Malaysia’s young drivers race for success abroad in a post-F1 world

For 19 seasons, the Malaysian Grand Prix made Sepang International Circuit one of Asia’s premier racing venues. Sepang opened in 1999 as an emblem of a Southeast Asian nation that was on the up at the time. But the government ended its support for the Formula One (F1) race in 2017, closing a high-speed era that brought the eyes of tens of millions of people across the world to Malaysia. For home-grown drivers, however, their motorsport dreams have not reached a chequered flag since F1 left Malaysia, which happened as the country’s economy slowed and the government cut the multimillion-dollar annual spend. Instead, the country’s young stars are turning to the cheaper GT format, endurance racing and overseas championships as the cost of reaching F1 without the domestic infrastructure steeples. For drivers like Hayden Haikal and Alister Yoong – son of Malaysia’s only F1 driver Alex Yoong – Sepang’s F1 heyday is already a distant memory. Hayden was a child when F1 last roared in Sepang, but the 21-year-old Grand Touring (GT) racer is now making his name abroad. In May, he secured pole position in the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia at The Bend Motorsport Park, becoming the first driver from outside Australia and New Zealand to win the race. “I just have a different type of hunger. I want to prove that I can drive – and I can drive fast,” Hayden told This Week in Asia, adding that being “at the top” is in the DNA of a driver. But aiming for the highest level of motorsport has also come with a reality check. Hayden said the cost of F1 development, including years of karting, testing, coaching, travel and race support, could reach US$7.3 million to US$9.8 million. “If you don’t have connections or the funds to kick-start your career, you won’t get anywhere. You’ll be stuck in Malaysia, and that’s about it,” said Hayden, who is currently with Johor Motor Racing (JMR) as a junior driver. Malaysia does not lack talent, Alister Yoong explains, but the cost of advancing beyond the domestic scene is high, as is the competition to secure an overseas seat. With a famous family surname, the 23-year-old has taken a different route. His own path has also unfolded beyond Malaysian borders, with F1 never a realistic route for him because he started racing in Malaysia at 16, far later than most drivers. “If you want to make it into F1, you’ve got to be in Europe from the age of five, go-karting and being with the right teams, the right manufacturers,” Yoong told This Week in Asia. Instead, he has pursued endurance racing, building his career through European teams and learning the sport from inside the garage as much as from behind the wheel. “During Covid, racing stopped. I became a mechanic, worked my way from the ground up to engineer, performance engineer and a coach,” he said. For both drivers, the path beyond Malaysia has required a degree of realism. Yoong senior remains Malaysia’s first and only F1 driver, who for a season raced for the Minardi team alongside stars Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber. But the country’s new generation of drivers is no longer emerging in “drips and drabs” as it did in the 1990s, he told This Week in Asia. “Malaysia is actually a reasonably good spot for drivers right now,” he said, adding that drivers such as Alister and Hayden were capable of achieving international success, but the route to the pinnacle of the sport was challenging. Drivers now lack track time, a shortfall in contrast to the 1990s, when Yoong senior began racing in Proton Sagas and had access to circuits in Selangor and Johor. “We had Shah Alam, Johor and other circuits where people could get on track two or three days a week. Now it’s more like two to four days a month,” he said. On July 1, Malaysia announced the renewal of its contract to host MotoGP until 2031, keeping Sepang on the motorsport calendar. Unlike MotoGP, the top-ranking motorcycle race, GT racing involves high-performance sports cars competing in sprint and endurance championships. “We want MotoGP Malaysia to be a catalyst for building world-class talent, strengthening industry capabilities and creating long-term opportunities for Malaysians across the entire motorsport value chain,” said Youth and Sports Minister Mohammed Taufiq Johari. The motorcycle racing scene generated up to US$169.5 million in revenue and created 4,400 jobs in 2024 for Malaysia, the minister told local media on Wednesday, citing an economic impact study. Malaysia is unlikely to revive F1, however. Former youth and sports minister Hannah Yeoh told parliament last year that the race cost about US$73.3 million annually for a three- to five-year contract with Liberty Media, F1’s commercial rights holder, plus another US$2.4 million a year for track maintenance. Singapore hosts Southeast Asia’s only F1 race, which draws up to 300,000 spectators over the storied race weekend, while Thailand hopes to become the latest host. In June 2025, the Thai cabinet approved a US$1.2 billion bid to stage F1 races on the streets of Bangkok from 2028 to 2032. Sepang International Circuit CEO Azhan Shafriman Hanif said Malaysia still had a “strong motorsport foundation”, with young drivers steering international success. “Developing world-class drivers requires a long-term sustainable ecosystem, including grass-roots participation, talent identification, structured competition, coaching, international exposure and sustainable investment,” he told This Week in Asia. For race teams, however, the development ladder remains uneven, as many drivers still depend on private backers, manufacturer-linked programmes or foreign teams to move beyond the local scene. Nicholas Hah, team manager of Hi-Rev Racing, said private sponsorship was a ladder to international events. “Hayden is very lucky to be supported by JMR and Alister is supported by a French team, Switch Racing,” Hah said. “Unfortunately, there’s no support from the Malaysian government although both of them have been quite successful racing internationally.” For Yoong, his father’s legacy may have opened doors, but hard work is what keeps a driver in the sport. “It’s not always going to go your way. It might not look like how you envision it, but just keep pushing, keep rolling with the punches,” he said.

Malaysia’s young drivers race for success abroad in a post-F1 world

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Younger drivers like Hayden Haikal and Alister Yoong are forging a path for themselves overseas, but not without a dose of realism

Younger drivers like Hayden Haikal and Alister Yoong are forging a path for themselves overseas, but not without a dose of realism