Monday, July 4, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
ALEX YOONG
| In this current era of manufacturer or entrepreneurial F1 teams, with bright young talents groomed for Grand Prix stardom through developmental programs, gone are the days where privateer teams with hard-trying, cashed-up drivers of middling ability made up a good portion of the grid. It was only a decade or two ago that the latter types filled half the paddock or more; these days, the few who find themselves in this position rather stick out like a sore thumb. Which brings us to Alex Yoong. The first Malaysian in F1, and the first non-Japanese Asian since B Bira of Siam in the 1950s, few drivers have been the subject of more requests for a profile since this website began. Alright, so he took out our notorious 'Reject of the Year' award in 2002, but in all fairness it is worth asking, just how bad (or good) is he? Is he really as mediocre as Formula One has ever seen, or was he simply made to look hapless by the climate he raced in? Alexander Charles Loong Yoong was born on the evening of 20 July 1976 at the Sambhi Clinic in Kuala Lumpur. His mother, Joanna Bean, was a British expatriate, and his father Hanifah Yoong was a Malaysian of Chinese descent who had raced sedans in the 1970s. Joanna herself had also dabbled in motorsport. In a country where there was virtually no motor racing heritage, their interest and involvement paved the way for their first child's eventual career. | ||
| Background Heads off water skiing, dad becomes director of Shah Alam | As a baby his parents exposed him to an outdoors, unsheltered lifestyle. By the age of 4 Alex was already entranced by speed, and an avid follower of F1 and its heroes of the time, such as Nelson Piquet and Alan Jones. When he was given a Kawasaki 50cc motocross bike for his 8th birthday, he began to demonstrate a sense of balance, co-ordination, control and judgment which suggested that he had the ability to be a success in some kind of sporting endeavour. For a while it looked as though his chosen field would be water skiing. Along with younger sister Phillippa Yoong, they broke national competition records and were soon climbing the ranks not only in Malaysia but throughout Asia as a whole. By the time Alex gave it up, he was amongst the top five water skiers in Asia, and even as late as 1997, when he was well ensconced in forging his motor racing career in Europe, he won a silver medal at the South East Asian Games. But it was motorsport that ultimately captured his attention, helped in no small part by the fact that Hanifah secured the directorship of the Shah Alam circuit in 1988 for ten years, redeveloping it into a top-class facility that during the 1990s held World Championship motorbike events. By that stage, at the age of 11, Yoong wanted to begin racing, but understandably the national body refused to grant him a competition licence. Nevertheless, Alex was undeterred. | |
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| 1992-93 Starts his winning ways in Proton series at age 15 | Instead, he made a habit of attending race meetings and volunteering his services as an electronic scoreboard operator. Moreover, he honed his skills on his father's track, taking Hanifah's Honda Civic for hot laps of Shah Alam in all sorts of weather conditions, self-learning how to four-wheel drift whilst propping himself up with cushions on the driver's seat. There was the occasional prang, but Alex was showing a determination and dedication that would prove a hallmark as his career progressed. Although normally one had to be 17 with a road licence before the Malaysian governing body handed out a racing permit, Hanifah lobbied for Alex to be granted a special practical test at the start of 1992. Not surprisingly, he passed easily, and at just 15 years and 6 months, Yoong became the youngest driver in Malaysian motorsport history. Moving straight into a one-make Proton series, by his fourth race he had already secured a pole and his maiden victory. Out of five races, he ended up winning two of them. Throughout 1992 and 1993, Yoong upgraded through the ranks of saloon cars. He drove a Group N Honda, then a Group A Toyota Corolla. As a 16-year-old in late-1992, he took the Toyota to the Macau GP and came 3rd in the 1600cc class in the Guia race, an incredible achievement. He eventually moved up to a 400 horsepower DTM-spec BMW, the most powerful saloon in the region, but it became obvious that, if Alex was serious about a motorsport career, then competing in tin tops was a dead-end. | |
| 1994-95 Takes 8 wins in FAsia, catches the eye of Jackie Chan and Paul Stewart | And so he moved into the Formula Asia International Championship, a single-seater series that raced in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Thailand and China. It featured the best non-Japanese talents and also some European visitors, and the competition was nothing if not close. Indeed, Narain Karthikeyan is also a product of the series, as has been Indonesian A1 GP star Ananda Mikola. In Yoong's first season in 1994, he took several podium finishes before his first win in the season-ending round at Zhuhai in China. That result launched him into an assault on the Formula Asia title in 1995. Though he easily won the Malaysian national Formula Asia crown, by his own admission he should have also won the continental title, had it not been for a few too many accidents. In the end, 8 wins was not quite enough to defeat Brian Saunders in the final standings, Yoong missing out by 2 points. But considering that Saunders was being managed by the likes of F1 journalist extraordinaire Peter Windsor, that was no mean feat. Alex was now starting to make a name for himself. He helped in the filming of Jackie Chan's racing movie Thunderbolt at Shah Alam, which prompted the star to call him a "very good racing driver". More importantly, he had attracted attention in Europe. Towards the end of 1995, Paul Stewart invited him to test a Formula Vauxhall car, before Yoong got the opportunity also to test a Formula Renault Sport machine at Donington and Snetterton for the Startline Racing team. | |
| 1996-97 A couple of tough years in Formula Renault with Startline | At this point in time Alex made the courageous decision to come to Europe to pursue his dream of one day reaching F1. He could have entered weaker championships on the continent, but in order to test and improve himself against the toughest competition available, after that Formula Renault test he agreed terms with Startline Racing to compete in the full 1996 Formula Renault Sport championship, with sponsorship from Malaysian tyre manufacturer, Silverstone tyres. Startline fielded a Mygale chassis for him, and it was a bright start at the first round at Donington. On the very first lap, Yoong managed to out-brake three cars going into the Melbourne hairpin with all four tyres smoking, but an eventual collision with Rollo McNally put him out. But that was something of a false dawn; not only was the Startline team stuck in the midfield, but the standard proved higher than what Alex had expected, and his physical and mental strength was not quite up to the task. Come 1997, Yoong stayed with Startline Racing and was considered a chance of race wins. But the team struggled with an uncompetitive chassis, and both it and Alex's inexperience led to difficulties finding a good set-up. Alex was also putting pressure on himself to perform - perhaps even more so than the sponsors bankrolling his efforts. The results simply didn't come - Yoong finished outside the top 10 of the championship - and Alex suffered an apparent crisis of confidence. | |
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| 1997-98 Tests himself in F3 and decides he has what it take to get to F1 | After consultation with father Hanifah, though, Yoong chose an unusual course to remedy the problem. Instead of stepping back into lower categories, he went up into F3 to convince himself once and for all whether or not he was good enough. He tested for the Portman Racing Team in their Dallara HKS-Mitsubishi, and joined them for the British F3 round at Spa in Belgium. In a field of over 30 cars, Alex came home 16th at Spa and 11th in the following round at Silverstone. With competitors such as Enrique Bernoldi, Franck Montagny, Mark Webber, Oriol Servia, Bas Leinders and Darren Manning in the pack, it had been a very impressive showing. It prompted Alex to declare confidently: "I have what it takes to be in Formula 1. I nearly gave up but now I know it was the team and not me when I struggled in Formula Renault. I now need to build on my mental and physical strength in order to give myself a better chance." Spending the off-season working out and doing mental training with psychologists at the Bukit Jalil Sports Complex back in Malaysia, Yoong arrived back in England for a full-scale assault on F3 in 1998. He remained with Portman Racing, but they had switched to Renault engines for their Dallara F397 and F398 chassis. With the likes of Bernoldi, Mario Haberfeld and Luciano Burti setting the pace, Alex consolidated with consistent results in the lower half of the top 10, including two 6ths at Silverstone. | |
