The Winners and Losers of F1 2025

Join Patrick and Brian on the Hard Compound. This special holiday episode is all about the winners and losers of the F1 2025 season, with some big surprises. But, wait. There's more. 

• The demise of the casual F1 fan. 
• The combination of Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and F1. What this means for the sport. And how F1 is driving Hollywood content. 
• Zak Brown and McLaren embraced America first. Now they are champions. 
• Team grades, our thoughts on a new F1 scoring system, and more. 

And as always, thank you for listening to everybody's most beloved father and son F1 podcast!  

Transcript

Brian S Hall (00:01.221)
Merry Christmas, son.

Patrick (00:03.19)
Merry Christmas!

Brian S Hall (00:06.213)
Quite a month since Lando won his first championship. Two months, less than two months till testing. This is F1 that's long. And this year, 2026, I think testing will tell us a lot. Teams won't downplay it, but we got new power units, new regulations, two new teams, increased spending camp. I think it's gonna reveal a lot, but.

We got a show to do. Are you ready to go, son?

Patrick (00:37.24)
Ready to go?

Brian S Hall (00:39.345)
Hello, welcome to Hard Compound American Take on Formula One. No race this episode. The season is over. Instead, our winners and losers of F1 2025. I mean, I guess we have to start with Lando, right? His first championship.

Patrick (00:58.936)
first championship. I mean, I don't remember seven, seven wins on the season. I mean, it was last year, middle of the year when he finally got his first win in Formula One. And now he's kind of a regular on the podium up at the top. So I mean, McLaren turned it around last year.

Brian S Hall (01:09.356)
I think

Patrick (01:27.374)
and ran away with it this year and Lando was able to buy basically the skin of his teeth secure his first drivers championship but I mean that is not something that most drivers ever get so he's definitely definitely biggest winner this season I think

Brian S Hall (01:48.133)
Yeah, yeah.

Brian S Hall (01:52.475)
think Max might have had more wins miraculously in that car. But McLaren divvied it up between Lando, the champion, and his teammate, Oscar Piastri, who I have to say is a loser. I know it's only his third season. And I, I don't remember the numbers now. He didn't finish too far back, but he led for a good portion. And he just seemed to drag there.

last couple months. It's a long season, but and he's a young driver and I think we all know who McLaren favored. But, Brother was leading for much of the season and did not win the championship.

Patrick (02:34.158)
You

Patrick (02:38.634)
Yeah, it was tough. mean, I think Lando finally took the lead back, I guess, finally took the lead back in, was it Mexico or Brazil? But I mean, only a couple races left to the end of the season, right? And but for a while, we sort of saw the writing on the wall. Oscar was just so dominant.

Brian S Hall (02:54.331)
Yeah.

Patrick (03:07.86)
and then it was like a switch was turned off and Lando became kind of the obvious...

choice for sort of expected champion or inevitable champion. And even though McLaren was so dominant, Oscar wasn't the one that put the pressure on Lando. It was Max there at the end. And that is, I think, kind of an indictment on the way that PS refinished the season.

Brian S Hall (03:35.889)
Yep.

Brian S Hall (03:45.265)
Yeah, that's a good point.

Patrick (03:45.602)
You they're really, even if Lando was to win, Oscar should have been right there and sort of pushing him and forcing him to have great finishes. but instead it was kind of max that, that won the last several races and, and, know, Lando had to sort of do everything he could to not finish off of the podium, you know, in order to, in order to win or secure his championship. So.

You know, Oscar, I think, will probably be very frustrated with how the season played out, but he's just got to finish, I think. I mean, there were.

Brian S Hall (04:27.483)
Yeah, we'll see how it plays out next year. But yeah, he just sort of. Petered there out at the end, and I think you make a good point. If anyone was going to push Lando those final few races to be champion, it should have been Oscar that that car was simply. Far ahead of everyone else, but it was Max there at the end. But I guess that's why for. Winner.

I'm putting down McLaren. Once again, they won the constructors. That's two in a row, I believe. They've got all the sponsor money. They seem to have good team put together, ready to get to it again in 2026. Their favorite son, Lando Norris, won his first championship. Oscar came in third. They were so far ahead of everyone else. The final year of these regulations and somehow they...

dramatically increase the gap. That's impressive. So I gotta put McClaren down as a winner.

