Alex Yoong Q&A

"I've been dreaming of driving here almost my entire life, so to be here now is just an amazing feeling. It's pretty special I guess. Because I am the first Malaysian there's a lot of interest, and I'm getting a lot of support back home. It's fantastic to have that sort of support, and you've got to try to do the best job you can."



"Yes, my mum's English, and that's where I get my accent from I guess! But I was born and raised in Malaysia."



"I started racing in Malaysia doing some saloon stuff, because the karting scene wasn't really happening at that time. I did a couple of years of single-seaters over there, then I came to Europe. I raced for four years and I've been in Japan for two years."



"It's been a lot of hard work and a long road really, especially in the late nineties when we had the financial crisis in Malaysia, it was always a struggle to find sponsorship. It's only through the support of family and friends that I was able to carry on."



"My manager had been talking to a couple of F1 teams. At the beginning of the year Minardi said why don't you come and test for us? No problem, I'll be right over! I did a couple of tests and it went well, and then the racing possibility came up."



"We are discussing it and I'm pretty positive. I think I will be here next year, but you can't say for sure. It does depend on how my results go this year. And in F1 things change all the time."



"It's great. They do a good job. I know I've got very little experience, but at the same time Minardi is also in transition at the moment, because they were bought out at the beginning of the year. There are a lot of new people coming in. They haven't had the budget for good engines this year, so it's been a struggle a bit. But I think it's looking good for the future. I think the engines will be good next year, and they're promising lots of horsepower."



"We only had one session on Friday, and we missed both sessions on Saturday morning with gearbox problems. Going into qualifying I'd had no running. Both our cars had gearbox problems on the out lap, so we had to share the T-car for qualifying. Fernando jumped in, then I jumped in, then he jumped in again! Just to qualify was good. It was tricky, because I had to push very hard obviously, as I knew I wasn't in the 107%. But at the same time I couldn't push too hard because Fernando had to get in the car at the end to see if he could improve his time as well, so I couldn't throw the car off either."



"It wasn't too bad. I was consistent, but a bit slow though! We did have a huge amount of oversteer, especially through Lesmo One and Two. The car was quite good through the chicanes, but everywhere else there was tons and tons of oversteer. When Button's wing came off it clouted my left front tyre, and after that the steering was crooked. Obviously there was a big traffic jam down the front, but I didn't want to get mixed up in anything, so I took it easy. I tried to drive as consistently as possible in what was quite a difficult car. We also had the old gearbox on."



"Did they? I saw some cars go by but I thought they had plenty of room. I got going alright. The second one was pretty much a repeat of the first, except the marbles were a lot dirtier because it was the end of the race. I just ran a little bit wide, and just went round. I thought I was OK, and I'd cleared the gravel trap, but I hadn't. That was it, and I couldn't get going."



"It's been a difficult week for everyone, and we had the very bad news about Zanardi. It was my first race, and while I was out there and going round I was enjoying myself. I was enjoying getting the most out of the car, but unfortunately I didn't finish."



"Yes, I met a couple of the others. Michael and Rubens were quite friendly."



"It's hard to describe. It's easy to get overawed I guess, but you have to concentrate on what's important, which is getting in the car and driving. You've got to put everything in perspective at the end of the day."



"It'll be good. I can't wait to go and see it."