| 1998-99 Bags 35 points, including 6th at Spa; takes a top-10 spot at Macau | But come the Spa round and Yoong was on the move again, this time shifting from Portman to the prestigious Alan Docking Racing. That also meant adjusting to a Mugen Honda engine, but it reaped immediate results as Yoong drove to 6th once again. Though he finished the season in only 13th position with just 35 points, ironically one place between fellow Formula Asia graduate Karthikeyan, it had been a very solid season with room for a big step forward in 1999. That led to an end-of-season trip to Macau. Yoong was looking forward to the challenge: "Macau is the most daunting circuit around. It's challenging, it's long, it's dangerous, and it's a heck of a lot of fun." In an event won by Peter Dumbreck, Alex finished a terrific 9th, ahead of Karthikeyan, and better than the likes of Burti, Montagny, Sebastien Bourdais, Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers, none of whom managed to get to the finish of the race at all! Alex was clearly on the rise, but 1999 would prove to be a watershed year. On the track things were boding well, but behind the scenes the Asian economic crisis hit hard. Yoong's sponsors dropped out, and Hanifah was forced to fund his son's racing activities out of his own pockets until his family was significantly in debt. Even Docking came out to encourage Malaysians to support their man: "the Malaysians back home need to get their act together to give him the best chance possible." | |
| 1999 Just as the results start coming in F3, Alex is off to Italian F3000 | It was not enough. Yoong missed the first two British F3 events, but he rebounded strongly when he made his return in round 3 at Thruxton. In a new Dallara F399 Mugen Honda, he finished a strong 6th, only 11 seconds behind winner Jenson Button. He followed this up with 5th at Brands Hatch, where 3.4 seconds covered the top 7. But in the second race at Brands, Alex went even better, recording his best result in Europe yet with a brilliant 2nd behind Karthikeyan. Another 6th followed at Oulton Park before he left the series (although there would be one more start later in the year for Graff Racing). From only 5 starts, Yoong still came 11th in the 1999 British F3 title. It was probably advisable for Alex to see out the season, but his entourage was in a hurry. An injection of sponsorship funds from Pan Global Insurance, Malaysian Airlines, Proton, the Malaysian government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and even Brylcreem, meant that Alex was fast-tracked towards F1. Yoong landed a program to join the Italian F3000 championship from round 3 onwards. This series used Lola T96/50 Zyteks discarded by the international series, and Alex joined Monaco Motorsports, a team run by ex-F1 driver Lamberto Leoni. As team mate to another ex-F1 pilot, Marco Apicella, he qualified a decent 12th on his debut at Enna Pergusa, less than two seconds behind the polesitter, another Formula Asia graduate trying to make his way in Europe - Indonesia's Mikola. | |
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| 1999 Thrills and spills in the Donington rain as he takes a 2nd place | Although Ananda stole the headlines, winning the race before being disqualified for an illegal car, Yoong had also been stunning. From 12th on the grid he climbed to an eventual 5th in his first F3000 race. With the knowledge that he could handle these cars, he went to the next round at Donington, a track he knew well. There, he out-qualified Apicella by 0.001s in lining up 5th, and come race day, in treacherously wet conditions, the Malaysian drove arguably the best race of his career. With many others spinning out, by mid-race Alex was up to 2nd, two seconds behind leader Werner Lupberger, with the leading duo pulling out a 22-second gap over the rest of the field. But the safety car then came out in order to clear several wrecks from the circuit, and on resumption Yoong missed the restart, having been unable to see the safety car's lights in the spray. Now 8 seconds behind Lupberger, he set five consecutive fastest laps to catch back up. But then, in 5th gear at 220kph, he acquaplaned and spun after hitting a puddle. Somehow, he miraculously recovered and yet again closed in on the leader, but ran out of laps. He was 1.217s behind Lupberger at the end. It had been an heroic effort in just his second race in the category. Experts always say that rain is a great equaliser in which real talent shines through. If this performance was any indication, there could be no doubting that Alex did indeed possess a fair degree of ability. | |
| 1999 It all goes wrong at Spa and the corner that has claimed many, Eau Rouge | Yet just as Yoong's career started to gain real momentum, things quickly went wrong. For at the same time as Monaco Motorsport was competing in Italian F3000, they had also entered the international championship. 1999 had seen that series severely over-subscribed, with 40 cars scrambling for 26 grid spots each event, and only minimal practice time. Italian veteran Thomas Biagi had failed to qualify the Monaco car in each of the first five rounds. So Leoni put Yoong into the car for the round at the A1-Ring, to dovetail with his Italian championship commitments. But in yet another unfamiliar car, the Lola B99/50 Zytek, and stronger competition than in the Italian series, Alex failed to make the cut in Austria, nor at Hockenheim or the Hungaroring. Then came Spa. Having topped his half of qualifying for much of the wet session, he eventually qualified a tremendous 16th, and was up to 11th by lap 5, battling with Justin Wilson's Astromega car. Coming into Eau Rouge, they were alongside each other. Unable to avoid contact, Yoong lost control and hurtled left side first into the tyre barrier at an unabated 170mph, or around 270kph. The impact was estimated at around 6.5G. Spectators at the scene feared the worst; so too did Hanifah. He recalls: "I feared for the worst immediately after the accident as it happened at the fastest part of the circuit. The last time two cars clashed there at the World Sports Prototype Championship, Stefan Bellof was killed." | |
| 1999 It's a miracle his only injury is a torn knee cruciate, which he ignores to continue racing! | When Professor Sid Watkins and the FIA medical team arrived, they encountered a disturbing scene. Yoong's helmet had been badly damaged, but it had done its job. The front left tyre had come through the chassis, and it had pushed both of Alex's legs into an awkward angle. The driver was unconscious, and the safety car would come out for 9 agonising laps. Eventually, after 20 minutes Yoong regained consciousness, but he was in pain: "My body was contorted and apparently I was screaming like a stuck pig." After a further ten minutes, he was freed and taken to the track medical centre, before being airlifted to a hospital near Liege for two days' observation. Amazingly, his only injury was a torn left knee cruciate ligament, and surgeons nevertheless recommended 3 months' rehabilitation. But Alex would have none of it. He wanted to race in the next Italian round at Misano - in two weeks' time! "I am determined to make the next race as getting race results are crucial to finding sponsors for next year." A week after the accident, he had checked into Dr Ricardo Ceccarelli's clinic in Pisa. "Reconstruction surgery for the ligaments may be necessary but that will have to wait until after my last race of the season," he said. His father was astonished: "This guy is amazing. He would have gained 40,000 sterling pounds from the insurance company and team fees if he took the normal rehabilitation route, but he doesn't want to hear about it! All he wanted is to race and he worked so really hard at it. I'm so pleased for him." | |
