You may have seen the reports that the Argentine government is bank rolling Jose Marie Lopez's seat at USF1.

Is this the first time a government has bank rolled a driver? Probably not, if my memory serves the pre-war Auto Union team itself was paid for by the German government and the drivers, unsurprisingly were all German.
But certainly in the modern era I can't think of a driver who has had direct government backing.

This link takes you to Andrew Bensons blog at the BBC which includes a picture of Lopez with the Argentine President and Peter Windsor grinning like a Cheshire cat (presumably thinkng about all the Peso's now coming his way). How much pressure must Lopez be under not to make a complete Horlicks of this adventure and how long will the money keep coming if (or, more likely, when) the USF1 car turns out to be a complete pup?

So is this the future for F1? China put a lot of money into their Grand Prix will they now bank roll a driver? Will we see Alex Yoong back in an F1 car with backing from the Malaysian goverment? India and Korea both wants to have races presumably they would like to have a driver on the grid to bring the crowds in.

There have always been pay drivers in F1 but this has raised things to another level. Talent doesn't appear to count for much anymore, unfortunately.