2 Soft Compounds

Bahrain GP: Piastri Triumphant As Red Bull's Dynasty Unravels!

• W4 Podcast Studio & GrandPrix247 • Season 1 • Episode 10

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Bahrain GP: Piastri Triumphant As Red Bull's Dynasty Unravels!

This week on 2 Soft Compounds, Rick Houghton and Paul Velasco are joined by Grandprix247 editor, Jad Mallak, as they unpack the race that blew the title fight wide open and tear into everything from McLaren’s rising power to Red Bull’s unraveling. 

 🏁 There's united opinion in the studio that Verstappen’s title defense looks shaky, as the guys discuss Red Bull latest struggles, tensions behind the scenes and ask, is this the beginning of the end for Max and the Bulls?

🧠 The boys also dissect Lando Norris’ confidence crisis, Ferrari’s latest strategy blunder, George Russell’s gritty drive in a wounded Merc and say what everyone’s thinking about Lance Stroll.

🏎️ It's Saudi Arabia up next and the championship battle is well and truly on! More bold opinions to come here on 2 Soft Compounds!


Podcast Rundown

1️⃣ Welcome and Max's Surprising Comments

2️⃣ Driver Predictions and Race Preparation

3️⃣ Qualifying Highlights and Surprises

4️⃣ Race Analysis and McLaren Domination 

5️⃣ Ferrari Strategy Disasters

6️⃣ Red Bull's Troubles and Max's Future

7️⃣ Saudi Arabia Predictions and Closing 


Production Credits:

Presented by: Rick Houghton & Paul Velasco
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producer: Ian Carless
Produced by: GrandPrix247 & W4 Podcast Studio

Rick Houghton:

Hi, welcome to the Two Soft Compounds podcast. Before we begin, I've got a quick favor to ask. There's one simple way you can support our show, and that's by hitting that follow or subscribe button on the app you're listening to the show on right now. It really does make a huge difference in helping us get the show out there to as many people as possible. So please give us a hand and click that button right now. Thank you, I don't make mistakes. I make prophecies that immediately turn out to be wrong.

Paul Velasco:

Anything can happen in Formula One, and it usually does.

Rick Houghton:

Welcome to another Two Soft Compounds podcast with me, rick, and Paul Velasco, the publisher of GrandPrix 247.com. We've also got jad malik with us today. Uh, he's the editor of said website. So, uh, gentlemen, welcome to you both.

Rick Houghton:

Thank you thank you, rick's good to be here uh, it's just worth pointing out that paul's actually in paris recording this today, so we're all over the world, basically, uh, which is, which is good, because formula one is an international sport and we're off the back of the Bahrain Grand Prix. The land of sand was beckoning, the drivers descended. It was a track we were looking forward to because, of course, the teams test their pre-season, so it's a track they arrive with lots of data. But I wanted to talk about what happened on the build-up to the actual race on Sunday, before we got into the race itself, some very interesting quotes coming out from the drivers.

Rick Houghton:

So this is what Max Verstappen said after practice. He said I'm not fighting for the F1 title, I'm just participating. Now, this is off the back of a win in Japan. I'm like why would you say that? You've never seen confidence like that from Max Verstappen? It's always I'm going to win everything, I'm going to drive faster than you, I'm going to overtake, I'm going to snatch the apex. And then suddenly, before he's started the race, he's saying I'm not fighting for the F1 title, I'm just participating. Views on that, guys? Chad, let's you go for it.

Paul Velasco:

Just to let you guys know you were right. I am in Paris doing important stuff. 42k is my walk to the marathon, which is a 3 hour 15 minutes. So anyway, I'm going to leave it to Jed, because I didn't quite catch the build-up. I got a lot of the race. So, jed, let me know your thoughts.

Jad Mallak:

Yeah, well, as Rick said, you know, it's interesting because Bahrain is the place where they did the pre-season testing and they should have some data. And for Max to say that he knows that from preseason testing, he knows that Red Bull aren't in a very competitive situation. And even in that quote that you just mentioned, he said that I told the team back in preseason that we were half a second off McLaren's pace, which is the situation which turned out to be true. So I think Max knew that Japan maybe was some kind of an outlier. That's why he was able to take the pole, that's why he was able to win.

