Alex Yoong

Alex Yoong Born (1976-07-20) 20 July 1976 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Formula One World Championship career Nationality Malaysian Active years 2001–2002 Teams Minardi Entries 18 (14 starts) Championships 0 Wins 0 Podiums 0 Career points 0 Pole positions 0 Fastest laps 0 First entry 2001 Italian Grand Prix Last entry 2002 Japanese Grand Prix 24 Hours of Le Mans career Years 2006–2007 Teams Racing for Holland, Charouz Racing System Best finish 8th (2007) Class wins 0

Alexander Charles Yoong Loong (simplified Chinese: 熊龙; traditional Chinese: 熊龍; pinyin: Xióng Lóng, (born 20 July 1976 in Kuala Lumpur), is a Malaysian race car driver of European and Asian parentage. His mother, Joanna Bean, is from England. His father, Hanifah Yoong Yin Fah (熊英華), a Malaysian Chinese, is a former racer and manager of the Shah Alam circuit between 1988 and 1998. Yoong is the first Malaysian to race in Formula One with Minardi in 2001 and 2002. Yoong worked for Lotus Racing as head of driver development and is also a commentator for ESPN Star Sports. Yoong married Arriana Teoh, who was Miss Malaysia World 1997 in 2002 and has a son, Alister, born in 2003.

Early Life

Yoong was born on 20 July 1976 at the Sambhi Clinic in Kuala Lumpur. His mother, Johanna Bean, is a British expatriate and his father Hanifah Yoong Yin Fah is a Malaysian of Chinese descent through Alex's grandfather Yoong Wan Hoi who emigrated in 1933. His grandfather worked as a contractor and steel trader but was forced to retire during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In an interview in 1999, Yoong states that he sees himself first as a Malaysian, then part Chinese and part English. His father started racing sedans in 1978 and his mother followed suit in 1983 in rallying. Yoong became an avid follower of Formula One by the age of 4. Given an Kawasaki 50cc motocross on his 8th birthday, he demonstrated the ability to be able to race.

Early career

Alex Yoong racing in Formula Asia 2000 in Zhuhai.

His early racing career started in saloon cars in 1992 when he was 16. Yoong became the youngest driver in Malaysian motorsport history and moved into a one-make Proton series. He secured his first pole and win in his fourth role and ended up winning two out of five races. In late 1992, Yoong took up saloon racing and took a Toyota Corolla to the Macau Grand Prix and finished 3rd in the 160cc class in the Guia race. He then went on to win the first ever single seater race held in China - the Formula Asia International race - in the streets of Zhuhai in 1994. He won the 1995 Malaysian Formula Asia championship and was the runner up in the same year's Formula Asia International championship with multiple wins and podium positions. Within the same year, Yoong assisted in the filming of Jackie Chan's racing film Thunderbolt at Shah Alam which led to Chan describing him as a "very good racing driver". Yoong was contacted by Paul Stewart to test a Formula Vauxhall car before he gained the opportunity to test a Formula Renault Sport machine at Donington Park and Snetterton for the Startline Racing team.

Formula Renault

Yoong began a campaign in Formula Renault with Startline Racing in 1996 along with sponsorship from Malaysian tyre manufacturer, Silverstone tyres. At the first round in Donington, on lap one, Yoong out-braked three cars entering the Melbourne hairpin with his four tyres locking up but an eventual collision with Rollo McNally saw Yoong retire. Going into 1997, Yoong remained with Startline and believed he had a chance of competiting for race wins. But inexperience and an uncompetitive chassis saw Yoong finish outside the top 10 of the championship.

Formula Three

Yoong consulted with his father Hanifah, and believed the best chance was to go into lower categories. However, he decided to go into Formula Three to convince himself that he was a skilled driver. He joined Portman Racing Team in their Dallara HKS-Mitsubishi. Joining them at Spa, Yoong finished 16th in a field of thirty cars and came 11th at the next round at Silverstone.