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| 1999 Forgetful end to the season thanks to bad luck and unhelpful competitors! | Sure enough, Yoong turned up at Misano. Though he needed crutches to walk, he declared himself 80% fit, qualified 9th, and finished in the same place, but he could have been higher up had he not accidentally hit the cut-off switch and disabled his electrics. But events continued to be unkind to him. In the Nurburgring international round, he scraped onto the grid but was taken off - by Wilson again - on the opening lap. In the next Italian round, again at Misano, he was barged off before even the first corner. In the last round of the Italian championship at Imola, Yoong qualified 7th but made a stunning start to 3rd, before once again being pushed off the track, this time by Kristian Kolby. Several laps later, his race ended for good when his brakes failed at Tosa and pitched him into the gravel. He finished in 10th place in the Italian title with 8 points, although it could have been twice that. Along with Apicella's 20 points, Monaco Motorsport placed 3rd in the team's title. Two end-of-season F3 outings for Docking rounded out Alex's year. He charged from 23rd on the grid and passed numerous cars on his way to 9th in the first heat at Macau, before finishing 12th in the second heat and a handy 7th overall. In the Korean F3 GP at Changwon, an altercation with a backmarker put him out in the first race, but a late-race charge in the second heat from near the back of the pack saw him snatch 10th on the last lap, but because of his DNF in the first heat he was not classified overall. | |
| 2000 Plan B is put into action - Formula Nippon with Le Mans | In hindsight, in the overall scheme of things Yoong's career had been hurt by the second half of 1999. His dismal International F3000 results, not to mention his horrendous Spa crash, with all its physical and mental effects that contributed to so-so performances after that, had stalled his momentum and left him without an opportunity in Europe when 2000 came around. And Europe was where he needed to be, if he was going to impress and get into F1 on merit as well as budget. Still, Alex had a plan B: Japan. During the off-season, he tested for both the Nakajima and Le Mans Formula Nippon teams. In his first trial at Suzuka, he was 5th fastest out of 12, surprising ex-F1 star Satoru Nakajima: "Alex is very much better than I originally thought. The Suzuka circuit is not an easy circuit for first time drivers. He had done a good job and I'm impressed." Eventually though, Yoong landed a deal with the Le Mans team, to be entered by a satellite operation under the 'Team Malaysia' banner. Recuperating from his Spa injuries, he also spent time at the Bukit Jalil institute in Kuala Lumpur with psychologist Michel Gagne and trainer Jorg Teichmann. It gave him the confidence to remark: "I am now stronger, fitter and more motivated than ever to do well in Japan. This is the first of my crucial two years before racing in Formula 1. There is now not a question of whether I can get into Formula 1 anymore but the question now is how well I can perform to get into a higher level F1 team." | |
| 2000 Point-less season not anticipated nor welcomed, but lessons were learnt | In reality though, on one hand the move to Japan had been a definite career setback, and on the other hand the competition in Japan was still of a high level and hard to crack. For example, Toranosuke Takagi was returning to the series - having spent the last two years in F1. With more tracks to learn, another unfamiliar car and new rivals, Alex was probably more up against it than he perceived. Another pre-season test at Motegi when he was only 17th quickest out of 20 set the alarm bells ringing. As if he had not already had enough obstacles in the previous six months, Alex's Formula Nippon career started disastrously at Suzuka. Having already crashed at Eau Rouge, he proceeded to write off his Reynard 99L Mugen at 250kph at another infamous corner, the daunting 130R, in qualifying, missing the race. A mechanical failure at the second round at Motegi was followed by a stall on the grid at Mine, where he then proceeded to cause a multi-car pile-up in his desperation to climb back up the field. Team boss K. Homma was now telling him to calm down and finish races; Hanifah was encouraging him to take the pressure off himself. It worked, to a degree. A spate of midfield finishes followed, around the fringes of the top 10, laced with moments of flashing speed, but also brake and gearbox failures. His best event was at Mine, where he started 7th and could have scored points. By his own admission it had been a steep learning curve, but a point-less season would have been hardly what he anticipated. | |
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| 2000 Returns to F3 at Macau and Korea, but doesn't set the track alight with Swiss | In the right company Yoong was still more than capable of shining; for example, elsewhere in 2000 he had returned to Malaysia for the annual Merdeka Millennium Endurance sports car race at Sepang, where he shared a TVR Chimaera to 2nd place with Adam Lokman and Saladin Mazlan. But now he was finding it hard to impress against quality opposition, and the point was proved when he returned to F3 at the end of the year to race for the Swiss Racing Team in Macau and Korea once again. Those events that year featured a high-class field, that included the likes of Seiji Ara, Pierre Kaffer, Ryo Fukuda, Yuji Ide, Enrico Toccacelo, Tomas Scheckter, and now World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx, not to mention future F1 drivers Friesacher, Baumgartner, Karthikeyan, Tiago Monteiro, Gianmaria Bruni, and one Takuma Sato. Yoong dropped out at Macau early after a collision with Monteiro, and could only manage a lowly 20th at Changwon. | |
| 2001 Car and driver foibles mean year 2 in FNippon isn't much better that year 1 | Despite the lack of results ever since that wet Donington race in 1999, it was clear though that Alex was being funded towards F1. It prompted his former F3 rival Button to say to the Malaysian press that Yoong needed to "prove himself before getting an F1 drive". Another season in Formula Nippon in 2001, this time with the full-scale Le Mans team, would have been a good place to start, but after an up-and-down pre-season testing, his second year in Japan ended up hardly any better than his first. An outdated, overweight chassis, set-up errors, driver mistakes, and poor qualifying efforts meant that two 7ths - and still no points were his best after six rounds. Had he proven himself worthy of F1? Probably not. But it mattered little; Alex's campaign to get into the top flight was in full swing, so much so that Hanifah even stepped down as his son's manager so that a professional, Simon Munger, could take over the role. It would not be long before Munger helped to fulfil his new client's lifelong ambition. | |
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| 2001 Minardi Stoddart wary of marriage of convenience | While Alex had been battling away in Formula Nippon, Minardi had been battling simply to make the F1 grid in 2001. On the edge of extinction during the off-season, entrepreneur Paul Stoddart had rescued the team at the eleventh hour, and in the space of six weeks had cobbled together a new chassis, an engine deal, sponsorship, and two drivers in the form of Renault-contracted Fernando Alonso and Brazilian Tarso Marques for the season opener. Still, Minardi were constantly on the look out for new sponsorship opportunities, and with Marques on a race-by-race deal, in truth he was expendable. After the Canadian GP, sporting director Rupert Manwaring visited Malaysia, which had already held the second round of the World Championship, to meet with potential backers. Munger soon leaked to the press that, subject to Yoong obtaining a superlicence and $5 million in sponsorship, Manwaring had offered him a seat, possibly as early as the British GP. Stoddart moved to quash those rumours after travelling to Malaysia for himself. "I went out there, I had a meeting with the Prime Minister. What we talked more about is furthering Malaysia's interest in Formula One and obviously a driver would be an ideal choice." On the possibility of Yoong taking a seat with the team, the expatriate Australian was clear: "He's got to do some testing first. Until I see what he's like in the car I'm not going to be doing anything more with him." | |