Patrick (05:33.518)
Yeah, there's no other team that was even remotely close to them from start to finish throughout the season and as annoying and frustrating, I think, as as McLaren was this season, at least in terms of how they handled their winning situation.

they ended up securing both constructor and drivers titles. And that is an impressive feat in and of itself. And then obviously to do it practically doubling up points on Mercedes, the next best team, is, I mean, just impressive. And I think, you know, they have...

They have kind of a big presence, I would say, in the US and kind of like to...

I would say they're probably among the biggest supporting groups in the US. so there's a lot of people who are fans of Lando, fans of Oscar, and they have a lot of that sort of corporate sponsorship coming from here. And it's hard to imagine unless Toto takes away their power units, you know, which he can't. Yeah.

Brian S Hall (07:13.073)
Which he can't, at least not in the near future.

Patrick (07:17.326)
that they will kind of sink to a level that they were, you know, back in 2016, 2017, right? So, you know, it'll be good, good for them, good for the sport to stay at the top, close to the top. They have great driver lineup. They have good engineering, good kind of...

Brian S Hall (07:28.529)
1415, yep.

Patrick (07:47.97)
technician work on those pit stops, all that stuff. it's a good team. They're fun to watch. You kind of hope the championship isn't won halfway through the season, but kudos to a team that is capable of doing it.

Brian S Hall (08:06.085)
Yeah, now, flip side of that, loser, Ferrari. mean, 2024, it came down to the end. Practically, who would be the Constructors' Championship? it be McLaren? Would it be Ferrari? This year, Ferrari just bumbled around. They were never really in contention for anything. But I mean, you look at the start of the season, it's like, man, Ferrari.

just missed out on the constructor 2024, they bring in Lewis Hamilton. I mean, I guess I got to add Lewis to the list. Shockingly, putting Lewis Hamilton in the loser list, but I Ferrari plus Lewis Hamilton. mean, when you look at expectation, when you look at realistic expectation, forget the Tifosi.

I don't care what the typical see thinks, just realistic expectation. Ferrari plus Lewis Hamilton. And you look at just how pissed poor they were. Damn, that's gotta be in the loser column.

Patrick (09:10.247)
Hahaha

Yeah, I mean, definitely based on incoming expectations to the season. They were.

Patrick (09:26.25)
embarrassing. I I, I think Red Bull was too, right? They were kind of right there with them, except they happen to have one of if not the greatest driver of all time in his prime in a car that he has been driving for 12 years now, right?

however long it's been. Max basically allowed Red Bull to not be an embarrassment this season. Unfortunately for her, I did not have the same...

Brian S Hall (10:06.321)
Right. Right.

Patrick (10:15.202)
luck, I guess, with their drivers. LeClair had a fine season. He saw a driver. Hamilton obviously struggled, struggled quite a bit and was sort of outwardly not helpful to be nice about it. But, you know, I think it's,

Brian S Hall (10:32.089)
Right, a lot of those statements were not helpful.

Patrick (10:46.498)
good I guess for Ferrari that they survived sort of in the top four you know among those teams. Lewis didn't finish any lower than sixth which I don't think he's ever done before so I think there are

things that they can take away from this season that, you know, it wasn't the worst that could have happened. But certainly coming into the season, I think most people expected them to be vying for some kind of championship and right away practice in Australia, first race of the season. Aaron went,

Brian S Hall (11:38.321)
Right, And I think...

Patrick (11:38.552)
That doesn't look good. And it wasn't, you know, they, they never seemed to really improve or maybe they weren't improving throughout the season, right? But every team kind of improves throughout the season in some capacity. And so they were maybe just sort of maintaining, maintaining that gap. And so it was, you know,

Brian S Hall (12:00.485)
Right. It will be interesting next year because Lewis Hamilton knows how to win and he knows what a winning team is comprised of. And we're certain that he has, that Ferrari know all of this. Okay. Well now, Ferrari, what are you going to do? So I'm curious to see how how Ferrari is next year. Now.

