MALAYSIAN actress Michelle Yeoh had nothing but words of encouragement for the Ferrari team after last weekend's first Formula One night race, which yielded some disastrous results for them.
While pundits' favourite Felipe Massa struck out when he sped out of the pit with the fuel hose still attached to his car, Kimi Raikkonen fared no better, crashing with just four laps left.
"Sorry, Ferrari," Yeoh lamented jokingly to her companion, former CEO of the company Jean Todt.
"But never give up, right" That's your motto,"she added, addressing the Frenchman at a press conference held in conjunction with the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Region II Opportunities Workshop organised by the Automobile Association of Singapore (AA) and the FIA yesterday.
Besides being in town as brand ambassador for Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet, Yeoh, 46, is also the ambassador for the international Make Roads Safe campaign, which aims to raise public and political awareness of the global problem of road-traffic injury.
Ipoh-born Yeoh started out acting in Hong Kong action and martial-arts movies like The Heroic Trio (1993) and Tai Chi Master (1994), and became known for doing her own stunts.
She then attained worldwide fame when she played a Bond girl in the 1997 Hollywood flick Tomorrow Never Dies, going on to star in box-office hits like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs Of A Geisha.
Now, in her role as ambassador for the campaign, Yeoh has been travelling to countries like Vietnam and South Africa to promote road safety.
By raising awareness, the Make Roads Safe campaign, together with the International Road Assessment Programme, hopes to reduce the number of deaths due to road accidents by as much as 50 per cent by 2020.
"It's not just talking the talk, we have to take action," Yeoh said.
"If not, it doesn't get better. It's going to get worse, and more innocent lives are going to be at stake."
