Former grand prix driver Alex Yoong has joined the Lotus team to head up its young driver development programme.
The Malaysian will focus on the Asian part of the scheme, with the European side being run by Litespeed Formula 3 team principal Nino Judge.
Lotus has also appointed Mia Sharizman Ismail as its head of operations in Asia.
Team principal Tony Fernandes said: "These new senior appointments will be a great boost for Lotus F1 Racing. The team have achieved many important milestones and we are on track to be on the grid in Bahrain next year."
It is hoped Yoong and Judge will be able to find and nurture Malaysian talent with a view to racing for the Lotus team in the longer term future.
Lotus F1 CEO Riad Asmat said: "The young driver development scheme will play a key role in finding and developing future Malaysian drivers and it is great that Litespeed can play such an important role in that process.
"There is a lot of raw motorsport talent in Malaysia and as the country's national F1 team, it is our responsibility to bring that to the fore."
So, it seems they want to put "Fairy" Fauzy on one of the cars, which sounds quite good But, will Yoong need a motivational speaking with Paul Stoddart to get going with his new role? Well, Rottengather nurtured Verstappen and he didn't end as a reject; let's hope Fauzy has the same luck.
The Formula 1 Yearbook 2002-2003 said of Alex Yoong, "If one had to pick his strongest quality, it would be the fact that he speaks very good English!" Hopefully this means he will be good at explaining how exactly young drivers need to do things differently to himself in order to avoid F1 Reject status. (Though given where I'm typing this...)
Alianora La Canta wrote:The Formula 1 Yearbook 2002-2003 said of Alex Yoong, "If one had to pick his strongest quality, it would be the fact that he speaks very good English!" Hopefully this means he will be good at explaining how exactly young drivers need to do things differently to himself in order to avoid F1 Reject status. (Though given where I'm typing this...)
That book made me an F1 obsessive. I got it as a Christmas present and devoured it to the point that I still know who retired on lap 21 (I think) of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. It was Olivier Panis, whose engine blew, which led to a safety car, which led to Yoong's cold brakes, which led to Heidfeld spinning and this.
I got it as a Christmas present and devoured it to the point that I still know who retired on lap 21 (I think) of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. It was Olivier Panis, whose engine blew, which led to a safety car, which led to Yoong's cold brakes, which led to Heidfeld spinning and this. {shinji - 3 posts ago}
Everything correct except that it was Heidfeld, not Yoong, whose brakes were cold when the race got re-started (on lap 27, if anyone cares). If I remember correctly, Alex was in the area at the start of the incident but didn't get struck because he took evasive action (Montoya nearly got hit when Nick rejoined the track en route to the accident). Alex went out of the race quite harmlessly 16 laps later with engine failure, but not before being lapped (for the sake of transparency, Mark Webber in the other Minardi got lapped twice).
Still, a remarkable feat of memory if you memorised that 6/7 years ago...
But, will Yoong need a motivational speaking with Paul Stoddart to get going with his new role? 