I talked about realistic expectations. I've got for winner the rookies. I mean, are realistic expectations at the start of the season? Well, let's see if they can hang. But what happens? I believe it was the first race. I believe it was the formation lap. Isaac Hedger crashes. How does that even happen? Yes, I know it was raining. I think it was what, two races in, maybe three? Lee also got booted out of Red Bull.

So it did not look promising early on, but I mean, give it up. I think the rookies, the rookies.

for the most part, proved they belonged.

Patrick (13:11.8)
Yeah, I mean, there were there were certainly what four four rookies that definitely proved they belong. think Bordoletto in that Sauber struggled for majority of the season, but seemed to come on pretty well nearing the end of the season. So, you know, he seems fine. Yeah.

Brian S Hall (13:35.225)
Right, Nico's a veteran, so you look at those gaps there and you're like, okay, he's got it.

Patrick (13:41.718)
and then it honestly, it's just tough to judge kind of the Alpine rookies. I, that car was so poor. and they never really sniffed points. I don't know. It is a shameful team, terrible situation. they put Jack doing in a horrible, horrible situation at the start of the season.

Only got a few races and then they put Colapinto in and I mean, he didn't prove anything, but you know, safe for a shit Alpine team. think all the rookies did quite well. And yeah, I agree. Lawson got booted after two races at Red Bull. But then looked at for the most part.

completely capable in the racing bulls. Hajar, it's no surprise that he is getting promoted to Red Bull. mean, he had a really, really solid season. Same number of points as Hulkenberg, very close to Alonso in the final standings. mean, he had a really solid season for racing bulls. I think biggest surprise for me was Oli Behrmann. I think he might be...

He might've been the best rookie on the grid this season. I was very impressed with him at Haas. And then obviously we have Kimi at Mercedes. I think he had kind of the easiest job coming into the season. And I think he struggled for quite a while, but kind of seemed to finally find his footing and gave.

Lewis a run for his money there for p6 but came up just short but you know he seems solid maybe a a bit of a an anxious italian kid but i mean he can drive a car so

Brian S Hall (15:57.905)
Berman's not Italian, but he's driving hot Ferrari. He looked good. And you could see that a Ferrari flubs it next year, first year of these new regulations. No point in paying Lewis Hamilton 100 million a year when your car is garbage. Charles is like, man, you wasted my career. I got to go somewhere else. I could see Berman being Ferrari young guy. He could be fried for 20 years.

So that'll be interesting to watch. Now, Loser, you talked about William Lawson getting booted from Red Bull. Isaac Hedger going to take that second Red Bull seat next year. That leaves Yuki Sunoda, odd man, out. Yuki was always a fair driver. Mid-pack seemed really never any better than that. He got to go on Red Bull. Admittedly, there's Red Bull car.

isn't the best, there's kind of chaos in that team, but he just did not look good. Pretty much all year, he just did not look like there was any reason to keep him.

Patrick (17:07.636)
Yeah, I that it was, I think it was absurd of Red Bull to

not just have him start the season in the Red Bull team, in the Red Bull car. I mean, I think if you're only going to give two races to Liam, then...

What is the point? Just have Yuki start the season in Red Bull and you know, if he's shit, he's shit. Like that's fine. We'll come back and choose Isaac or Liam next year. So I think even Yuki sort of didn't get a fair shake from that Red Bull team. I don't know what was going on with them. I don't know if it's spite or

what but he should have started the season at red bull getting you know the pre-season in all the practices that said you know he had enough races to kind of figure out the car and it seemed like he never did so

And then, you know, with the last race, all he has to do is hold up Lando and he can't manage that. So, I don't know. I think maybe that was sort of him getting back at Red Bull. Like, I'm not going to do anything for you because you're not doing anything for me. But he had a bad season. Red Bull was, the Red Bull car was garbage too.

Patrick (19:05.334)
I don't know. It's hard, hard to see him finding his way back into a full-time F1 seat, but.

Brian S Hall (19:18.347)
Switching to the salt compound. Some off track winners and losers. Winner. Hollywood. Hollywood is dying. That's what we keep hearing. But thanks to F1. F1 is driving Hollywood content. We had the Brad Pitt movie. Hundreds of millions of dollars. Huge box office hit. Apple. Now getting rights.

to F1 streaming, F1 TV, Netflix with Drive to Survive still going strong. F1 is driving Hollywood content. So I'm gonna make Hollywood a winner here.