During the off-season, Yoong took up mental and physical training with psychologists at the Bukit Jalil Sports Complex back in Malaysia. The training gave Yoong confidence when arriving back in England in 1998. Remaining with Portman Racing, the team were using Renault engines for their Dallara F397 and F398 chassis. Consistency brought Yoong result in the lower half of the top ten which inculded two 6th places at Silverstone. Going into the round at Spa, Yoong switched to Alan Docking Racing. He had to adjust to the Mugen-Honda engine and came up with results very similar than with Portman Racing.

1999 proved to be a watershed year. Yoong's sponsors dropped out and his father was forced to fund his son's racing activites until the family became indebted. He missed the first two rounds of the year but rebounded strongly when he returned at Thruxton. Driving a Dallara F399 Mugen Honda, Yoong finished 6th 11 seconds behind winner Jenson Button. He followed this strong finish with 5th at Brands Hatch, in a race that covered the top 7 by 3.4 seconds. The second race at Brands Hatch saw Yoong record a 2nd place behind Narain Karthikeyan which was followed up with another 6th at Oulton Park before leaving the series for Formula 3000. Overall, Yoong finished 11th in the championship.

Formula 3000

Yoong joined the Italian F3000 championship from the third round onwards. Joining Monaco Motorsports, a team run by ex-Formula One driver Lamberto Leoni. He was team-mates to Marco Apicella. On Yoong's debut at Enna Pergusa, he qualified 12th. He finished 5th.

At the next round at Donington, Yoong ended up starting 5th and drove arguably the best race of his career. During the race that caused unpredictable conditions and other competitors spinning out, Yoong ended up 2nd at mid-point two seconds behind leader Werner Lupberger, and the pair pulled out a 22-second gap over the entire field. With the deployment of the safety car to clear several cars who had retired, Yoong was unable to see the safety car's lights in the spray. This mistake led to him being 8 seconds behind Lupberger, but Yoong set five consective fastest laps to catch up. Later in the race, he was in 5th gear at 220kph and acquaplaned and spun after hitting a puddle. But, Yoong miraculously recovered and once again closed on Lupberger. In the end, he finished 2nd, 1.217s behind Lupberger.

Despite this brillant result, Yoong was unable to qualify in Austria, Germany or Hungary. In Belgium, Having qualified 16th and up into 11th by the 5th lap, he collided with Justin Wilson's Astromega car going into Eau Rouge. Yoong lost control and hurtled left side first into the tyre barrier at 260kph with an impact of around 6.5G. He was treated by Sid Watkins and the FIA medical team on the scene. They discovered that Yoong's helmet was badly damaged but was still intact. After 10 minutes, he was freed and taken to the track medical centre before he was taken by helicopter to the Leige hospital to for a compete body and brain scan. Yoong was cleared by doctors of any neurological or spinal injuries but was kept for observation. Yoong managed to attend the race at Misano but needing crutches to walk but delared himself 80% fit and qualified 9th and finish in the same place.

The final round at Imola saw Yoong qualify 7th and made a stunning start to 3rd before being rammed off the track by Krisitan Kolby. Several laps later, his brakes failed at Tosa and pitched him int the gravel. He finished in 10th in the Italian title with 8 points.

Two end of the season outings in Formula Three rounded out 1999. At Macau, Yoong went from 23rd on his way to 9th in the first heat before a 12th place finish in the second to finish 7th overall. In the Korean Formula Three Grand Prix at Changwon, an altercation with a backmarker placed him out in the first race, but the second heat saw a late-race charge from the back to snatch 10th on the final lap but was not classified overall because of this first heat retirement.