Jad Mallak:

And don't forget, piastri and Norris made mistakes there, but in Bahrain McLaren were on it the minute that car was on track. They were on it. At least Piastri, let's say he was on it and their pace was formidable. Honestly, I think Piastri, in third practice, when he banged in that lap almost seven tenths faster than Norris, I think he let the cat out of the bag. I don't think Stella or Brown were happy with it because they were trying to mask their advantage as much as possible and I think they told him to be restrained in the race. But yeah, max knew from day one the situation with his car and I think he was realistic, that he doesn't want to get ahead of himself after his win in Japan.

Rick Houghton:

It's more being realistic, I think, than being pessimistic yeah, I think that's a really good point you make, jan. I think I think that's, and yeah, and of course he's got data that backs data that backs up what sort of weekend he's about to go into. Lewis Hamilton spoke in Bahrain. This was before qualifying. He was asked what would you say to viewers from around the world waiting for something magical from you? His reply was don't Simple as that. That was before qualifying. So Lewis Hamilton knew and again it could have been based on pre-season testing that they were going to struggle, even though ferrari brought some subsequent upgrades to bahrain this year yeah, well, ferrari got a the upgrade package and I think it was a decent one.

Jad Mallak:

Given what leclerc did with that car, it was a decent upgrade upgrade. And the only thing I think lewis couldn't manage is the fact that you, he's still not used to this car, which is becoming some kind of a trend this year. You know, sainz is not getting used to the Williams, lewis is not getting used to the Ferrari Tsunoda, now he's trying to get used to the Red Bull and Lawson's trying to get used to the racing bulls. This kind of theme it's being repetitive and it's kind of interesting. But, yeah, I think Ferrari did a good job with the package. I think once they race it for a few more races, I think they're gonna get on top of it much better. And uh, yeah, hopefully, lewis who said later on that he, it was his best learning curve, I think, this weekend hopefully he gets on top of it and starts delivering results. Look, he won the sprint in china and that didn't come out of nowhere. Okay, he's still lewis hamilton, the seven time f1 champ, we know. Okay, he's 40 years old, but he's still on it and, uh, there might be some hope in that car.

Jad Mallak:

But the problem with ferrari. They need to get their act together for one weekend. We'll talk about that later, once we go through into the weekend more and into the race. But they need to get their act together for one weekend. We'll talk about that later, once we go through into the weekend more and into the race. But they need to get their act together. I think Lewis is trying to play it safe as well. He knows that even if he gets the package, he won't be as fast as Leclerc. Leclerc has the advantage of being the incumbent and Lewis is realistic. He's going with the game that under-promise, over-deliver, I think, which is smart and yeah, that's what happened eventually in the race.

Jad Mallak:

It was a decent race for him.

Paul Velasco:

Hey guys, just before we move on, just on the Piastri thing. You know you mentioned an interesting thing there, jad that Piastri would have to cut out the bag. I've got a theory that I had before. You actually mentioned that, and now it actually ties up McLaren should have given Piastri a pass in Japan to have a go at Max, like he asked, right, do you remember that? And if it didn't work out, swap the cars. They've done in the past, but they did. They got conservative. So I actually have this scenario in my mind.

Paul Velasco:

I imagine very frustrated Piastri sitting down with a debrief with Mark Webber and saying hey, mark, you've got to do something about this. Even Johnny Herbert said Mark's got to talk to them and I can guarantee you, I'll tell you what Mark did. He said mate, I can talk to them until I'm blue in the face. Nothing's going to change. The only way you're going to do it is you're going to have to beat him on the track by a mile, and I think that's what's happened. Norris is now not playing the game of let's sandbag this McLaren and he showed seven tenths. Boom, there you go. That's my theory.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I think that's right. I mean Norris, I mean again, before we get into the main body of the race. This was after qualifying. Another quote from a driver who's you know, as we went to Bahrain, was leading the world championship. The car is amazing. I'm just letting the team down. I don't know. I feel like I've never driven a Formula One car before, so I'm struggling a lot. Now, that was after qualifying, which was disappointing for Norris, but he never really nailed it for the whole weekend, and when we come on to the race in a few minutes we can talk more about that, because I thought Norris lacked race craft.