Patrick (20:02.902)
Yeah, I don't know if, I don't know which Hollywood studios they're working with. but these are big Silicon Valley corporate companies, right? That, that are sort of now holding the rights to, to the

this kind of content, obviously, you know, Netflix drive to survive series and Apple streaming F1 now, you kind of wonder if streaming is the end of it, or if we're going to get like, you know, meta having certain involvement, right, with like their

VR kind of content maybe they're they're Inside drivers helmets and you can kind of watch from that perspective Or you know different things like that Hollywood I don't know it's gonna die. There's no reason for it to remain the in la that kind of Focus on on

on kind of entertainment content. But certainly if, if some of the studios in Hollywood can partner with, work with these kind of streaming platforms, whether it's Apple or Netflix or whoever to continue to develop.

content for F1, then that will certainly drive revenue for them, keep them alive a little bit longer.

Brian S Hall (22:05.553)
I I'm not as down on Hollywood as you. I do think Hollywood is a winner here, but I do think you make some very good points about Silicon Valley and this being more big tech, cloud, software, virtual reality, artificial intelligence. This is some good stuff. Loser.

off-track loser but not too far off-track Alpine formerly Renault they're no longer going to be a constructor 2025 was wretched for the team and they will no longer be a constructor this is a story team i remember Lonzo with them i remember those beautiful liveries

And in my opinion, we are entering a new golden age of F1. As we predicted years ago, there would be 11 teams by 2026. We predicted by 2030, there'll be 12 teams. Revenue would grow. I mean, we'll have how many power companies? I mean, there's six, right? Cause there's got Ford, Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi. If I said Ferrari yet, I don't.

Patrick (23:10.51)
now.

Patrick (23:19.672)
you did.

Brian S Hall (23:20.113)
GM Cadillac?

And now Alpine just, they're dying. Now we did predict that Christian Horton would leave Red Bull. We didn't predict the circumstances under which he would leave. That all developed over the last couple of years. And we predicted he would leave Red Bull and become a part owner somewhere. Rumors are that he's going to try and get a bit of a stake in Alpine, but man.

I'm putting Al Paine down as a big loser.

Patrick (23:57.678)
They were the most embarrassing team this year. They might've been the most embarrassing team last year too. It has not been a good go for them since pissing off Christian Horner back in, I don't remember, 2019 maybe?

Brian S Hall (24:26.479)
Yeah.

Patrick (24:28.702)
And he said, you know, you're not going to get power units. We're not going to work with you anymore. Daniel Ricardo, you know, you can have him, but I'm going to try to undermine everything that you do. And maybe he was playing the long game. Maybe he was just waiting for the opportunity to.

invest. I'm not sure. It does, know, Alpine's been selling off portions of that team for a few years now. And different investment groups have kind of gotten involved. And, you know, I don't know what it looks like in any boardroom or leadership group, but

It seems like every decision they've made has been counterproductive to on track performance. And so, you know, it's frustrating from a fan's perspective to sort of see the fall of, of a, constructor that's been involved in Formula One for such a long time has

multiple championships and is sort of a staple in the sport.

Brian S Hall (26:01.497)
You know, I'm now going to jump to another loser based on what you said, and that is France. Alpine, Renault, the historic French team. They're basically, they'll no longer be making an engine. They're being sold off for parts. I don't believe there's any race in France on the calendar next year. I don't think so. I don't think there's one slotted in for certain ever again.

Esteban O'Conn had a piss poor year. I think Olly Beerman showed him up frankly. Gasly, I like Gasly, but in that car it wasn't good. I mean, F1 without France. France without F1 is kind of where we are now. That's somewhat shocking to me.

Patrick (26:53.064)
It is kind of... weird. There should be. And...

Yeah, are certain regions that just should have some presence. unfortunately, as much as Alpine sort of just wants to slap their name on their car, I don't know how much longer that's going to last. Seems like eventually they'll get sort of...

taken over by corporate interest.

two french drivers in the sport currently still no three three french drivers right had jars had jars french

Brian S Hall (27:42.489)
Who's the third? Hedger. Yeah, I think, yeah. French columnist.