Formula Nippon

During the off-season, Yoong tested for both the Nakajima and Le Mans Formula Nippon teams. His first trial at Suzuka took place on 8th and 9th December 1999 suprised ex-Formula One driver Satoru Nakajima after Yoong set a lap that made him 5th fastest out of 12. Nakajima said of Yoong "Alex is very much better than I originally thought". Yoong spent time at the Bukit Jalil institute with psychologist Michel Gagne and trainer Jorg Teichmann for Recuperating from his injuries at Spa the previous year. His Formula Nippon career started disastrously at Suzuka after crashing his Reynard 99L Mugen at 250kph at the daunting 130R in qualifying and forced Yoong to miss the race. At Motegi, a mechnical failure was followed a stalled car at the start at Mine after starting 7th, where he procedded to cause a multi-car pile-up in desperation to climb back up the field. Yoong's team manager, K. Homma told him he need to calm down and finish races and his father Hanifah encouraged him to take off the pressure. Yoong returned to Malaysia for the annual Merdeka Millennium Endurance sports car race at Sepang and shared a TVR Chimaera to second place with Adam Lokman and Saladin Mazlan.

Formula One

2001

Yoong was visited by Minardi Sporting Director Rupert Manwaring during a visit to Malaysia to meet with potential backers for a Formula One seat. Manwaring offered him a seat, possibly as early as the British Grand Prix. By 5 July, Yoong had obtained sponsorship money from the government-backed Magnum Corporation and tested at Mugello becoming the first Malaysian to drive an Formula One car. Yoong made his Formula One debut at the Italian Grand Prix replacing Tarso Marques. On Friday practice, electrical problems limited Yoong's running and gearbox trouble cut short Saturday free practice. During Qualifying, he did not complete a flying lap with more gearbox problems and had to share the spare car with team-mate Fernando Alonso. Yoong retired from the race whilst running 15th. At Indianapolis, he qualified 22nd and overtook Arrows driver Enrique Bernoldi at the first corner. Yoong eventually retired after 38 laps due to gearbox failure. At Suzuka, a track he knew well, Yoong finished in 16th, 3 laps down.

2002

For 2002, Alonso left the team and Mark Webber became Yoong's new teammate. During the first race in Australia, he was beset by gearbox problems in free practice and spun twice when caught out by a wet track. Yoong qualified 21st ahead of Takuma Sato. During the race, he was up into 9th at the end of the first lap. Yoong was racing as high as 5th after passing David Coulthard for 6th. He eventually finished 7th after being passed by Mika Salo. This result was Yoong's best placed finish in Formula One. At his home race in Malaysia, he outpaced Eddie Irvine's Jaguar during Friday Practice. Yoong qualified 22nd and at the start of the race, he overtaked his team-mate Webber at the first first segment of the race. His refuelling rig malfunctioned at his first pit stop costing him time and lost a place to Irvine. Yoong retired after a collision with Irvine. In Brazil, Yoong finished 13th despite spinning and called the toughest race he had ever done. At San Marino, he qualified 0.474s outside the 107% rule and failed to qualify. Yoong and Webber did not race in Spain after several rear and front wing failures for both drivers throughout practice and qualifying. In Austria, Yoong set a time over 4.2s slower than the pole sitter. During the race, he spun in fromt of Ralf Schumacher before the Williams lapped him. Yoong retired with an engine failure.

At Monaco, Yoong participated in the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco before the actual race. He drove a Lotus 72 that was driven by Ronnie Peterson. He led until a safety car intervention when Yoong discovered his car was stuck in 5th gear and was forced to drive in this manner at the end of the race. During the actual grand prix weekend, Yoong sustained an accident during Thursday practice followed by a similar incident in qualifying when on his first flying lap, he slid into the Ste Devote barrier. The race saw Yoong retired after running over debris on the apporach to Massanet and sidewalled the armco to sustain damage his right rear trackrod. In Canada, he finished 14th despite a drink bottle button not being able to function and gained a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. At the Nurburging, Yoong delared the track "a bit of a go-kart circuit" as he disliked the layout. A second drive-through penalty was gained after he moved as the fifth red light came on at the start. At Silverstone, he failed to make the 107% cut during qualifying whilst a 10th place finish at Magny-Cours came as a welcome relief despite a spin. At the German Grand Prix, Yoong and his crew believed he would not be able to qualify and this was proven true after Yoong missed the 107% cut by 0.2s.

