly Petrov.

2004 Monaco grand prix winner Trulli, 37, drove since 1997 for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault and Caterham’s former guise Lotus.

Writing in his New York Times blog, correspondent Brad Spurgeon said Trulli was made the Ferrari offer while he was racing for Toyota between 2005 and 2009.

Trulli reportedly told Italy’s Autosprint magazine that Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali’s predecessor, the now FIA president Jean Todt, made him the offer.

“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.

“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,” added Trulli.

Trulli left Renault for Toyota at the end of the 2004 season, driving for the carmaker until it pulled out of formula one at the end of 2009.

Rubens Barrichello left Ferrari at the end of 2005, replaced by Felipe Massa. Michael Schumacher retired a year later, replaced by Kimi Raikkonen.

At Ferrari, Frenchman Todt handed over to Domenicali at the end of 2007.

 With the 2012 season now just weeks away, the most serious doubts yet about April’s returning Bahrain grand prix have emerged.
Reports claim that, on the eve of the one year anniversary of the bloody ‘Day of Rage’ protests that led to the cancellation of the race and test in early 2011, violent clashes involving tear gas-firing police have broken out.

“Formula one is monitoring events there”, a report in the Guardian newspaper said.

“Formula one’s governing body is keeping a low profile because it doesn’t want to be part of the mounting pressure and speculation,” added journalist Paul Weaver.

International news agencies including Reuters and the Associated Press reported this week’s clashes involve protesters trying to reoccupy the symbolic scenes of the 2011 violence.

“Traffic came to a standstill on the main thoroughfare into the capital (Manama), and teargas canisters, rubber pellets and rocks littered the highway,” said Reuters, adding that elsewhere “youths threw petrol bombs, iron bars and rocks” and police returned fire with “stun grenades”.

The New York Times, meanwhile, referred to numerous

The promoter of F1′s newly announced New York round has denied doubting the separate US grand prix in Texas will ever take place.
Austin is scheduled to host the sport on a purpose-built circuit late next year, but there has been speculation construction is seriously delayed and that state funding may be in danger.

New Jersey’s 2013 race, however, will take place on existing roads alongside the Hudson river, and the event is being funded privately.

“There’s not a yard of dirt being moved,” promoter Leo Hindery told a New York Times blog. “We’re pennies on the dollar compared to Austin.”

The column also quoted Hindery as saying: “I wouldn’t bet on Austin making it.”

But in a telephone interview with the Austin American Statesman newspaper on Wednesday, Hindery denied making the latter statement.

The NY Times author Jonathan Schultz insists however that Hindery was quoted accurately.

But Hindery told the local Austin publication: “I have no scepticism about Austin.”

Mike Gascoyne has vowed to end his career with Team Lotus.

The 48-year-old was once the highest paid engineer in formula one, earning reportedly $8 million at Toyota in 2005.

The Briton has also worked with top teams McLaren and Renault, his aggressive management style earning him the nickname ‘the rottweiler’.

But he has curiously never been part of a world championship campaign, instead earning the reputation of a figure who can turn around a struggling team’s flagging fortunes.

“My career has been built on the ‘go-to guy’ when you’re eighth, ninth, tenth and you want to become third,” he told the New York Times.

Gascoyne speculated that he has never won a title “because I have always been head-hunted”.

“I always used to describe it as the border town that gets the sheriff to come in and clean out the outlaws. And once they have got rid of all the outlaws you don’t need him anymore and he moves on to the next sort of lawless town, and that has sort of been my career,” he admitted.

But he insists that Team Lotus, the best of the new 2010 teams owned and headed by Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes, is different.

“I think now there is much more of a sense of belonging and it being my team. I certainly will retire at this team.

“Now it is a sense of belonging and wanting to take the team all the way,” said Gascoyne. “I think for me it will be a tremendous sense of satisfaction to have taken the team from one bloke sitting on his own in an office to the winner’s podium.”

Helmut Marko has played down Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo’s threat that formula one could be headed for a split from owners CVC.

Montezemolo told CNN last week that at the end of 2012 and the current Concorde Agreement CVC “doesn’t own anything” and therefore creating a different world championship is a real option for the teams.

Red Bull’s motor racing consultant Marko however admitted that the dispute is fundamentally about the distribution of revenue for the next Concorde.

“A suitable compromise can hopefully be found,” he told German website motorsport-magazin.com at the opening of the Red Bull Ring.

“Ferrari are the best-known team and have been in F1 the longest — but being Italian, they tend to express things more emotionally than others. In my opinion, the situation is nowhere near as bad as it looks,” said Marko.

New York Times correspondent Brad Spurgeon said the latest breakaway talk is “exasperating for the fans” coming so soon after the last political dispute with the FIA.

A potential hurdle for proposed buyer News Corp is the law, with prominent competition lawyer Paul Stone reportedly concerned that Rupert Murdoch’s presence would be unfair for bidding television broadcasters.

He is quoted by Germany’s Speed Week as saying a News takeover “would raise concerns”.

Italian carmaker Fiat has confirmed rumours it would consider selling some of its 85 per cent stake in Ferrari and the famous Maranello based F1 team.

The rumour emerged last week at the opening of the Paris motor show, with a newspaper report saying Fiat wanted to raise money to up its stake in the American carmaker Chrysler.