Patrick (27:49.198)
Brian S Hall (27:49.841)
We're not supposed to say that. Is he like Algerian or something? I don't know what he is.

Patrick (27:55.246)
He's racing under the French flag, so, you know. But yeah, mean, they just, it's hard not to have a race there. We haven't had a race in France for several years, I think. And...

Brian S Hall (27:58.531)
under the French flag, I'm good for him. And that's French to me.

Patrick (28:22.638)
that's kind of a fun track. So it would be cool to go there. think, you know, it's hard to have these like long-term contracts for different races and keep the calendar, the schedule kind of reasonable. mean, this year sort of felt unreasonable. 23 races was it? 24 races.

So, you know, if you're signing all these long-term contracts to race in a location and then, then it means some places are left out. mean, take Germany, France, you know, maybe we'll go to Madrid. so we will get a Spanish GP, you know, but.

Brian S Hall (29:09.777)
Bye.

Patrick (29:21.432)
There are a lot of places that kind of deserve a race that maybe won't get one. And I think France is certainly on the losing end of that.

Brian S Hall (29:30.897)
Yeah, not a count of that though. Winner, big winner, America. We've been talking up America for years. The whole point of this podcast was growing the sport in America. People look at it now. Apple, biggest tech company in world is going to take over the streaming rights. It's going to take over everyone TV. Netflix, the biggest content maker, still got a drive to survive. You look at all these big sponsors.

Android, example, Oracle. These are all big American tech companies. We now have three races. I think all are signed for long-term. Certainly Miami and Vegas. No, I think all are. F1 is building out its presence in Las Vegas. I saw this quote from the CEO of LeafGolf. It's in the US and why they need it.

give presence in the United States. The U S is the dominant number one TV and sponsorship market in the world. And there's not a close second. F one knows this FIA knows this Liberty media, the owner of F one knows this and it's happening. I do feel bad for France less so for Germany, but America is a big winner in F one.

Patrick (30:55.986)
Yeah, been a big winner for a number of years now. mean, continuing to grow the sport here, continuing to grow their presence. the fact that there's three races is, obvious, you know, there probably should be more.

and sponsor and content market is, is sort of a deep well. mean, it's not going to end soon. So, yeah, I mean, I think everybody wants, wants a piece of that, which is why more teams are coming, I think.

And I think it's, you know, it's one of the reasons McLaren has done so well, because I think they were the first to sort of tap into that market and find major sponsors that were kind of willing to support their investments.

Brian S Hall (32:07.663)
And look, Zach Brown, who runs the team, he's American. He knew it. The others are just catching up.

Brian S Hall (32:16.379)
Dirty Air? Let's do the Dirty Air segment, Patrick. This needs to be one of those Netflix series where it should be an hour and a half, but they turned it into 10 episodes. Because in my Dirty Air segment, I get winners. Josephor Stoppon, Max Verstopen's dad. Dietrich. Red Bull owner. He dies. All hell breaks loose. Corbett tries to assert control. Who knows?

Patrick (32:28.446)
Hahaha

Brian S Hall (32:46.437)
wall that's playing out. But look man, Horner's out. I he's out. He's gone to Aston Martin. Helmet! Nobody thought Helmet was... people weren't even sure this man was fully human. Okay, Helmet Marco is out. It's just, Yos, Max's dad, left standing, calling the shots. You gotta like how that played out. I mean, just for the drama.

Patrick (33:12.078)
Yeah, I don't I don't

Patrick (33:18.966)
It's weird to me how much he's around. I think that's always been weird to basically everyone. and yeah, I think he, he made it very clear a lot of the things that he didn't like about the team and sort of all of that has, has gone away.

you know it's not far-fetched to believe that he's a major reason why max decided to stay at red bull convincing you know max potentially to do that i he's just there now and he's he's gonna be there until max decides he wants to leave f1 i think

Brian S Hall (34:15.151)
But the thing is, is he going to ruin Max's career? I mean, okay, he made his career, you could say. But look, Yos likes this. He's now the main guy there at Red Bull. Like I said, Helmut's gone, Dietrich's dead, Horner's out, Adrian Newey. Who's Max gonna turn to? GP?

might be leaving. He's gonna be offered a lot more money. Everybody's trying to pick everybody off. think Yoast is gonna say, no, Max looks like Mercedes has the best car. 2027, you jumped in Mercedes. Ferrari looks good. 2027, you jumped in Ferrari. Then what does Yoast do? Yoast doesn't do dick. He's got no say, nothing. I think he's gonna keep Max at Red Bull, no matter what.

