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Sadly, it's not uncommon for drivers to ignore the yellow flags, even in the highest echelons of motor sport - Hakkinen developed quite a reputation for not lifting when seeing yellow flags (whilst waiving at the marshalls to acknowledge their presence). And Alonso once ignored the yellow flags to his peril - that famous crash in Brazil in 2003, where he hit the wreckage of Irvine's Jaguar because there had been so many yellow flags by that point he had stopped noticing them.
Perhaps more unsavoury was Pastor Maldonado's decision to ignore the yellow flags during the 2005 Formula Renault 3.5 Monaco event, where he ignored the yellow flags and ran a marshall over. The marshall ended up with multiple fractured vertebrae, and Maldonado ended up being banned for nine races.
Captain Hammer wrote:I still reckon it will be Valsecchi.
Any particular reason why you suspect that Valsecchi will be signed by HRT? I know that the team spoke quite favourably about his performance in the post season Pirelli test sessions, but given that HRT is hungry for sponsorship, I would not be surprised if Valsecchi is passed over for a wealthier driver. Does Valsecchi have any big sponsorship deals or not?
Speaking of which, did you hear the recent comments that Trulli has made about the cost of motorsport? Basically, he was saying that the cost of racing in junior series is far too high, and to the detriment of motor sport since the drivers who succeed will be those with the wealthiest families, not those who have the greatest potential. He hen went on to complain that it meant that the days of a driver being able to work his way into the sport are now gone, saying that his generation of drivers (which would be those entering the sport in the early 2000's) were the last who could work their way into the sport on merit.
To be fair to him, I can kind of see what his is suggesting. After all, quite a few of the current drivers had substantial financial backing in the junior series from major companies or teams, and most of the recent graduates to Formula 1 have had to spend their way into the sport. Maldonado is perhaps the most dramatic example of that - Joe Saward has suggested that Maldonado might be bringing as much as $36 million a year to Williams, not just through PDVSA but through sponsorship from Venezuelan state media corporations. Petrov, too, was initially dismissed as just a pay driver (although he did improve over the season), and Karthikeyan is only back in F1 because he is buying his seat at HRT. And that's before we go onto drivers like Nakajima or Massa, who were helped into their respective teams by being part of an engine deal...
