Trulli: I walked away from Caterham

Jarno Trulli

Jarno Trulli has revealed that he left Caterham in order to help the team survive financially.

In the wake of Timo Glock consenting to having his contract cancelled by Marussia so that the team could hire a driver that would bring additional funding, focus has once again fallen on the role of pay drivers in F1.

Trulli was replaced by Vitaly Petrov for the 2012 season, bringing an end to his 14-year stint in the sport. It is no secret that Petrov brought sponsorship money with him to the team.

However, Trulli explains that he could have prevented the Russian from joining Tony Fernandes' outfit as he had a contract in place, but decided not to enforce it.

"I realized that we [Caterham] were only going backwards instead of forwards and that the team had no chance for the future," the 38-year-old told crash.net.

"So given that the team was not paying me, I wasn't so disappointed when they told me I wasn't driving because I'd already tested the car, and it was no different [to its predecessor the 2011 Lotus T128].

"You know, me driving there would not have changed much [within the team], or my life, or my career. What people didn't realize is that I chose not to drive, even though I had a contract in place. I gave the team a change to survive by getting in a pay-driver." Planet F1