Patrick (35:07.79)
I mean, I think he will, but I also think Max...

Probably if if he's in a terrible car doesn't expect Red Bull to be any good like he'll leave he'll just end his career and go race in some other Something else, you know, he already signed Deal with you know Mercedes GP to To race, you know for fun basically

Brian S Hall (35:39.161)
He could live the F1 the movie life of Brad Pitt's character. What was it? Sonny Haynes? Where they just find him racing down on the beach in Mexico or wherever the hell that was. Hey, man, you want to drive for F1? Let me think about it. Yeah, course I want to drive for F1. But that Max could be the actual guy. Let me think about it. Funny. Now, a loser, I think, sadly, is the casual fan.

Patrick (35:43.726)
Yeah.

Patrick (35:48.46)
Yeah.

Patrick (35:54.808)
Hahaha

Patrick (35:58.37)
Maybe, yeah?

Brian S Hall (36:08.182)
It's there's so much money in sports now that sports doesn't want casual fans because they're just not worth the cost. They're not worth the effort.

But man, if you are a casual fan, it's going to be tough. Like here in America. Oh, you got to have internet. You got to your high speed internet. You better have your Apple TV. Okay. Oh, you want to go to a race? Oh, you want grandstand seat in Texas and outskirts of Austin? $800. Shit, I guess that much of the race? No, that's for Saturday. You dummy. Like it's just, you know, I mean the costs.

of being a casual fan are just prohibitive now.

Patrick (36:55.39)
Yeah, it's... it is outrageous here.

Patrick (37:03.222)
It's hard. It's hard to be a fan of practically any sport. And especially F1 when there are so few events near you, if there are any, that it is difficult to kind of

go to a race even once a year. And then, yeah, as you mentioned, kind of those.

trying to find how to watch F1. It is expensive. mean, up until now you could have an F1 TV subscription. Now you have to go through Apple in order to do that. So you kind of have to find workarounds that work for you. mean, it's, yeah, it's frustrating.

to enjoy something that requires you to put in a lot of effort and money. It's nice to be able to just enjoy something as it is and as it should be. so for casual fans, mean, I think it may end up being that.

there will be fewer and fewer sort of casual fans, which if you run into an actual F1 fan, then you know, now you can have an in-depth conversation with them. But I don't know. It's hard to see that, I think.

Brian S Hall (38:53.169)
Team grades. Okay, I'm gonna have you give me the team grades, Patrick. Now, all I know about schools in Europe is what I learned from watching Harry Potter. So, I don't know how they did grades. There was something about exams or something. But in America, it's A, B, A is the best, B the second best, C your average, D and E. It's like, you know, that's not good. So.

Give me your grade for each team. Why don't we start off with McLaren?

Patrick (39:28.468)
McLaren gets an A because they're winners on every front and embarrassed everybody else. They also kind of embarrass themselves a lot but I mean when you win everything that gives you a pass pretty much everything so

Brian S Hall (39:50.609)
Mercedes.

Patrick (39:53.526)
Mercedes, I would say... Probably like a B+. I think they did quite well. think... George kind of carried that team for long portions. Kimi... I think if Kimi wasn't a rookie this season, probably they would have run away with...

second place. They would have been much farther ahead of Red Bull.

Brian S Hall (40:25.457)
I'm gonna you give the grades, but I don't know. George is good. George is a strong driver. Kimi looked fine, quite fine, I thought, for a rookie overall. But McLaren gets their power unit from Mercedes. And, you know, they basically doubled the points, so, okay. All right, B plus for Mercedes. What about Red Bull?

Patrick (40:48.395)
red bull gets a C

Brian S Hall (40:55.035)
but they got maxed.

Patrick (40:55.242)
If not for Max, yeah, if not for Max, they're nowhere, right? yeah. Ferrari. You get a...

Brian S Hall (41:01.253)
with my Ferrari.