Rumors spread that Yoong was to be replaced by either Alonso, who was Renault's test driver or Bryan Herta and Justin Wilson. Minardi eventually settled for Anthony Davidson to competed in the Hungarian and Belgium Grand Prix whilst Yoong underwent a program in testing.

Yoong eventually returned for the Italian Grand Prix. Despite an electronic problem at his pitstop which cost him several minutes, Yoong ran comfortably ahead of Sato during the race to finish 13th. In America, his form improved to qualify 20th with a time 3 seconds slower than Michael Schumacher, but during the race, Yoong suffered an engine failure. At the final race at Suzuka, he made a brillant start with an agressive first lap that saw him pass Webber. On lap 9, Yoong spun into the gravel at turn two on Lap 14.

He is sometimes considered "one of the worst drivers F1 has ever seen".

Champ Car

After his Formula One career, Yoong initially struggled to remain visible in international motorsports. He went into Champ Car to join Dale Coyne racing to partner Joel Camathias after Roberto Gonzalez left due to lack of sponsorship. His debut race at Mexico saw Yoong qualiify 17th and finished 9th. Yoong was signed on a contract for the remainder of the season was signed after an impressive test session at the Arizona Motorsports Park gave the opportunity for more sponsorship to come forward. Despite this, Yoong qualified last at Long Beach and became the first retirement. At Brands Hatch, he qualified 13th but spun out. At the Lausitzring, Yoong again qualified in 13th and mechnical problems struck him before half-distance. By the end of May, sponsorship funding was not being recieved forcing Yoong to leave Champ Car.

Porsche Carrera Cup Asia

Yoong found a drive in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia after being invited to drive a guest car in a round supporting the Macau Formula Three Grand Prix. Driving a 2002-spec car, he overcome several brushes with the wall to qualify 3rd and swept past Charles Kwan and pole-sitter Matthew Marsh as the start of the race. Despite a gearbox issue, Yoong won the race by 1.186 seconds.

V8 Supercars

In the middle of 2003, Yoong was signed by the SAE Racing team to enter the Bathhurst 24 hour production car event. He was team-mates with Luke Searle (the son of the owner David Searle), Alan Gurr and Geoff Full in a BMW 320i. A test session at Queensland Raceway in July showed the car was competitive.The drivers qualified 13th but problems arose. During the qualifying, the BMW's engine had been losing power along with a failure of the fuel filter and the fuel injector jets were blocked. Come the race, the issues were still present until 75 minutes before the race end, but the team did complete 50 laps. For 2004, Yoong was embarking in a career in the media for ESPN-Star as an Formula One presenter. By the May of that year, support from Malaysian company Pan Global saw him drive in the V8 endurance events at Sandown and Bathurst.

For this to happen, Yoong signed with Shane Beikoff racing to competed in the final three rounds of the Konica Minolta series. Testing at Queensland Raceway gave Yoong his V8 Supercar debut in a Ford Falcon AU at Eastern Creek. After qualifying in 17th, he got into 13th at the start of the race but a collison with a fellow competitor saw Yoong drop two places. The damage caused the car to sit out for the rest of the weekend, but Yoong bounced back at Queensland Raceway to start 9th. The race was more eventful as he dropped to 25th and lapped after his car was stuck in 4th gear and an incident with Kevin Mundy on lap 1 meant he was unable to finish higher than 10th. The third race saw a 18th place finish.

A1 Grand Prix

Since his arrival in A1 Grand Prix Yoong has won three races: two sprint races and one feature race.

