Alex Yoong

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 four. He cited Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna as his racing heroes. With a Kawasaki 50cc motocross bike he got on his eighth birthday, Yoong first showed his talent at racing.

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 won 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 third in the 1600cc class in the Guia Race. Yoong later moved up into a 400-horsepower DTM-spec BMW and was the most powerful saloon in the region.

He was a representative for Malaysia in the 1992 Junior World Waterski Championships held in Colombia, before he concentrated on his motorsport career.

Moving up into the Formula Asia International Championship in 1994 with a RM 50,000 loan, Yoong took several podium finishes before claiming his first win in the season-ending round at Zhuhai in China. This result led to Yoong to go a title challenge in 1995. He had won the Malaysian national crown, but the Continental Championship campaign was far less successful; producing eight wins and finishing second in the championship missing out by two points. 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.

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 outbraked three cars entering the Melbourne hairpin with his four tyres locking up, and by the 5th lap, Yoong was in 6th but an eventual collision with Rollo McNally but managed to finish 20th. Throughout the rest of the season, Yoong managed to score numerous top six finishes but was unable to win a race. Going into 1997, Yoong remained with Startline and believed he had a chance of competing for race wins. But inexperience shown by a crash at the fourth round at Donington along with an uncompetitive chassis saw Yoong finish outside the top 10 of the championship.

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.

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 Fox Sports Asia. He also co-presented Formula One live coverage at 8TV.

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 was using Renault engines for their Dallara F397 and F398 chassis. Consistency brought Yoong results in the lower half of the top ten, which included two sixth 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 to 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 activities until the family became indebted. He missed the first two rounds of the year but made a strong comeback when he returned at Thruxton. Driving a Dallara F399 Mugen Honda, Yoong finished sixth, 11 seconds behind winner Jenson Button. He followed this strong finish with 5th at Brands Hatch, in a race that covered the top seven by 3.4 seconds. The second race at Brands Hatch saw Yoong record a second-place behind Narain Karthikeyan, which was followed up with another sixth at Oulton Park before leaving the series for Formula 3000. This result confirmed, Yoong moved up from 268th to 214th in the world rankings. Overall, Yoong finished 11th in the championship.

During the off-season, Yoong tested for both the Nakajima and Le Mans Formula Nippon teams. His first trial at Suzuka took place on 8–9 December 1999 attended by ex-Formula One driver Satoru Nakajima after Yoong set a lap that made him fifth 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 to recuperate from his injuries at Spa the previous year. His Formula Nippon career started disastrously at Suzuka after crashing his Reynard 99L Mugen at 250 km/h at the daunting 130R in qualifying and forced Yoong to miss the race. At Motegi, a mechanical failure stalled his car at the start at Mine after starting seventh, where he went on to cause a multi-car pile-up in desperation to climb back up the field. Yoong's team manager, K. Homma told him he needs to calm down and finish races, and his father Hanifah encouraged him to take off the pressure.

For 2002, Alonso left the team, and Australian 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 ninth by the end of the first lap. Yoong was racing as high as fifth after passing David Coulthard for sixth. He eventually finished seventh 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 overtook his teammate Webber at the 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 front of Ralf Schumacher before the Williams lapped him. Yoong retired with an engine failure.

Yoong married former Miss Malaysia Arriana Teoh in 2002 and has a son named Alister who was born on 10 January 2003 weighing in at 3.1 kg and 52.5 cm tall. Alister is also a racing driver, and he currently competes in the Formula 4 South East Asia Championship having won a race in the 2018 season.

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 compete in the Hungarian and Belgium Grand Prix to allow Yoong for preparation for the final three rounds of the season. During this period, Yoong underwent a program in testing. Minardi later announced that Yoong would not drive for the team in 2003 but did not rule out any further involvement.

Yoong joined WPS Racing for the endurance races. Pairing up with New Zealand rookie John McIntyre, the entry struggled to 21st place in the 2004 Betta Electrical Sandown 500 having found themselves in the muddy run-off areas on multiple occasions – a fate also suffered by the team's second Ford Falcon BA. McIntyre was moved to said other car for the Bathurst 1000, leaving Yoong to partner with Neil McFadyen. In the only start at the Mount Panorama Circuit for the pair of them, they kept out of trouble and finished two laps down in 15th. The Malaysian was retained by Craig Gore's team for the single-driver event on the Gold Coast, where he retired from the first race and finished 23rd in the second. Yoong was replaced with Owen Kelly for the remaining rounds of the championship.

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 the 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. In the race at Istanbul, Yoong set the fastest lap 90 minutes into the race and retired after the starter motor failed during a pit stop. Lammers and Yoong elected not to attend the Spa 1000 km event after the team decided to change the engine from a Mugen to a Judd.

Yoong received the Bruce McLaren trophy on 28 April 2007 for his strong performance in the 2006–07 A1GP season

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

Lotus Racing announced on 9 December 2009 that Yoong would become the leader of their young driver development programme. Yoong currently focuses on the development of drivers in Asia.

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