Yoong Moves Closer to Minardi Drive

Malaysian Alex Yoong will test for Minardi in Italy again next week and could become his country's first ever Formula One driver as early as September. Minardi owner Paul Stoddart said on Saturday that the 24-yearold had impressed him in his first test with the team at the Mugello circuit this month.

"He's due to go in the car again next week at Monza and if he performs as credibly as he did at Mugello, we'll just keep the testing programme going," Stoddart told Reuters at the British Grand Prix. "Until such time as we feel that he's really ready it would be quite wrong to put him in too prematurely," he added when asked about the likelihood of Yoong making a race appearance this season.

"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...and obviously he has to qualify for his superlicence," said Stoddart.

The Australian-born businessman, who bought Minardi in January to save the team when it was in danger of going under, said September's Belgium Grand Prix in Spa might be possible.

"That would be the earliest and it would very much depend on how his tests go," he said. "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."

Yoong is being lined up to replace Tarso Marques, the Brazilian who is on a race-by-race deal with the team and who failed to qualify at Silverstone on Saturday after struggling with throttle problems. Marques also failed to set a fast enough time for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix but there he was given a dispensation to race.

The Brazilian has also been outqualified regularly by 19-year-old Spaniard Fernando Alonso. Stoddart said bringing Yoong into Formula One, assuming he could obtain the necessary superlicence from the ruling International Automobile Federation (FIA), would help boost levels of interest in the sport across Asia.

It will also bring much-needed sponsorship to a tightly-run team that has scored just one point in the last five years and that is being kept in business by aviation millionaire Stoddart. Stoddart said he had been pleased by Yoong's performance at Mugello, where the Malaysian managed to bring his times down progressively over 70 laps.

Yoong, who currently competes in Japan's Formula Nippon series, said earlier this week that he felt he could go a lot faster once he got used to left foot braking.

"I think after my planned two-day test at Monza I should be ready, as long as things go smoothly," he was quoted as saying in Autosport magazine. "I need to learn to get more out of my tyres over one lap but I don't see any reason why I cannot be ready quite soon."