| 2001 Things start to firm but Stoddart keeps Alex testing | But clearly something was in train. By July 5, Yoong had found his sponsorship money, through the government-backed Magnum Corporation (a gaming concern), and had tested a Minardi at Mugello to become the first Malaysian to sample an F1 car. He only did a handful of laps that day, the plan being for Alex to acclimatise with the carbon brakes, the downforce, the power delivery, and left-foot braking technique prior to a fuller program the following day. On the 6th, Alex completed 67 laps of Mugello, and had impressed Stoddart with his ability to progressively reduce his times. Although the test was meant to be a one-off, Yoong had done enough to secure some kind of future with the team. Malaysian Sports and Youth Minister Hishamuddin Hussein was effusive: "I expect him to do Malaysia proud and start his first F1 race within this season." Once again, Stoddart remained realistic: "We don't want to rush him ... We have set absolutely no deadlines for him." By July 14, though, Stoddart was giving more away: "We are working at getting him in this year but it's certainly not in the short term until he's done a lot more testing and he's got more comfortable ... I wouldn't discount Spa but equally one thing I will not do is push the kid in too early. There's a lot riding on this." Clearly, he was attracted by the money that Yoong and his high-level Malaysian backers could bring to the table. With that in mind, Stoddart organised a second two-day test for Alex at Monza. | |
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| 2001 After passable testing outings, Minardi confirm Alex taking Marques' spot | During that test the Malaysian covered 515 kilometres, enough to qualify him for a superlicence. Moreover, he had continued to make progress, his best time during that test only 0.07s slower than Alonso. But as Yoong inched closer to his F1 debut, critics began questioning if he deserved it, citing his lack of Formula Nippon results. Alex shrugged off the criticism, blaming his older, overweight chassis in Japan and the fact that his sponsors were only interested in the exposure of F1. By August 22, Alex was well and truly in the Minardi fold, driving one of their two-seaters at Donington. The pay driver concerns grew louder; Yoong was honest enough to admit that his results over previous years had been "pretty, frankly, crap", but he pleaded to be given a fair go: "I've got to be honest, I am bringing sponsorship to the team but every driver has to bring sponsorship, it doesn't matter how good you are. I just want the opportunity." A further test at Mugello followed soon after, and although Yoong had found himself on the bottom of the timesheets, he was granted his FIA superlicence on August 27 and his debut marked down for the Italian GP on September 16, taking Marques' place. Stoddart sought to put as positive a spin on it as possible: "The work he has done with the team over the last few months has demonstrated clearly his driving skill as well as his ability to provide quality technical feedback." | |
| 2001 Incredibly difficult debut following 911, Zanardi and mechanical faults | "As the first Malaysian driver to compete in Grand Prix racing, Alex carries with him the hopes and expectations not only of his country, but also of the whole of southeast Asia. ... It must be noted that none of this would have been possible without the support of the Malaysian government ... and the commercial backing of the Magnum Corporation. The European Minardi team sees its relationship with Alex as the first step towards a much greater involvement with Malaysia." It would prove a character-building first outing. Not only were there doubters in the paddock, but the Malaysian media back home were now questioning the amount being spent on him whereas they were achieving international squash success for minimal cost. The events of September 11 then cast a pall over the weekend, darkened further by Alex Zanardi's horror smash at the Lausitzring. As Alex recently told F1 Rejects in an interview, it was a weekend when nobody seemed to want to race. On top of that, simply getting into the race proved a challenge. Electrical problems limited Yoong's running on Friday, and gearbox gremlins cut short his Saturday free practice. In qualifying, he had not even completed a flying lap when more gearbox maladies struck, only to be followed by Alonso suffering the same problem! That meant that Alex and Fernando had to share the spare car, and Yoong was forced to drive within himself to ensure the car was in one piece for his team-mate. | |
| 2001 Spins on debut, but shows promise at Indy before a gearbox letdown | Although he was over 5.2s slower than pole-sitter Juan-Pablo Montoya, and over 1.2s behind Alonso, Alex had qualified, half a second within the 107% mark. It was not earth-shattering but commendable nonetheless. Veteran commentator Murray Walker later wrote: "Alex is under terrific pressure. But he does it. I'm impressed by his demeanour calmness and eloquence. And he's not too shabby on the pace, either." And so the following day would mark his Grand Prix debut. After collecting Button's errant front wing at the first chicane, Yoong took it as easy as possible, but his steering had been affected and he was struggling with oversteer at the Lesmo corners. That, plus struggles with race fitness, led to one spin right in front of Montoya and Michael Schumacher just as he was about to be lapped, followed by a repeat performance, this time into retirement, whilst running 15th. His own appraisal was modest: "It wasn't too bad. I was consistent, but a bit slow though!" Indianapolis followed. There Alex qualified 22nd and last again, over a second behind anyone else, and almost 1.3s behind Alonso who had qualified an awesome 17th. But in the race, both Alonso and Tomas Enge in the Prost missed the start. Yoong, on the other hand, made a blinder and challenged Bernoldi's Arrows into the first corner. Within a few corners, though, Alonso had repassed him, although he was able to hold off Enge for over 20 laps. Eventually another gearbox failure sidelined him after 38 laps. | |
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| 2001-02 Takes his first F1 finish; Malaysian support carries over in the new year | On a track he knew well, Alex may have been expecting to do better at Suzuka, but this time he was almost 2 seconds behind another stunning Alonso qualifying lap. Mechanical problems and multiple car-swaps prior to the start meant a start from the pit lane and an ill-fitting seat that caused him cramps from the early stages of the race. Although Alonso lapped his team-mate as early as lap 28, Yoong drove steadily to record his first F1 finish in 16th place, 3 laps down. That brought Alex's initial 3-race stint to a close. Of course, it was always going to be an entrée to a full season with Minardi in 2002. Stoddart's team went into the new season with chassis, the PS02, and a new engine by way of free ex-Peugeot Asiatechs. Mark Webber replaced the departing Alonso, but the Malaysian involvement had increased as well. In January, the team's livery promoting Kuala Lumpur was launched in a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad. Interest in Malaysia was building. At the livery launch, 60,000 people lined the streets of KL to watch one of the Minardi 2-seaters in action; that was larger than the crowd at the previous year's Malaysian GP! When the team returned to launch their season proper on their way to Melbourne for the first race, 400 members of the local press were in attendance. Clearly, they still had a thing or two to learn about F1; one of them even asked Alex about his chances of winning the Australian GP... | |
| 2002 Healthy mix of support and scepticism from the paddock | Although Yoong had his supporters, including Jean Alesi ("I think Alex is good. He's quick, believe me. ... he's done very well to have achieved what he has, and you don't do that without being quick."), sceptics abounded - including ourselves. In our 2002 season preview, we wrote: "he's no slouch behind the wheel, but he's no future World Champion either. His greatest strengths are his willingness to test and work hard Š Having said that, he will provide slow and steady performances this year". Of course, a big part of the detraction was because of the money he was bringing to the team, which suggested, not without reason, that he had bought his way into the seat instead of earning it on merit. Although it was rumoured that he was providing some $70 million over three years, a more accurate figure was around $13.5 million for 2002. Still, it was one of the largest budgets a driver had ever brought, and it caused Alan Jones on Australian TV to mock, "If his seat is uncomfortable he can sit on his wallet." Events early on in the Melbourne weekend did little to help his cause. He was beset by more gearbox problems in free practice, and also spun twice after being caught out by a wet track twice. In qualifying he was 21st by virtue of Sato not being able to set a lap time in the dry, but 5.6s off pole and over 1.4s slower than Webber. But in the famous first corner melee that wiped out half the field and eventually allowed Webber to score a memorable 5th on debut, Yoong had also been a beneficiary. | |
