[Arragonis]

There was a story years ago about a journalist (Guardian maybe ?) who blew up a brand new Jaguar XJ220 on a test. I don't recall Jaguar asking him to pay for the damage.

Although Hales did "mis-shift" and over-revved the engine, the owner should have been aware that this was a possibility especially with a race car where the throttle response is far above that of a road car - and insured against it and other risks such as stacking it into the fence, the Ferrari or even the camera car often used on these events.

Mark Hales is a very experienced race driver and tester, and quite a good writer about classic race cars so I really doubt he did it through negligence or deliberately.

Famous Ferrari story - Ferrari sports car retired from a Grand Prix - as Ferrari were always proud of their engines the official line was that this was "electrical trouble". When asked later the driver (fed up) said "yeah it was, a piston broke out of the engine and hit the ignition system".