Italy, July 01: Former Minardi driver Alex Yoong has demanded $200,000 (£121,000) in outstanding wages from his ex-team boss Paul Stoddart. Yoong, who drove for Minardi in 2002, said in a statement: "It is only fair and honourable for Minardi to pay me the balance of my pay amounting to $200,000 immediately."
Yoong said the money was "an amount which they have never denied through our many written reminders and monthly statements sent to Minardi and which has been outstanding for nearly half a year now".
The issue is a further blow to the cash-strapped team, who have needed the investment of F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone to see them through this season.
Stoddart said on Saturday that he had taken legal action against three Malaysian companies for more than $1.5m sponsorship which he alleges has not been paid.

Stoddart said that Yoong was content to wait until these had been settled to generate the required funds for the cash-strapped team.

But Yoong said: "The driving fees are not linked to the Malaysian sponsors in any way."

Yoong, who lost his drive after a disappointing 2002 season, said he had only limited contact with backers of the team from his own country.

"Alex is owed money under his driver's contract from last year, we're owed a rather larger amount of money under a sponsorship from last year," Stoddart said.

"His driver's contract was directly linked to sponsorship and I've actually said to his father that if he can help us collect the outstanding sponsorship that I'll go 50-50 on what we get.

"What he's asked us to do is to assign some of the rights for the collections to him and we're looking at it now. We may well do that."

Bureau Report