2005-06

He drove for A1 Team Malaysia in the A1 Grand Prix series. The series had widely regarded as rejuvenating Yoong's career and reputation. He became the lead driver and put together of an outfit of primary Malaysian crew members, an example followed by other National teams. Amongst the non-Malaysians was team principal Jack Cunninghan and chief enginner Greg Wheeler. The first test session at Brands Hatch saw Yoong set the third fastest time behind France and Brazil and the second test had brought in GP2 Driver Fairuz Fauzy. In the inguagral race at Brands Hatch saw Yoong qualify 9th and finished 5th in the feature race after Fauzy drove in the sprint race. At the Lausitzring, Yoong started in 18th and charged up to 7th by the end of the first lap and ended up in 6th. Yoong drove at Eastern Creek to qualify 9th and finished 8th and 5th respectively. At his home race in Malaysia, Yoong repeated his results at Eastern Creek. In Dubai, he started 8th and held off Jos Verstappen for 10th place and one point in the sprint race but an early spin in the feature event put a strong result out of the question. In Durban, the team gained Proton as a sponsor, but two consective retirements followed. Yoong made up for the retirements with a good qualifying for 6th place and finished 4thein the sprint race after a terrific overtaking pass on Neel Jani.

2006-07

The first round in Amsterdam saw Yoong collide with a stalled car before the warm-up lap but set fastest lap and finished 17th and earlier ended up 12th in the sprint race. The race at Brno, became Yoong's best results after taking a win in both the sprint and feature races. In Australia, Yoong finished 7th and 6th respectively. At the Round in Mexico, Yoong started from pole and gave Malaysia their third win of 2006-07 in the sprint race at the Autodromo Hermandos Rodriguez Circuit.

Le Mans Series

After the 2005–06 A1 Grand Prix season, Yoong raced in the 2006 Le Mans Series as well as the 2006 Le Mans 24 Hrs for Jan Lammers, the A1 Team Netherlands seat holder with team Racing For Holland. Yoong was very competitive, holding third position in Lammers' Dome-Judd when the throttle stuck, sending the car into the wall at the first chicane on the Mulsanne straight and breaking both steering arms.

After the 2006–07 A1 Grand Prix season, Yoong once again returned to the Le Mans Series with Charouz Racing System. He teamed up with Jan Charouz of the Czech Republic and Stefan Mucke of Germany. The team entered the most famous of endurance races, the 24 Heures du Mans and the Le Mans Series.

In the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans, the team completed 338 laps and finish in eighth overall and fifth in LMP1 Class.

GP2 Asia Series

Alex Yoong driving his Meritus GP2 Asia race car in Shanghai.

For the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season, Yoong signed to drive for the Qi-Meritus Mahara team. He was replaced by Marco Bonanomi for the third race weekend in Bahrain, due to a lack of sufficient time for racing.

Intercontinental Le Mans Cup

Alex Yoong (centre) with Marchy Lee (left) and Matthew Marsh (right) after winning the GTC class of the 2010 1000 km of Zhuhai.

In November 2010, Alex Yoong partnered Marchy Lee and Matthew Marsh at the 2010 1000 km of Zhuhai, driving an Audi R8 LMS. The trio won the GTC class.

i1 Super Series

In the last quarter of 2011, Yoong joined the inaugural i1 Super Series as an International class driver.

2011 SEA Games

Alex Yoong competed in the waterskiing tournament in the 1997 Jakarta Games where he won a silver medal. He returned to Water skiing at the 2011 Southeast Asian Games and he claimed one gold medal and one silver medal in the men’s slalom and jump events on 17 November 2011.

Audi R8 LMS Cup

Yoong is currently a driver in the Audi R8 LMS Cup with Audi GQ. In the ingagural race in Shangai, Yoong started second on the grid. At the start, he overtook rival Marchy Lee at the first corner and won the race. In the second race, Yoong finished 2nd behind Adderly Fong. The third round in Zhuhai, saw Yoong qualified on pole and during the race, he lost the lead as Lee overtook the Malaysian and Yoong was third at the end of lap one and in front a four-car battle that took place behind hime. He eventually finished on the final podium position in third. During the fourth round, he finished third after an overtaking maneuver with Lee resulted in Yoong taking damage to his car.