Fiat initially denied suggestions it is prepared to reduce its shareholding to as little as a controlling 51 per cent; a sale that is theoretically worth about $1 billion.

“No, we have enough financial resources to do everything we have to do,” Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne said in Paris.

But he also told the New York Times: “We would consider selling a part of Ferrari, but it’s not in the cards now, and I have no project on my desk.”

Meanwhile, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo played down suggestions Abu Dhabi investment company Mubadala will facilitate the move by releasing some of its minor shareholding.

The Italian said Mubadala “will remain for us a very important industrial partner”.

The latest rumour is that while Michael Schumacher is expected to be back in the paddock next year, he might not return to the Mercedes cockpit.

When the seven time world champion was asked if he was going to return to retirement after his disappointing 2010 comeback, he told reporters on Thursday: “You cannot get rid of me, let’s put it this way.”

The bulk of the media took that to mean he intends to keep racing in 2011.

But the New York Times’ correspondent Brad Spurgeon has admitted he was tempted to follow up the question by asking Schumacher if his role next year might not be as a driver, but in a management role such as ‘sporting director’.

Germany’s Bild newspaper has also heard the rumours about Schumacher staying in F1 in another role once his driving days are over.

Asked if he can imagine a similar post-racing role, Fernando Alonso said in Singapore: “Not at all — team bosses have to work too hard!”

And the Spaniard, who stopped Schumacher from achieving an eighth title in 2006, insisted he is not among those who are criticising the 41-year-old German.

“I say only this: Michael is a legend, he won five titles with Ferrari and, with Ferrari, I am yet to win one.

“He doesn’t need to prove anything to anybody, and he will be faster next year,” added Alonso.

Whilst many commentators and fans are angry at the outcome of Wednesday’s disciplinary hearing, others say the time is right to axe the ban on team orders.

The Telegraph observed that if the sport’s governing body is reluctant to harshly punish a “blatant” rules breach like Ferrari’s at Hockenheim, then “the rule really does need reviewing”.

“By removing it, at least the hypocrisy of teams who practise it yet preach something else entirely would be removed,” added the broadsheet.

The Guardian agrees that “most teams” pay only “lip service” to the ban that is “largely unworkable”.

It is rumoured that the FIA considered imposing a 5 second time penalty to winner Fernando Alonso, which would have installed the subordinate Felipe Massa as the official winner.

But the Council decided against it, meaning this verdict “is a precedent that will likely allow team orders to be continued to be used in the sport”, a New York Times blogger wrote.

Brazilian columnist Livio Oricchio said the next step should be the axing of the ban, so “there is less theatre and more truth in formula one”.

Germany’s Bild agreed: “Either team orders are punished brutally, or they are officially allowed once again.”

Said F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone: “The rules need to be looked at again.

“If you swapped your drivers around with a few laps left, that is bringing the sport into disrepute.  But if you do it earlier, I don’t have a problem with team orders.”

Enrico Gelpi, president of the Italian sanctioning body ACI and a FIA member, said: “The rule will be reviewed.

“For us it would be a good idea to remove it completely.  The general attitude in the FIA towards this change is favourable.”

He said the topic would be discussed at the next World Motor Sport Council meeting in November.

Jun.8 (GMM)  The facilities at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve are good enough for formula one, according to race promoter Francois Dumonitier.

With 24 teams now squeezed into the modest Montreal pit building, it would be easy to negatively compare the Canadian venue with the likes of Shanghai, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi.

“It is this place that reminds me more than any other track on the F1 calendar of the look and feel of what it was like to go to Mosport to attend the first ever Canadian grand prix in 1967,” wrote New York Times correspondent Brad Spurgeon in 2008, F1′s most recent visit to Montreal.

But promoter Dumontier insists the world of F1 will need to make do.

“They need to put water in their wine,” he is quoted by French language RDS television.

“They are fortunate to go on tours where governments have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in facilities.  The essence is the race track and I think that our facilities are adequate,” Dumontier insists.

Jun.8 (GMM)  Such is the sport’s rumour mill that Valentino Rossi badly breaking his leg has reignited speculation he might switch to formula one sooner rather than later.

24 hours before he fell during MotoGP practice at Mugello last Saturday, the 31-year-old Italian admitted he would “like to explore the possibility” of racing a third Ferrari in F1.

With huge two-wheeled success behind Rossi, the New York Times’ F1 correspondent Brad Spurgeon admits the news of the Mugello injury gave him pause for thought.

“My first thought was ‘Could this finally be the end of his amazing run of dominating the sport?’

And “Whatever his physical state, will he have the motivation (to come back)?  Maybe now is the time to see Rossi go out a few more times testing a Ferrari F1 car, as he has done as recently as a few months ago.

“Personally, I’d love to see someone come along and try again to do what only John Surtees has done: be a world champion in both motorcycle racing and formula one,” added Spurgeon.

Also in the wake of Rossi’s crash, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said the Maranello marque fully supports the Italian’s return to full fitness.

“Everyone at Ferrari is with you at this difficult time,” he said in a statement posted on the team’s official website.

“We are sure that you will be back on track soon, even stronger than before.

“If during your convalescence you feel you would like to do some training on four wheels, then remember that the door to Maranello is always open to you,” added Montezemolo.