Paul Velasco:

But isn't that saying too much? Isn't he telling too much of his inner self?

Jad Mallak:

Well, that has always been Norris' downfall he always talks too much, he always wears his heart on his sleeve and that's a big problem for him actually.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, we talked Chad in a podcast a couple of weeks ago about. You've got to have that raw, tough commitment to be a world champion that Max has had and Lewis has had in the past. You know. You've got to be prepared to block. You've got to be prepared to make the lunges into the apex at turn one. For instance, norris I think last year didn't have that enough because if he had, he could have won the world championship with the dominant car he was in towards the end of the season and I think this year, you know, saying things like that he's just not doing himself any favours. He's making Oscar Piastri look like an absolute superstar and Norris looking like the little kid down the road who can't score a goal. You know.

Paul Velasco:

But listen, jash is a little superstar, mate. I'm really I'm so flabbergasted by Oscar. This kid got to remember one thing eh, japan wasn't a good track for him. Okay, it was last year. Jad will know the numbers. He just didn't. He wasn't good in that track. He also wasn't good in Bahrain. Okay, he hasn't been good in Bahrain since he was young. And these are two tracks where, boom, I mean in Japan, I felt he dominated, but probably didn't. But he was, he had it under control. But and I'm actually saying this is probably the only guy I can see on the grid right now If, when Max gets a car that's decent, it's going to give Max a go. Really, I do believe that. Look Max, we all know he's up there beyond what most of us have ever seen. But man, this Piastri kid just gets better and better.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I think I would agree with you. Piastri is something else. I thought I saw the glimpses of that at first last season when I remember there was a one particular race which which both mclarens did well and I think it was miami and I said, uh, said to a friend of mine. I said, wow, this piastri kid's the real deal. You know, he was in a car that for the first half of last season was struggling a little bit for performance and then it came good. I was, wow, this kid's giving Lando a run for his money and I don't think any of us really expected that, but he's proved it at the end of last season and he's proving it now into this season. Zac Brown said something very interesting. He was asked about his competitors and he said he thinks the McLaren's going to be a strong car at every circuit this year. He said other teams already know that their car will be strong at some venues and not at others. That's a massive statement of confidence, isn't it?

Jad Mallak:

Yeah, exactly.

Rick Houghton:

Exactly.

Jad Mallak:

Look, they know what they have on their hands. They have a very, very decent car and, like I said, at some point they were trying to hide that advantage. But now I think there's no point in doing that. They have to admit, yeah, we have the best car, and even Piastri said something in that regard. He said I'm not shying away from the fact that we have the best car on the grid right now. So they're admitting this is the situation.

Jad Mallak:

But this is some kind of adding pressure, I think, on Norris in that respect, because, look, norris, you could forgive him for being under pressure last year when he was fighting with max. You know everyone, max is so formidable, you know, and he fought with him. He came up short and, yeah, he lost out in the end. But now he's coming this year and there's no hiding. Okay, he has the best car from day one. Last year he had the best car from meet season onward. Don't forget, max won seven of the opening 10 races last year. Yeah, last year he had the best car from mid-season onward. Don't forget, max won seven of the opening 10 races last year.

Jad Mallak:

That's what won Max the championship in 2024. This year that is not the case. This year, norris has the best car from day one. He won the first race and then Piastri retaliated. The problem with Norris and I was just when we started this. I was just writing my takeaways column from the race and I was saying is it the situation Because Norris is saying he can't click with the car and this is very strange. It's a very strong car. So I thought I said it is McLaren entering Red Bull territory? Do they now have a brilliant car that only one driver can drive, which is Piastri? No, norris needs to sort out the issues he has in his head.

Rick Houghton:

He needs to have a stronger head to deal with that situation.

