Formula 1
Stoddart to think about Yoong decision
Minardi boss Paul Stoddart won't be rushed into making a decision about struggling driver Alex Yoong, believing he owes it to the Malaysian to try and sort things out. In yesterday's qualifying session for the German Grand Prix, Yoong failed to set ...
Published: Jul 29, 2002, 10:23 AM
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Minardi boss Paul Stoddart won't be rushed into making a decision about struggling driver Alex Yoong, believing he owes it to the Malaysian to try and sort things out. In yesterday's qualifying session for the German Grand Prix, Yoong failed to set a time inside the 107% for the third time this season.
Alex Yoong.
Photo by Minardi Formula 1.
At the British GP Yoong didn't qualify but Stoddart defended him: this time the boss is unhappy and said it's possible Yoong could be replaced for future races. "He's lost his confidence," Stoddart said. "There's no reason for that (failing to qualify). He doesn't know why, we don't know why. Technically we can't find a reason. He just didn't do it. He just simply didn't do it."
"If Alex were to say to me 'I can't find the reason but I'm struggling to qualify' then clearly we've got to make a decision. And that decision could in the extreme be that for a couple of races we replace him and we cram in some testing."
"At Silverstone we knew what it was, there was no decision to make and everything was fine. But it isn't fine today. I'm not going to make any decisions. People have already asked me about his future and I've said that any decision made today would be made in haste so no decision is going to be made."
"We've got a three-week break, there's plenty of time to think about what we're going to do. I owe it to Alex to sit down and talk to him and not make any decisions before I've talked to him because clearly something's not quite gelling there at the moment and I need to find the reasons."
Yoong has been criticized as a "pay driver" -- only racing because of the money he brings rather than having talent. While Stoddart has insisted that is not the case, Yoong is clearly not any where near impressing with his on-tack performances. In the last practice yesterday he was over five seconds off the pace of the front runners and two seconds slower than Minardi team mate Mark Webber. Yoong failed to qualify for the German GP by two tenths of a second.
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