| 2002 Takes his chances to finish 7th, but can't take the good luck with him to Sepang | In a car that handled poorly because it was set up for wet conditions although the race remained dry, Alex was up to 9th by the end of the first lap. As more cars dropped out, he passed an ailing David Coulthard at turn 9 - where the F1 Rejects webmaster and site author were watching! That put him into the points in 6th, and when Webber pitted first he was promoted to 5th. However, as soon as he himself pitted, upon rejoining the track he was passed by Mika Salo for 6th and he remained 7th for the rest of the race. Only a single position outside of a World Championship point, it would turn out to be Yoong's best F1 result, even if it was largely by default. Still, it had been a terrific boost for the entire Minardi team, which now went to Sepang, Alex's home race and home of the team's main backers, full of confidence. On Friday practice, he even outpaced Eddie Irvine's lamentable Jaguar R3. After qualifying only 0.7s adrift of Webber, Yoong would have been hoping for a race almost as impressive as Mark's had been in Melbourne. But once again Jones on Aussie TV held little hope for him, as this clip attests. When the lights went out, Yoong got ahead of his team-mate, and held onto Irvine for the first segment of the race. At this first stop though his refuelling rig malfunctioned, forcing him to repeat his stop and costing him so much time that soon after he was about to be lapped by the Jaguar. The Ulsterman lunged down the inside of the Minardi going into turn 9, only for Alex to turn into the apex and tread on Irvine's front wing. | |
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| 2002 San Marino and Austria prove major blows to Alex's confidence | Eddie fumed on ITV's broadcast: "I don't know whether he drives that line normally, or he made a mistake and didn't see, I don't know ... He made it look like he was leaving me all the room in the world, and just chopped across, maybe that's his line." But Alex's race would be short-lived after that, after losing fourth, fifth and sixth gears. Although his fastest race lap was only 0.065s shy of Webber, it had been a disappointing day for Yoong, and given that Mark retired five laps later as well, likewise for Minardi's sponsors. In Brazil, Alex was the only man more than 2.3s outside the pole time (he was 3.6s away), but he came home 13th despite a spin, calling it the toughest race he'd ever done. San Marino, though, on a track where he had raced in Italian F3000, proved a devastating experience. In qualifying he lapped 2.45s slower than Webber, 6.15s off Michael Schumacher on pole, and 0.474s outside of the 107% mark. With no extenuating circumstance to call upon, Yoong faced the indignity of a DNQ. Alex didn't get the chance to race in Spain either, but for different reasons. After several rear and front wing failures for both Yoong and Webber throughout practice and qualifying, deciding it was a manufacturing flaw Stoddart pulled both the PS02s out of the race. Austria then proved equally eventful. With his mother present as part of a Mothers Day celebration on the part of the Austrian organisers, he was over 4.2s slower in qualifying - an eternity on a track where the pole time was just over 68 seconds. | |
| 2002 At Monaco, outdoes Sato by keeping his historic machine out of the barriers, and almost winning | By lap 15 he was already a lap down, meaning that he had been around 4.5s slower per lap than the Ferraris up front. He then had a half-spin in front of Ralf Schumacher just as the Williams was about to lap him. After a safety car period, it was his massive lock-up on cold tyres that caused Nick Heidfeld to brake heavily, the Sauber driver losing control as his brakes failed and T-boning Sato's Jordan in the most violent accident of the season. Meanwhile, Alex's race ended with an engine detonation. Monaco was next up, but having never driven before on this most tricky of circuits, Yoong agreed to participate in the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco the weekend before the race proper. He was offered a ride in a Lotus 72 that had been driven by Ronnie Peterson to no fewer than seven podium positions including four wins during 1973. Sato was also participating that weekend, but whereas he managed to throw his Lotus 49 into the armco, Alex impressed on his way to 3rd on the grid. There was better to come. It took an eternity for the grid to form, and three of the four cars on the front two rows overheated and were slow away. The one who did get away, into an immediate lead, was Alex in his evocative JPS-liveried Lotus. He led all the way until a safety car intervention, when he found himself stuck in 5th gear. Forced to drive the last four laps - at Monaco of all places - in 5th, he was passed on the last lap by Martin Stretton in a Tyrrell, and thus denied a headling-grabbing victory. | |
 | See a video of Alex Yoong at Monaco. On his first flying lap in qualifying, Alex flies down the pit straight before ploughing into the barriers at Ste Devote. (MPEG format, 3.42mb, 11 secs) | |
| 2002 More drama with spins, penalties, refueling and hydraulic problems and more! | Still, 2nd place was a great fillip leading into the F1 weekend, but sadly it unravelled quickly. One accident on Thursday practice was followed by a second in qualifying, when on his first flying lap he slid into the Ste Devote barrier. Almost two seconds slower than Webber in qualifying, although Mark mixed it in the early stages of the race with the BARs and Saubers, Yoong eventually retired when he ran over debris on the approach to the Massanet, sidewalled the armco, and damaged his right rear trackrod. After being over 1.8s off Webber in qualifying again in Canada, it was a comparatively quiet drive to 14th for Alex, despite a drink bottle that didn't work and a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. But the drama continued at the Nurburgring, which Yoong declared "a bit of a go-kart circuit" that he didn't like. The track would get its revenge, though. To kick things off he misread the starting gantry lights in the glare, moved as soon as the fifth light came on, and was given another drive-through penalty. On Australian TV, Darrell Eastlake remarked that Yoong didn't need a penalty, to which Jones made another biting quip: "No, he needs a ten-second start!" It only got worse from there. He went off the road on lap 12, then spun coming into the pits for a fuel stop, had another refuelling rig problem like in Malaysia, and finally retired with a broken hydraulic pump. But if all that was discouraging, Alex could have looked forward to the next round at Silverstone, which he had at least been to in his British F3 days. | |
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| 2002 Stoddarts patience runs out as Alex loses his confidence and can't do the job | Unfortunately, he was about to plumb further depths. With not enough dry running to help set up the PS02, and without power steering on the Silverstone sweepers, Alex missed the 107% by just over 0.2s. Ironically, it had been Marques' non-qualification in Britain the previous year that had proved one of the catalysts for Yoong getting his drive in the first place. By comparison, an uneventful 10th place finish for Alex at Magny-Cours, with only an early spin during the race to mention, came as a welcome relief. It proved a temporary reprieve. At the revised Hockenheim, where Yoong and his crew thought that there would be no difficulty in qualifying, he once again missed the cut by under 0.2s. "I'm as puzzled as everyone else why we were so slow today," he said. Stoddart, though, went some way to putting his finger on the problem: "He's lost his confidence. There's no reason for that today. He doesn't know why, we don't know why. Technically we can't find a reason. He just didn't do it." It was time for the team boss to sit down with his driver: "It Alex were to say to me, 'I can't find the reason but I'm struggling to qualify,' then clearly we've got to make a decision. And that decision could in the extreme be that for a couple of races we replace him and we cram in some testing. ... Malaysia should be proud of Alex's effort, I'm proud of it. He's done a lot to be in F1 but something's clearly gone wrong. ... At Silverstone we knew what it was ... everything was fine. But it isn't fine today." | |