Jad Mallak:

You know he can't be nice. He has no friends. His teammate is his worst enemy, not Max, and he needs to stop being a nice guy. Okay, yeah, he needs to go and do like every other driver, have a long list of excuses after every mistake you make in a quali lap or in a race or whatever. He needs to go there. Look, I told Paul this story before. I'm a big Michael Schumacher fan and I was able to watch him pre-Mercedes and post-Mercedes. You know when he was with Ferrari, the first retirement, and then when he came back In his first stint. You know when he's in the car, when the camera closes in on his face, he wouldn't blink.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah.

Jad Mallak:

Razor-sharp focus ruthlessness. You look in these eyes and his eyes. They spell ruthlessness. When he came back with Mercedes, every time the camera closes in, he waves to the camera, he smiles, he winks. That's not the Michael Schumacher that won seven championships.

Rick Houghton:

It's in your head.

Jad Mallak:

It's in your head and this is where Norris is Now. Piastri saying the car is the best, zac Brown saying the car is the best. Soon, very soon, very soon. If Norris keeps going down this road, papaya rules are going to say and I wrote it as well in my takeaways it's going to be Lando, oscar is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood this message?

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're bang on. Before we get into the race, then let's have a brief discussion about qualifying Jad.

Jad Mallak:

what was the standout points for you in that qualification. Well, I wasn't surprised, actually, with Piastri bagging pole. The good surprise was, look like I said, ferrari was good. Leclerc delivered a decent lap with Ferrari, so that was a good thing. The surprise was some of the drivers falling from grace. You know Isaac Hajar.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, big surprise, because we thought he was the wonder kid.

Jad Mallak:

Exactly, oliver Berman.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, terrible qualifying.

Jad Mallak:

Terrible qualifying as well. Jack Doohan, what a fantastic qualifying. He lost out on Q3 by 0.017 seconds. It's painful, but he did a decent job as well. You know, pierre Gasly Alpine did a marvelous job in qualifying. Yeah, but the usual suspects, I think they fell short and the biggest one maybe probably was Norris and then Max. I think at that point Max realized what kind of task he was facing in Bahrain. But other than that, I think, yeah, mercedes are maximizing their potential. George Russell he's leading that team beautifully. And Antonelli I was just listening to your Bahrain Preview podcast with Paul, and Paul mentioned the fact how Antonelli's been developing and how much he's been closing the gap to Russell At some point in qualifying. What surprised me? That Antonelli was faster than George. I think in Q2, he was faster than George, but then in Q3, you know, crunch time, pressure pressure's on and his experience, his lack of experience showed, while Russell just did well and yeah. So basically, yeah, that's qualifying for you.

Rick Houghton:

In a nutshell, yeah, and I think it's a very accurate description of it there.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, but can I just mention a few things? Yuki Tsunoda I felt that he got a lot better, I mean qualifying. Maybe he lacks a bit, but I was quite impressed with his qualifying performance. I don't know what you think, jack.

Jad Mallak:

Well, he made Q3. He made Q3, but don't forget, he made Q3 because so many usual suspects didn't make it. Usually that position was taken by hajar, I think, or maybe sometimes, uh, the williams speaking of williams, yeah, signs did a good job in qualifying, but then he messed it up later on, but to no domain. He did well to make q3, but the gap still the gap in terms of numbers to max is huge. You know, I think it was eight tenths or something, so almost a second there. So I think it was the circumstances that pushed him into Q3, more than the fact that he made it on merit.

Jad Mallak:

Look, he's not doing as bad a job I thought he would be when they put him in that car. You know he hasn't been the disaster that Liam Lawson was. But then, don't forget, tsunoda has much more experience so he could hold his own better, much better than Lawson. But yeah, I think Tsunoda still has a lot of work to do because in all the practice sessions he was all over the place. He was all over the place and he was vocal about it. I can't drive this car. I can't drive this car.

Rick Houghton:

Liam Lawson. Briefly, I mean, red Bull must be looking back and thinking what the hell were we thinking promoting this kid into the main team based on his performances in the racing bulls? You know, I know, in qualifying, liam Lawson had a faulty DRS, didn't he the DRS?