Personal life

Alex's younger sisters Aaliyah Yoong (born 16 July 2003) and Philippa Yoong are both water skiers. Aaliyah became the youngest ever gold medallist in the history of the SEA Games since its inception in 1959, when she won gold medal in water skiing at the 2011 SEA Games with a record of 2,960 points to finish ahead of Promsunitsit Sareeya of Thailand, who managed 2,570 points. Philippa Yoong claimed the bronze for Malaysia with 1,860 points.

Philippa also won the gold medal in the women's slalom event, 14 years after her initial triumph in Jakarta in 1997. It is her second SEA Games gold medal. He has remained an enthusiastic promoter of motorsports in his home country however, and has been seen doing media and Formula One commentating work for Malaysian television and ESPN-Star. He also co-presented Formula One live coverage at 8TV.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
1999	Monaco Motorsport	IMO	MON	CAT	MAG	SIL	A1R DNQ	HOC DNQ	HUN DNQ	SPA Ret	MNZ Ret	NC	0

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Pts.
2001	European Minardi F1	Minardi PS01B	European V10	AUS	MAL	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA Ret	USA Ret	JPN 16	26th	0
2002	KL Minardi Asiatech	Minardi PS02	Asiatech V10	AUS 7	MAL Ret	BRA 13	SMR DNQ	ESP DNS	AUT Ret	MON Ret	CAN 14	EUR Ret	GBR DNQ	FRA 10	GER DNQ	HUN	BEL	ITA 13	USA Ret	JPN Ret	20th	0

Complete CART results

(key)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2003	Coyne	STP	MTY 9	LBH 19	BRH 18	LAU 17	MIL	LS	POR	CLE	TOR	VAN	ROA	MDO	MTL	DEN	MIA	MXC	SRF	FON	23rd	4

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005–06	Malaysia	GBR SPR	GBR FEA 5	GER SPR 6	GER FEA 16	POR SPR	POR FEA	AUS SPR 8	AUS FEA 5	MYS SPR	MYS FEA 5	UAE SPR 10	UAE FEA Ret	RSA SPR Ret	RSA FEA Ret	IDN SPR 4	IDN FEA 2	MEX SPR 7	MEX FEA 11	USA SPR Ret	USA FEA 10	CHN SPR 1	CHN FEA 2	5th	74
2006–07		NED SPR 12	NED FEA 17	CZE SPR 1	CZE FEA 1	BEI SPR 14	BEI FEA 12	MYS SPR 4	MYS FEA 7	IDN SPR 12	IDN FEA 5	NZL SPR 19	NZL FEA 11	AUS SPR 7	AUS FEA 6	RSA SPR Ret	RSA FEA 8	MEX SPR 1	MEX FEA 5	SHA SPR 6	SHA FEA 11	GBR SPR 5	GBR SPR 9	6th	55
2007–08		NED SPR 16	NED FEA Ret	CZE SPR 17	CZE FEA 14	MYS SPR 9	MYS FEA 13	ZHU SPR Ret	ZHU FEA Ret	NZL SPR Ret	NZL FEA Ret	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR 9	MEX FEA 15	SHA SPR 4	SHA FEA 6	GBR SPR	GBR SPR			15th	25

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Class	No	Tyres	Car	Team	Co-Drivers	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2006	LMP1	14	D	Dome S101Hb Judd GV5 5.0L V10	Racing for Holland	Jan Lammers Stefan Johansson	182	DNF	DNF
2007	LMP1	15	M	Lola B07/17 Judd GV5.5 S2 5.5L V10	Charouz Racing System	Jan Charouz Stefan Mücke	338	8th	5th

Complete GP2 Series results

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2008–09	Qi-Meritus Mahara	CHN FEA 14	CHN SPR 9	ARE FEA Ret	ARE SPR C	BHR1 FEA	BHR1 SPR	QAT FEA	QAT SPR	MYS FEA	MYS SPR	BHR2 FEA	BHR2 SPR	25th	0

External links

• AlexYoong.com
• A1 Team Malaysia Home Page
• Profile on F1 Rejects
• F1 Rejects interview
• Twitter Profile: @alexyoong