| 2002 Yoong gets philosophical as Davidson takes his spot for 2 races | Rumour circulated that Alonso, who was now Renault's test driver, would replace Yoong for the rest of the season with Alex relegated to test driver, given that the Malaysian government sponsorship deal did not depend on whether Yoong raced or tested. Bryan Herta and Justin Wilson, who joined Alex and others for the second Thunder in the Park event, were also touted as possibilities. But in the end, Minardi chose Anthony Davidson to compete in Hungary and Belgium, whilst Alex underwent a test program. Yoong agreed he needed the time off. "I accepted Paul's decision, which resulted from a frank discussion with him. It was a mutual decision, as both he and I felt a rest would be beneficial for me in the medium term. The breather will allow me to regroup and recharge in order to take on these challenges again." He turned up at Budapest to support the team, but then missed Spa before testing at Monza in the lead-up to the Italian GP, where he would make his return. During the test he reflected on why he had lost his pace: "I think in a way it starts reaching the stage where you are trying too hard and you are thinking too much about what to do. It has got to be second nature, you have got to let the car flow ... at the moment everything I am doing in the car is all conscious and conscious thought is way too slow. When the car is heavy or I'm on old tyres, I'm doing the same times as Mark, but with low fuel and going that little bit quicker, I think I am trying to do too much." | |
| 2002 Does a sensational job at Indy, with fastest lap quicker than Webber | At Monza, where he had made his Grand Prix debut, a refreshed Alex now made his F1 return. Although an electronic problem at his pit stop which stalled his Asiatech engine cost him several minutes and left him 13th and 6 laps adrift at the end, the advantages of having two races off were clear. Yoong had been able to run comfortably in front of Sato during the race and believed that he could have beaten the Jordan home, and his fastest lap had only been 0.3s slower than Webber. America was even better, and arguably his best performance in an F1 car. Just 3 seconds off Michael Schumacher's pole, he set a fastest lap of the race 0.02s quicker than Webber before a spectacular engine failure at the end of the front straight eliminated him. His much-improved late-season form continued at Suzuka, where on speed at least he made up for a poor showing the previous year by qualifying 0.31s shy of Mark and almost 2 seconds faster than he had gone in 2001. A brilliant start and an aggressive first lap saw him pass Webber after giving the Australian a nudge on the way, but it came to naught when he spun on lap 9 and then lost it into the gravel at turn 2 on lap 14. But Stoddart was still pleased with his man. He enthused: "His performance [at Monza] and at Indy was fantastic. He had raised his game, found a second a lap and it made me ask myself the question, if I'd rested him after Imola we might have seen an even stronger Alex." | |
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| 2002 Some hope held for a test seat, but it comes to naught | But it was not enough to save him from poor end-of-season reviews. F1 Rejects awarded him the 'Reject of the Year' award in front of the errant pair Felipe Massa and Sato, who had cost their teams millions in repair jobs. We wrote: "He seemed like a personable chap, unpretentious, aware of the limits of his ability, a hard worker, a willing learner, and comfortable with the media. Sadly, none of those qualities had anything to do with being able to drive a Grand Prix car quickly." By his own admission, Yoong had not done enough to retain a race seat in F1, but he still held some hope for a test seat, ideally with a competitive team. It led the sharp-tongued Alan Jones to make one last cutting comment on the Australian coverage: "I think Alex Yoong needs to be test driver somewhere because he quite obviously hasn't got it to be a full time F1 driver, and, you know, it doesn't matter how big the wallet is, if you haven't got the ability, what's the point of it?" In the end there was a sting in the tail. Despite a full season plus numerous 2-seater outings, it seemed that Alex's Malaysian money had not been forthcoming. Indeed, by mid-2003, Stoddart revealed that he was taking legal action to chase over $1.5 million from three Malaysian companies, and that some $200,000 he owed to Yoong in driver wages depended on him recovering from those companies. Yoong then demanded his fees regardless, bringing his relationship with Minardi to a somewhat acrimonious end. | |
| 2002 Although he didn't warrant a continuing drive, analysis of his performance must take everything into account | Many have looked at Alex's performances in F1 and nominated him as one of the worst drivers F1 has ever seen (whatever that means!). Arguably, that is too harsh. His results in British F3 and Italian F3000 in 1999 had shown what he could do, but his accident at Spa and his run of outs in the international F3000 championship had been a real turning point. Disinterest from his sponsors over his Japanese efforts, leading to an under-funded campaign and sub-par results, meant that Yoong brought no career momentum when he was thrust into F1. Alex was always one of those drivers who is not a blazing talent, but whose ability required nurture. Minardi in late-2001 and 2002 was not the best team for that. Stoddart's attention for the first half of 2002 had hardly been on his own team. He had been more concerned with fighting the FIA, the other teams, and the Walkinshaw-backed Phoenix consortium to get the share of the television money that the Prost team had forfeited when they folded during the off-season. Accordingly, Alex never got the amount of testing away from the spotlight of race weekends that he expected, wanted, and in fact needed in order to build his confidence and bring out the best in him, keeping in mind admittedly the tight budgetary limits Minardi were under. We'll let Alex have the final word from his recent interview with F1 Rejects: "When I went to Minardi, I brought a lot of budget and I really thought we'd be testing every weekend in-between races. As it turned out, I only tested 5 days..." | |
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| 2003 Dips the top in the water of Aussie V8s before taking the plunge into Champ Cars | With no F1 prospects, it was time for a fresh start. First, Yoong signed up with ex-Reynard man Rick Gorne's Goman management company, and then he tested an Australian Holden Commodore V8 supercar with the Lansvale Smash Repairs team at Sydney's Eastern Creek raceway. It was also a new beginning away from the track, Alex having married his long-time girlfriend, former Miss Malaysia Arianna Teoh, who gave birth to their first child Alister. But Alex still hankered after competitive single-seater racing, and the closest thing to F1 was Champ Cars in America. During the 2002-03 off-season, Champ Cars had undergone turmoil, as the split with the Indy Racing League and the number of high-profile defections to the IRL finally took their toll. Champ Cars 2003-style consisted of a comparatively low-quality field of stalwart teams struggling to find enough backing and generally happy to take paying drivers. One of those teams was Dale Coyne Racing, who had Swiss youngster Joel Camathias in the number 19 car, and Roberto Gonzalez in the number 11 machine. But after the first race, Gonzalez reportedly failed to fulfil a sponsorship payment and, having already started talking to Yoong, got on the phone to Kuala Lumpur on the Sunday before the next race in Mexico. Alex flew to Monterrey, sorted out a deal, and landed Gonzalez's seat without having yet raised a single sponsorship dollar. | |
| 2003 It happened in Monterrey - Alex's Champ Car debut was somewhat impressive | "It's a great opportunity for me from Dale Coyne Racing," he said. "The team is showing great faith in me as they know it's not possible to raise the sponsorship at a late notice but I'm confident of organising the sponsors once this race is under our belt. The race, however, will be tough, as I've never tested a Champ Car, but I've never stopped training to maintain my physical condition, so with the experience I've got from F1, I feel I'm ready for this challenge." After practice at Monterrey, Alex was able to compare Champ Cars to F1. "The car is good fun ... You can't chuck it around like an F1 car. But it has plenty of power and the grip is mostly mechanical. The aerodynamics are a lot less critical than on an F1 car." But he was also starting to get a more realistic appraisal of his ability to find enough sponsorship dollars: "Champ Car is just not as well known as Formula 1 in my region of the world. F1 is all they have ever known and it's hard to change perceptions." Still, his debut outing ought to have caught the eye. Qualifying 17th was a decent effort, especially considering the four ahead of him were accomplished drivers in Darren Manning, Roberto Moreno, Patrick Carpentier and Jimmy Vasser. But in the race, Alex put in a solid, consistent drive, finishing a lap down in 9th, just behind Carpentier, ahead of the likes of Vasser, Mario Dominguez, Ryan Hunter-Reay and team-mate Camathias, and scoring 4 points in the process. | |