Rick Houghton:

wasn't opening when it should have done so that affected his qualifying, but then if you look at the actual race, his race craft was pretty poor. I mean, he was down in 16th in the end, so Red Bull must have gone. How the hell did we get this so wrong by choosing him as the second driver to Max?

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, no, I don't get it. But you know what's the worst mate? We all missed the elephants in the room and it's time. It's time for this guy to get the bullet. I mean bullet like fired Lodge, fucking strong, Seriously. Yeah, he's been so pathetic this season. I can't believe it. I mean, the guy was second last. Fernando was like half a second quicker than him. This is a guy who's got, I mean, 100 years in Formula 1. It's not like he's a rookie anymore.

Rick Houghton:

Honestly, I was. You're bang on. I've thought exactly the same. He doesn't even look as though he's interested in being in the paddock. When you see him walking around these days, his face is just dropped. He doesn't seem to be keen or expressive when he's interviewed after races or practice and qualifying sessions. It looks as though he doesn't want to be there and I think that's obviously a big psychological thing for him as well. It looks as though he's given up, you know.

Jad Mallak:

Well, maybe that or maybe Lawrence had the talk with him that listen, you know, look, aston Martin.

Paul Velasco:

Now they're heading into a no, no, no, don't cop out on that. What talk did he say to you? What talk did he have, Jess?

Jad Mallak:

Maybe he's telling him that you're out, we're bringing Max in. I don't know. Look, the problem with Lance Stroll's situation is that now Lawrence cannot hide anymore. He paid a fortune for his son and his son didn't deliver. So what are you doing, spending all this money on a team when you have a driver that's not delivering? So maybe they had this tough talk father to son and maybe Lance knows his days are numbered. I'm not sure, but I don't know if father's love is going to beat that in the end. But maybe this is an explanation. But you know what Lance?

Paul Velasco:

at one point when he was driving those pink Mercedes. Remember when Lawrence bought the old Mercedes and painted them pink? Those cars were good and the kid did a good job. I'm sorry he put it on. I think on the front road once or something he was not bad. I think his best season was there. But he's never got any better. You know what I'm saying. He's actually got worse. He stagnated for like five years and for the next 11 years he's just got worse.

Paul Velasco:

You know, this guy's been in Formula 1 so long and taking up a very good seat. I mean I look at a guy like that. You know what irks me? It was when I saw Drigovic get in that car. I thought he has a guy. He hasn't raced for two seasons.

Paul Velasco:

Man, you want to sit there? That would be the worst job in the world. You sit there. You think can this bronco you and so much good talent has been forced to sit out. And then obviously you've got Alonso who can't develop because he can't. Historically, alonso is a very good driver. Put him in any car and he'll drive it as hard as possible. But he's not like a Max or maybe even a Lewis or Alain Prost who can develop a car. You can see that when he went to Ferrari, the car never got better. Zastavartin, the car was good for a while, never got better. You know what I'm saying? So you've got Alonso in one corner who can't develop a cold, and you've got Lance Stroll who ultimately didn't develop anything. You're like no, no, no. So they're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't.

Jad Mallak:

Yeah, I think, lance, what happened? Entitlement? Entitlement does to you because he feels entitled and he feels safe. He knows that he's not going to lose that seat so he became complacent as well. So, yeah, he didn't develop anything. He knows that he's not going to get fired, but I don't know if this is going to last for long. Like I said, if lawrence is serious about his project, yeah, his son has to go so let's get down to the race then.

Rick Houghton:

I mean, first, from the get-go I did it was a great race. I mean the overtaking opportunities in Bahrain we know are pretty good, but they, the whole grid, paid full advantage of that. I mean, you know, even the rookies, they were having a go. I thought Antonelli in the first phase of the race was brilliant with his overtaking moves, being brave on the inside the only person I think, during the race to overtaking the S's down towards the hairpin at the bottom of the track. He was brave, he was committed, he showed massive maturity, antonelli. The result of the race didn't really go his way, but that wasn't entirely his fault. You know he finished in 11th, but his bravery and commitment in the first phase of that Grand Prix I thought was phenomenal.