Patrick (41:07.726)
I don't know. Based on expectations, I would say Ferrari gets a D. I mean, they were poor. They were just kind of lost the whole season and everyone was complaining constantly. So not a great look.

Brian S Hall (41:25.029)
Yeah, Ferrari. Yeah, Ferrari with Charles Leclerc near his prime with Lewis Hamilton to not ever really be competitive. Lewis didn't even get a podium. mean, yeah, they. Williams.

Patrick (41:46.546)
Williams I would give a B+. I think they did quite well and I think you know for the first half of the season it was Albon that was carrying them and second half of the season was Signs. They got a couple of podiums on the season and you know this was kind of the big

turn around point, I think for Williams. They've been really, really poor for like 10 years practically. And now, now we're seeing the investment payoff, I think. And, and, know, James Foles is kind of doing his thing and got two solid drivers. So.

Brian S Hall (42:23.845)
Yeah, I

Brian S Hall (42:39.701)
I would give them a B plus also. James also looks like he absolutely knows what he's doing. The team of science and Almond.

It's one of the poor F1 teams but they came in solid fifth. But I don't know about the future here because you know Alman should not have fallen off the way he did in my opinion in the second half of the season. And also it's like even with the spending cap is there ever going to be a way for these smaller poor teams

to make it. I don't know, could Williams be fourth next year? If they can't, I think that's a bad sign for the NFL, for the F1. I was going to try and say, because the NFL deliberately tries to create parity. I want that in the NFL. All right, what about Aston Martin?

Patrick (43:42.792)
Aston, I would give them probably like a C. They just did not look good for most of the season. Ended up finishing relatively strong, mostly by way of Alonso. But yeah, with how much money they spend every year, they'd

they should be better than where they're at.

Brian S Hall (44:14.639)
racing bulls.

Patrick (44:18.406)
I would say like a B probably. They did solid. I think among kind of the mid-pack teams, they were towards the top and relatively consistently getting points. So yeah, I think they were solid.

Brian S Hall (44:39.269)
class.

Patrick (44:41.312)
Ooh, Haas. I...

I would give a B, B minus, something like that.

I think the... Bearman was kind of a surprise in how good he had been, where he was this season. I think Okan was disappointing. But they were pretty consistent for the most part. Getting points, you know, pretty frequently. Bearman ended up with a P4 finish at one point.

which I think is kind of the best finish that Haas has ever had. they looked like a true F1 team, which I think hasn't always been the case.

Brian S Hall (45:38.693)
Right, with Hotsuit it was always kind of the off-track drama. But now it looks like, no, what happens on track is what's most important, which is good. And Olly Baron looks, I'm sure he'll get poached by Ferrari, but he looks like, you know, a budding superstar. What about KickSauver, out event for 2026?

Patrick (45:48.078)
All

Patrick (45:55.502)
You

Patrick (45:59.414)
Oof. I would say...

pretty like similar to Haas I would say maybe like B minus territory

Maybe like C plus, I don't know that they were, I think pretty inconsistent, but there were some tracks that they were like quite good on. She was a little weird. you know, they all can part got a podium this year, which I think nobody expected. but ultimately they did finish down kind of bottom of the, of the pack.

Brian S Hall (46:42.097)
That was great.

Patrick (46:47.758)
aside from the lowly alpine, you know.

Brian S Hall (46:50.705)
Over the years, Salware has had some good drivers. They brought in some good drivers, but I don't know, I've never had any love for the team. They've always just sort of been there. And finally, Alpine.

Patrick (47:04.298)
Yeah, I mean... Disaster.

Brian S Hall (47:09.329)
We're going to hold them back a year.

Patrick (47:10.06)
What's the worst? That's the, the worst that you can, yeah. Obviously bottom of the curve. get an F and they were terrible. yeah, just nothing good about them at all this year. Cassie was the only one to score any points and he did not do that very often. So.

Brian S Hall (47:37.841)
Okay, so, McLaren in A, Mercedes B +, Red Bull a C, and that only because of Max. Ferrari D, deservedly so. Williams a nice strong B +, Aston Martin a C, thanks to Alonso. Racing Bulls B, that's good. Haas B, B-, Kicksalber B- or C +, Alpine F.

Brian S Hall (48:06.669)
Any crazy predictions, Patrick?