| 2003 Economic and sponsorship realities leave Alex in the lurch | On the back of that result, as well as an impressive test session at the Arizona Motorsports Park and the prospects of sponsorship coming through, the team signed Yoong for the rest of the season. "Given the opportunity for a full season ride, Alex will show the world his competitive abilities," Coyne claimed. Yoong was no less enthusiastic: "I'm excited about the prospect of doing the whole season, as well as being relieved that this is sorted out. We can now concentrate on the racing." But from there his next three outings were troubled. He qualified last at Long Beach and was the first retirement. At the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, he started a terrific 13th in front of Vasser, Hunter-Reay and Tiago Monteiro, but again spun out. And then at the Lausitzring he once more started 13th, in front of Monteiro, Hunter-Reay, Carpentier, Paul Tracy and Adrian Fernandez, but mechanical problems this time put him out just before half-distance. By the end of May, with the hoped-for sponsorship having not come through, Coyne had to make the tough decision to ask Yoong to step aside, communicating the request to Gorne. Iraq war uncertainties, terrorism, and at that time the SARS epidemic were causing Malaysian companies to be cautious. As Alex admitted, "There is simply not enough interest in the series from Malaysia at the moment and we have not been able to find the necessary funding to complete the year." | |
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| 2003 Hard to find a drive mid-season; wins Porsche Carrera at Macau | Worse still, being in the middle of the year the prospects of finding other medium-term drives even were almost nil, and Alex had to content himself with three one-off appearances. The first was back in the 12-hour Merdeka Millennium Endurance event at Sepang where he joined Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir and Faizal Hakimi Jaafar in a Crest Jaseri Racing Porsche 911 GT3, in an effort that was as much about competing to win as it was about raising money for charity. For every lap completed, donations were being pledged to the Malaysian Liver Foundation, the Thalassemia Association of Malaysia, and the Bangi Orphanage. The team was hoping to raise 260,000 ringgit. As it turned out, the car qualified 4th, led by a lap in the middle stages, and dropped back with mechanical problems before a late-race charge by Yoong to claw back lost ground was brought undone when a rain shower saw the Honda Civic of Azman Hussin to crash into the Porsche in a three-car pile-up. Alex's next race was also in a Porsche, when he was invited to drive a guest car in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia round supporting the Macau F3 GP. In the only 2002-spec car in the field, Yoong overcame several brushes with the wall to qualify 3rd, before sweeping past Charles Kwan and pole-sitter Matthew Marsh (the same man who co-managed Yoong's Formula Asia nemesis Brian Saunders) at the start, and never looking back despite gear selection worries from lap 3 onwards. He won by 1.186 seconds. | |
| 2003 Bathurst 24hr races ends with a suicidal engine | The following weekend though was a case of going from ecstasy to agony when Alex came to Mount Panorama to compete in the Bathurst 24 hour production car event. In the middle of the year he had been signed by the SAE Racing team owned by David Searle. Yoong would team up with David's son Luke Searle, Alan Gurr and Geoff Full in a BMW 320i, with BMW engine guru Ernst Schlaepfer on board as well. After a test session in July at Queensland Raceway, it looked like a serious effort. The squad was aiming firstly for a class win, but outright expectations fluctuated between hoping for a podium place and dreaming of a possible win. Even though there would be cars in the field with 5 litres more engine capacity, the team were hoping that the legendary BMW reliability would pull through. For Alex, there was the added attraction of fulfilling a childhood ambition: "I have always wanted to race at Bathurst since I was a little boy and I believe it is one of the greatest circuits in the world." But the Bathurst assault quickly turned farcical. It qualified 13th, but the engine was soon going rough and losing power. Its fuel filter failed and its fuel injector jets were blocked, but after the fuel and air systems were replaced overnight, the problem recurred and was now traced to the electrics. Unable to fix it fully before race start, the car dawdled around at a reduced pace until 7:30pm, five and a half hours into the event, when the amount of damage being done to the engine forced the team to park the 320i. | |
| 2003-04 Does deal to race in V8 enduros, races in Konica V8s to prepare | At 12:45pm the next day, 75 minutes until the end of the race, the SAE team decided to send the limping car out to see the finish, which it duly did. The BMW completed 50 laps exactly, whereas the victorious Holden Monaros had done 522 - 477 laps more! Of the 46 cars that started, the SAE BMW had completed the third fewest laps out of anyone. In fact, 11 of the retirements had completed more than the 50 laps Yoong and co had managed. But for Alex it would not be his last outing at Mount Panorama. Come 2004, Yoong still had no full-time program lined up, and was embarking in a career in the media as an F1 presenter for the ESPN-Star network. But by May, with further support from Malaysian company Pan Global, he was looking towards Australia again. With the help of his Australian manager, Ross Cadell, he started to seek out the possibility of a co-driver's role in the two famous V8 Supercar endurance events at Sandown and Bathurst later in the year. But first he needed more V8 Supercar racing experience, and Yoong did a deal with Shane Beikoff Racing to compete in the last three rounds of the Konica Minolta series, the feeder championship to the V8 main game in much the same way the Busch series is a feeder to the full Nextel Cup in NASCAR. After a test at Queensland Raceway with the midfield team, Yoong made his V8 Supercar debut in a Ford Falcon AU at Eastern Creek, with F1 Rejects' site author on hand to witness the occasion! | |
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| 2004 Keeps it on the track for middling Shane Beikoff racing team | After qualifying 17th, in race 1 of 3 he leapt to 13th off the line, fell back when he got caught up with a spinning competitor, but climbed his way back to 15th. The second race, a reverse grid affair, saw Alex again make a blinding start to be 8th by the end of lap one, only to be tapped into a spin and collected by Robert Jones. The significant damage put the Falcon out for the rest of the weekend, but Yoong bounced back at the next round at Queensland Raceway, starting 9th in Beikoff Racing's best ever qualifying position. A troubled first race saw Yoong drop to a lapped 25th place after his gearbox kept getting stuck in 4th. That in turn put him in good stead for the reverse grid race, but an incident with Kevin Mundy on the first lap meant that Alex could finish no higher than 10th. He fell back again in the third race to finish 18th. But despite these fairly average showings in what was admittedly a middling team, Yoong earned himself an endurance drive in the main championship, and never competed in a third event for Beikoff Racing. In the main series, the WPS Racing team owned by businessman Craig Gore (now part-owner of the Team Australia Champ Car outfit) had been having an unspectacular season with drivers David Besnard and Mark Noske in their Ford Falcon BAs. Yoong and New Zealander John McIntyre were signed to make up the driving team for the endurance events, but when Noske fell out with the team prior to Sandown, Neil McFadyen was brought in. | |