Paul Velasco:

You jump in the gun. I think the coolest thing that happened in that whole Grand Prix was when Norris false started and fucking Max pointed out, said hey, mate, the guy's moved his car. I love that that's true. I absolutely love it.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I mean I've got a subscription to F1 TV. So often what I do when I'm watching the race live, I'll have the main feed on my big TV screen and I'll watch an onboard. Just at the start of the race and I was onboard with Max because I thought is he going to make his way through the pack into turn one? And I was really interested in seeing that. And also I love the fact that you don't get it on the TV feed. You get the engineer talking to him on the parade lap saying you know, last car's coming to the grid, everyone coming to the grid. Uh, everyone's on certain tire apart from him. I love it, that's cool. So that's cool. I I clocked max saying that live on the feed to his engineer. He went just so that you know norris is out of his grid spot and I thought he doesn't. He doesn't miss a trick, does he?

Rick Houghton:

he's totally aware and totally focused, literally out of the corner of his eye. He spots it. He sees norris edge forward a little bit. Bang. He's on the radio because he knows it's going to get shuffled up the line to race control and it's going to produce probably a five second penalty. Any advantage Max can get in a race, he will take Any advantage at all.

Jad Mallak:

Exactly. Yeah, look, that's how you become a champion you have to be careful about every detail, you have to be ruthless and you have to be attentive to all these things. But, like Paul said, the mistake that Norris did, it was unforgivable, Honestly. He had that brilliant start. That brilliant start. You know he was up to third position on lap one. Okay, he made sure because, you know, the Ferraris were both starting on median so they didn't have the proper grip on the start. So he took advantage of that. But then you mess it up, honestly, and the only thing that saved him on that day was that McLaren car, Because also, as well, we know, in Bahrain the undercut is very powerful. So they went for the undercut, negated the penalty and then he was back in contention again. So you can't make these kind of mistakes. And he kept making those mistakes as the race progressed. At some point point you feel that he cannot race properly, even if his life depended on it.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I wanted to touch on that point. I thought Norris' race craft was pretty woeful during the Grand Prix. It reminded me I was never a fan of Valtteri Bottas. I thought Bottas' race craft wasn't great. He wasn't great at defending and he wasn't great at overtaking. And I saw that in Norris in Bahrain and it really freaked me out, actually, because I know he's sometimes accused of not being aggressive enough, but he should not have sat behind Charles Leclerc for as long as he did. He had the opportunity to be second and McLaren won too. He sat behind Leclerc for far too long, unable to overtake, unable to make that brave lunge which champions do, and then he did the same behind Russell in the closing stage of the race. I thought his race craft was really really poor.

Jad Mallak:

Yeah, exactly, look, leclerc was driving that Ferrari on those dreaded hard tires and he defended beautifully. But we know Leclerc, he's a good defender, know that. And then he's thought he was stuck behind russell russell. Everything that could go wrong in a race went wrong on russell's car yeah the transponder not working. He doesn't know his timing, he doesn't know when he can use the drs. His steering dash was going on and off. Then he told us after the race he had a brake by wire issue at one point.

Rick Houghton:

The brake pedal was low, then it was high, yeah, and he kept a mclaren behind him and at one stage, uh, to try and fix the drs, they remapped the steering wheel during the race, so he's having to put lots of inputs in and go through multiple menus and stuff. West he's driving at 200 miles an hour and then they remapped the drs to the radio button at one point. So he pushes for the radio and it opens the DRS flap and that could have led to a penalty. But I think they all realized that the car was completely mangled in terms of its electronics at that point. Um, I want to ask, if I may, about Ferrari and you mentioned there the hard tires. I've been convinced I was convinced about this last season and probably the season before as well. I'm convinced that Ferrari don't watch the race like the rest of us do.

Rick Houghton:

I'm convinced of this yeah, yeah I am convinced they don't monitor other team radios. I'm convinced of it. I'm convinced they have a strategist that sits on the pit wall and looks at his two cars. Only that's all he does. No, no, no, no you're wrong?

Paul Velasco:

yeah, I don't know, I don't think they're monitoring other team radios.

