Oct.18 (GMM) Jarno Trulli claims he has been asked to sit tight in the hope he might retain his Toyota seat for 2010.
Team president John Howett has repeated on numerous recent occasions that the veteran Italian is very unlikely to keep his drive beyond next month’s Abu Dhabi finale.
But Trulli has told reporters at Interlagos that a different attitude is being adopted by the Toyota team principal, Tadashi Yamashina.
“All I can say is that I have promised to Yamashina when he kindly asked me to wait until mid November to decide what I will do for the future,” said the 35-year-old.
Toyota’s executive board will meet in Tokyo on November 10 where the approval of the F1 budget for 2010 will be discussed.
“Obviously somehow he is hoping to keep me on board and I want to respect this,” added Trulli, who has been linked with a move to the new Lotus team for 2010.
Trulli would not confirm the link to Lotus, whose technical director Mike Gascoyne worked with the Italian driver at Jordan, Renault and Toyota.
“I have some other options obviously because I don’t know if Toyota is continuing with me or not,” he said.
He also refused to respond to Howett’s sustained criticisms, including the latest made on Saturday, claiming Trulli is good in full wet conditions but not when conditions are changeable.
“I cannot comment over other people’s statements,” said the veteran of 217 grands prix.