| 2004 Alex forced to do triple stint at that most mammoth of touring races, the Bathurst 1000 | Yoong's inclusion came at a time when Asia was firmly on V8 Supercar's mind. The series had just done a deal to race at the Shanghai Grand Prix track in China from 2005 onwards, the first time the championship would go beyond Australia and New Zealand. To announce the deal, series organisers sent Holden hero Mark Skaife and Yoong to Shanghai. Alex became the first man to drive a V8 Supercar around the Shanghai track, taking Queensland Premier Peter Beattie and other Chinese dignitaries for hot laps. Both Yoong and McFadyen's contracts included an option for 2005, so if Alex impressed he was possibly in line for a full-time seat the following year. Paired with McIntyre, the Kiwi qualified the car 22nd at Sandown and they eventually finished 21st in a wet event in which both WPS cars went off-track and sloshed through the mud a few too many times, including Alex. He would have been hoping for an better performance at the famous Bathurst 1000, where he would be teamed with McFadyen in a head-to-head comparison. Alex was entrusted with qualifying this time, but he only managed to put the Falcon 32nd out of 35. Another blistering first lap saw him up to 25th, and after 20 of the 161 laps he handed over to McFadyen who drove the next 57 laps. In a vote of confidence, Yoong was then installed back into the car to do the remainder of the race, a gruelling triple-stint especially when he later revealed that he had had not enough ventilation in the car and he had run out of drink. | |
| 2004 Indy suport race on the Gold Coast one to forget; blitzes the rest in Carrera practice | But he had hauled the car up to a good 15th place by the end. Was it enough to secure a long-term future with the WPS team? As it was, with Noske having departed, a regular seat had actually opened up before 2005 for the final three rounds of 2004, the first being the round at the Gold Coast as a support race to the Champ Car event. In fact, both WPS were up for grabs, as Besnard stepped out of the Falcon and into a Champ Car as a one-off. Yoong and McIntyre were retained to fill the vacancies. Again the cards didn't fall Alex's way. 29th in qualifying, one spot behind McIntyre, was followed by a first lap retirement in the first race, and 23rd in the second after steering and brake troubles. With Besnard returning for the following round, neither McIntyre or Yoong were kept on, Gore bringing in Owen Kelly instead. Alex had done OK in his V8 Supercar outings but he had been solid rather than special, and with many young drivers catching the eye, there would be no more room in the big V8s for the Malaysian. Between Sandown and Bathurst though, with V8 Supercars and China still mutually drumming up interest for the Shanghai V8 round in 2005, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia organisers invited Alex for a second outing in that series in the support race to the Chinese F1 Grand Prix, after his Macau victory in 2003. At this stage, Yoong was being seen as a bridge between V8 Supercars and the Asian market, and in practice Alex was over a second faster than anyone else. | |
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| 2004-05 A1GP and Sheikh Maktoum prove Yoong's redemption | But qualifying saw him only start 3rd, before a deflating tyre and eventual puncture in the race left him trailing in midfield. Six weeks later Yoong was out of V8 Supercars, and once again there was no racing on the horizon for him. Fortuitously though, it was at this time that Sheikh Maktoum's vision for A1 Grand Prix started becoming reality. For someone who had single-handedly flown the Malaysian flag in world motorsport for a decade, it was a perfect fit; in hindsight, it has rejuvenated his career and reputation. Alex became seat holder and lead driver of the Malaysian team and started putting together a brand new outfit of primarily Malaysian crew members, in contrast to other national teams that were outsourcing operations to existing, experienced racing teams. Amongst the only non-Malaysians would be team principal Jack Cunningham and chief engineer Greg Wheeler, who had been Yoong's chief mechanic at Minardi. The team chose Malaysia's sporting colours of yellow, white and black to adorn their entry. In the first test session at Brands Hatch, Yoong posted the third fastest time behind France and Brazil, and by the second test at Paul Ricard, the team had brought in second driver Fairuz Fauzy who had been competing in GP2. The rest, of course, is recent history. Yoong qualified 9th in the Brands Hatch opener and finished an excellent 5th in the feature race after Fauzy had driven the sprint race. At the Lausitzring, after starting 18th Yoong charged up to 7th by the end of lap one and finished one place higher. | |
| 2005 Alex brilliant off the start line, with varying results including 5th, some spins, and a 4th | Alex's starts being one of his strengths, his getaway in the feature race in Germany provided one of the moments of the season so far when he dived through to 2nd place, but a slow pit stop, a mid-race off and a drive-through penalty saw him drop to 16th. Fauzy drove the car at Estoril, before Yoong showed his experience at Eastern Creek, qualifying 9th and finishing 8th and 5th respectively, in a weekend that saw him generously give his time for an interview with F1 Rejects. Team Malaysia would have been well fired up going into their home race at Sepang, and from 7th on the grid Fauzy and Yoong repeated the Eastern Creek results, Fairuz finishing 8th in the sprint, and Alex coming 5th in the feature, overtaking New Zealand on the last lap. Dubai saw Yoong start 8th, before holding off Jos Verstappen for the last points-scoring place (10th) in the sprint, but an early spin in the feature event put paid to any hopes of another strong result. For the Durban street race, the team unveiled Proton as a sponsor, but two non-finishes marked their most miserable weekend so far. Yoong made up for it in Indonesia though, qualifying 6th, finishing 4th in the sprint after a terrific move on Toro Rosso F1 test driver Neel Jani, having driven the entire race with a loose front wing after being pushed by Tomas Enge into the Swiss car on the first lap. That was only the precursor to the exhilarating feature race, where he leapt up to 2nd off the line. | |
| 2006 Takes a dominant victory by 10 seconds in Shanghai, follows that up with 2nd | Three minor collisions, a mistimed, delayed pit stop, and a series of fine overtaking moves through the field later, and Alex finished 2nd in a race he could have won. It was his first podium in an international open-wheeler race since 1999, but there was even better to come. 10th on the grid, 7th in the sprint race and 11th in the feature was perhaps lower than expected at Monterrey on a track Alex knew, but he bounced back to qualify 4th at the penultimate round at Laguna Seca. However, on a wet race day, an early spin in the first race left him starting from the back in the feature, where he climbed back to a points-scoring 10th. But Yoong and Team Malaysia's true ability was unleashed devastatingly at the final round in Shanghai. With a stunning last gasp lap he took pole, before he dominated the sprint race to win by almost 10 seconds over 15 laps in an awesome display. It was Alex's first single seater victory since his Formula Asia days. 2nd in the feature race, edged out by fellow ex-F1 driver Enge, plus the fastest race lap over the two races, marked perhaps the most convincing meet of his career to date, and a dominant one for the team. Alex summed it up: "It's a fantastic way to end the season and really gives us so much confidence for the future. I know how much this will mean to everyone at home in Malaysia, and I'm very proud to be winning for my country in A1 Grand Prix." | |
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| 2006 Secures a sports car drive for Team Netherlands alongside Jan Lammers | It also elevated Team Malaysia to 5th place with 74 points, just three points behind 4th-placed New Zealand. The achievement was all the more notable, given that Malaysia was by far the highest-placed team that had not outsourced its efforts to an established racing operation. At time of writing, it had also helped to secure for Alex a sports car drive for the 2006 regular season alongside Team Netherlands chief Jan Lammers in the Le Mans Series, including the Le Mans 24 hours. Arguably, at the age of 29, Yoong is only now reaching the peak of his abilities. He will never be back in F1 again, which is a pity because he will forever be saddled with an admittedly not unfair reputation for being something of a paying plodder, when age and circumstances meant that he was never at his best whilst in F1. Alex's efforts in A1 GP are a better indicator of his true potential, and it will hopefully lead race fans across the globe to give him the respect that he deserves as an international-class driver, and a pioneer for his nation. | |
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