Whilst Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber were battling for supremacy at the Brazilian Grand Prix last Sunday, the man who has the unique experience of being team-mate to both of them in F1 was co-driving with this correspondent (and Hong Kong’s Marchy Lee Ying-kin) in the Zhuhai 1000 kilometres sports car race.
Alex Yoong became Malaysia’s first (and still only) Grand Prix driver at the Italian Grand Prix in September of 2001. The then unknown Spaniard in the other Minardi (now called Torro Rosso - Red Bull’s ‘B-team’) was Alonso.
For 2002, Yoong found himself with a new team-mate: Mark Webber. Whilst ostensibly a rookie, Webber had actually covered many thousands of kilometres the previous year as test driver for Benetton (now Renault). This was a luxury Yoong never enjoyed. He had moved up to the sport’s pinacle somewhat unprepared because, ironically, it was easier to find sponsorship for F1 than the lower rungs. In all his time in F1 he had only a few days testing (and at that time did not even own a road car!).
Whilst top flight teams, like Ferrari and Red Bull, can provide equal equipment to their two drivers it’s rarely straightforward with the smaller operations. So it’s easy to understand why Webber would have had first call on any new developments at Minardi (or, as at the Japanese Grand Prix, the only power-steering system available). That Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart was also Australian would not have been a disadvantage when it came to any lobbying for favours...
Sadly the same could not be said for the support Yoong received in Malaysia. Whilst some wonder whether Yoong’s ethnicity (his father is Chinese, mother British) hindered him it is certain the local media did not understand the performance differential between back-markers Minardi and the likes of McLaren and Ferrari. To be fair the Europeans weren’t much kinder - but back then it was not clear quite how special Alonso and Webber would turn out to be.
It’s fun now to compare Alex’s speed during the races in 2002 and note he was rarely much further behind Webber than, say, Renault’s Vitaly Petrov is today from team-mate Robert Kubica. Or, for that matter, than seven times world champion Michael Schumacher is behind Mercedes team-mate, Nico Rosberg...
But there’s an important lesson here for other nations and their first Grand Prix driver. How much more could Yoong have achieved with a more understanding local media and some of the tens of millions of dollars spent now by Malaysian companies in F1?
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