Rick Houghton:

I don't't. I think every other team does it. When Verstappen radios in and says this hard tyre is impossible, and when Hamilton does the same thing and says this is ridiculous, the hard's not working. Okay, maybe one car suffers on the hard tyres, you go, okay, well, that's their car. But when two leading drivers both say the hard tyre is undriveable and then Ferrari bring both cars in and go, you know what, let's put them on the hard tire. I don't think they paid any attention to what the other teams on hard tires were struggling with. I think they just did it because it was in the strategy book yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jad Mallak:

Look, the hard tire was a disaster. Look, I think the problem with Bahrain this season is that it just threw a curveball at the teams. They were talking all tyre drag and everything and it's going to be excessive and two-stop, and Max was happy he saved two hard tyres, I think for the race and what have you. But then it turns out the best racing tyre was the soft. Russell managed, I think, the final 20-something laps on the soft, defending from Norris in that messed-up car that threw a curveball at the teams. But yeah, honestly, when you see Max screaming about the hard tire and then he goes in after a short stint and he just got rid of those and went on the mediums you're going to put both cars on the hard tires.

Jad Mallak:

I don't care, I don't care. You don't have new sets, I don't care. Put a scrubbed medium, a scrubbed medium, a scrubbed soft, I don't care. But you don't go close to that tire. You know, and that's what Ferrari did. They were doing well, by the way, they did a medium medium.

Jad Mallak:

I think, they should have gone for a soft in the end, because the medium they did some real progress, and then in the second stint they were flying. And then you get a safety car cool, go in, put hearts and that's it Done. Your race is done. And this is a problem that Ferrari are never going to sort. I don't know how will they sort this thing.

Paul Velasco:

I don't know. It's Ferrari, mate. It's Ferrari. They're never going to sort it. It's just one day they'll be good, one day they'll be bad. Listen, guys. Enough trash-talking Ferrari. Come on, guys.

Rick Houghton:

I'm not enjoying this Ferrari bashing from you boys, yeah, okay, well, you know what?

Jad Mallak:

I want to see them do really well. I want to see them do well.

Rick Houghton:

I want to see them get the strategy act together for once in their lives.

Paul Velasco:

Come on, you know you tell it like two Red Bull fanboys, mate. Now, you two Red Bull fanboys, you listen to this, you two little Red fanboys, because I'll tell you what. Yes, ferrari are Ferrari. Stop knocking them, man, they get better. Then we have nothing to knock. Come on. Anyway, what I say to you is to me, red Bull, look like they've been taking lessons from Ferrari. What's with their pit stops and those lights and the guys with lights and it's all red and it, mate, I'm sorry, caught both drivers out and they tried to fix it in the pit lane.

Rick Houghton:

It didn't look as though they could fix it. I mean, it was a race of electrical gremlins and problems. At one stage, the FIA lost their timing screens.

Rick Houghton:

They went down the world feed, you know, you didn't know who was where and what was going on. And then at one time the timing came back on the world feed and then it was jumping around ridiculously, so it looked as though there was a massive glitch in the matrix. And then, of course yeah, very rarely, you know, red Bull normally come out of a Grand Prix weekend with the fastest pit stop. The first one, for Max, was 4.2. The second one was 4.7.

Paul Velasco:

Mate, smoking like a real fanboy. You're a Red Bull fanboy, Seriously, you're only as good as your last race and I'm going to say this to you Red Bull fanboys out there is one very important thing this team is corroding. They cocked up their driver thing 110%. Okay, it's gone. They've messed it up. The car's been rubbish since last year, Since the car's been a piece of trash since Sergio Perez, who, as Jad Malik wrote, deserves a huge apology from Red Bull.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Velasco:

When Perez stopped being able to drive the car, it was only the genius of Max that took that car to that level and, as Jad said, he won seven of the first 10 races. After the 10th Hill, devon's race was over. Man, that car's broken. It's rubbish. They haven't been able to fix it and then they messed up the driver thing and now they're pit stop stuff. Christian Horner must catch a waker. He must get that team back to the level that it was ruthless, because right now they're depending on Max. It's a one-man team and the car is so bad now that not even Max could do anything with it. So I'm going to say this this is the end of a once-great team, and maybe Christian and Marco have got to go. 20 years, 25 years, they've done a fantastic job, but Marco is like 104 years old. I love him, I have a huge respect for him, but sometimes dynasties have to change and they really dropped the ball on this one as far as I'm concerned, and I think it's just going to get worse Watch.