Patrick (48:11.769)
I... well.

I have two predictions, crazy or otherwise. I think eventually maybe, maybe by 2027, I'll say given that they're, we're moving to 11 teams. Uh, there are rumblings of potentially 12 teams, you know, hopefully we'll eventually get that, but there's been, um, a lot of discussion.

about points and how points are awarded. I think we'll get a point system overhaul 2027.

They want to, they want to just go to, or the last discussion I guess was 11 or 12th place receives points also. But I think point system will award points to the top 15. We have 22 drivers starting in 2026. Top 15 places get points.

Brian S Hall (49:23.511)
That's good one.

Patrick (49:25.814)
So yeah, we'll see if that happens. I think it would be good to award points further down the order. There's just...

There's just no reason that only the top 10 really should get points. There's so many, because if you look at it, right, just as, from kind of the constructor's perspective, the top four teams had way, way more points than the bottom six, right? And likely that

continue to kind of be the case. And top 14, so that means eight drivers. So if you, you know, if eight drivers come in, in the top eight, then you're only awarding points to two more drivers that, kind of doesn't seem fair that, you know, 12 drivers are battling it out for, for two spots.

would be better, I think, to, to what word points further down the order. So, then my actual crazy, crazy prediction is that there will be an F one, the movie part two and Brad Pitt will now be an owner of an F one team, but one of his drivers gets injured and they can't find replacement drivers. So Brad Pitt has to take over second seat and he drives.

Brian S Hall (50:39.697)
I don't know if that's good one.

Brian S Hall (50:48.699)
Cool.

Patrick (51:05.451)
to win a Constructors Championship.

Brian S Hall (51:08.253)
nice that's very Hollywood that's a Hollywood ending there my predictions I don't know if these are crazy or not but the last several episodes I haven't been I haven't been bringing the prediction so I've got many here so Apple TV taking over streaming in of f1 in the US they're taking over f1 TV ESPN has been crying because they think we get enough credit for building the sport in America but you deserve no credit

Patrick (51:10.604)
Ha ha ha.

Brian S Hall (51:38.289)
You would sometimes preempt the races, not show them on your main channel. You would just repeat the Sky feed. There were no F1 shows. As soon as the race was over, they cut something else. 24 hours in the day, and I would say 20 hours of ESPN is just talking and they almost never ever talked about F1. So they're gone. But Apple TV is taking over and because of this actually got an Apple TV subscription.

I opened it up, opened up the app, said the number one show is called Pluribus. I said, all right, let's watch this show, see what Apple TV brings. The show Pluribus, there's a, hero of this show who saves all of humanity is a lesbian woman. Take that for what you will. There's a lab leak that pretty much ruins humanity, comes out of America. Take that for what you will. So I think that, so I think we know where Apple TV is coming from. Nonetheless.

I still have high hopes because it's clear they're willing to spend a fuck ton of money. They're willing to create sort of collateral content, you know, based on the show. I actually think Apple might do a very good job. And in fact, getting back to my discussion about how Hollywood and F1 are aligning together and you talking about Silicon Valley and F1 aligning together.

I say Apple buys F1. If they can't buy the sport itself, they will buy Liberty Media. So that's my big one. So I got a few more though. 2026 Alonzo finishes ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Patrick (53:09.71)
Hmm.

Patrick (53:18.829)
Thanks.

Patrick (53:25.71)
I see that as a possibility.

Brian S Hall (53:26.618)
Yeah.

Brian S Hall (53:31.545)
Also, before the end of the 2026 season, Charles Leclerc announces he's leaving Ferrari because that's how bad they are in 2026. He's just, cannot, I can't, you know, I can't do this anymore. And then by 2027 at the latest, somehow, I mean, it's like those Jason movies, Helmut Marco returns. I don't know how, I don't know with who.

But the old man is not dead yet. So those are my crazy predictions.

Patrick (54:05.111)
Nice.

Brian S Hall (54:07.631)
Alright, I want to remind our listeners, send your questions or comments to our compoundpod at gmail.com. We may read them on the show. And I wish to thank you all for listening to everybody's most beloved father and son F1 podcast. And we hope your 2026 is awesome. We are lights out.

Patrick (54:25.208)
See ya, thanks for listening.