Rick Houghton:

I think what was interesting and, jad, you pointed this out earlier on what was interesting is the amount of praise over the last two or three weeks that alonzo has been showering on max going. He's the best driver of our generation. No one can do what he does. Blah, blah, in quote after quote after quote. And then you look at the fact that we we spoke in this podcast about lance stroll pumping all this money and getting the best personnel, having the best wind tunnel. And then you look at what happened after the race in bahrain, where ted kravitz from Sky Sports F1 actually spotted and got a camera on Max's manager tearing a strip out of Helmut Marko, actually pointing his finger and shouting, and you think, okay, is what you mentioned earlier, jad is that something that's going to happen?

Paul Velasco:

Does he know?

Jad Mallak:

that he's on the way to Aston Martin.

Paul Velasco:

Paint the picture. No, no, no, no, guys, guys, sorry, I didn't hear this. I was probably giving water and energy gels to my wife.

Jad Mallak:

Yeah, because you didn't read your own website, mate, because the story's on our website. I'm just a writer.

Paul Velasco:

I'm just a. You know I told you I wasn't going to pay any attention to the website, so don't eat it. And you remember that raise you asked for You're not getting it.

Rick Houghton:

Anyway, where was I?

Paul Velasco:

I nearly fell off my chair there. Anyway, yeah, where were we? What was that Really? My chair fell over, I fell over.

Rick Houghton:

So it was after the race, after the podium, Ted Kravitz from Sky Sports F1 was doing Ted's notebook, which he normally does way after the race, and he walks around the paddock and he gives a little report on each team and how they did, and it contains some technical information, sometimes as well. Very interesting if you're an F1 geek, like like me. And suddenly they're walking around the paddock and the camera, he went oh, look at this. The camera points into the Red Bull um area not a motor home, Cause they don't have them in the flyaway races and it it catches a glimpse of Max's manager finger pointing across the table to helmet. Marco raised voices and then he storms out. He storms out.

Paul Velasco:

Oh my God yeah. Oh my God, yeah, exactly, and I didn't even know this stuff. Oh my God, you see this team's imploding mate in front of our own eyes.

Jad Mallak:

Yeah, exactly, this is it. And then, just after that, Helmut Marko goes out and gives a statement to the I think to the Germans guy. He tells them that he is really concerned that Max's future with the team is not secure anymore if they don't get their act together very soon. This is the story. This is the story Headline. Marco concerned about Verstappen's future with Red Bull and that thing was reported within Exactly. Yeah, what's his name? Max's manager? Raymond Vermeulen. Yeah, he was seen having a heated conversation with Marco. Maybe he was telling him look.

Rick Houghton:

I'm going to call Lawrence.

Jad Mallak:

I'm going to tell him to write that billion-dollar check and we're on our way.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, because it's. I mean, this may be rumor, but I'm sure I've seen it somewhere. It may be your website, I'm not sure, but it's true that Max has a performance clause in his contract, is that?

Jad Mallak:

correct. It is, it is Okay. So that means it's not a rumor, it's a fact. It's a fact, yeah, okay.

Rick Houghton:

I thought I just wanted to make sure. So, basically, max has every right to walk away from his contract if they're not hitting certain performance targets and if this sort of pace and, like you say, paul, if this sort of demolition of the team continues, we're going to be at that clause release quite soon. I mean, you know we're going to saudi next. It's a fast track. How's max going to do there? No one knows, but he must be worried.

Paul Velasco:

Listen the signs are on the wall. The question is going to be does he leave 2026 or does he 2028?

Jad Mallak:

logic says before, before we started the season, because the talk about Max leaving Red Bull started when we had Christian Horner's texting scandal last year. Okay, so that was the talk. But then the logic meant that, okay, listen, Max won the 2024 championship and he's going to go now into 2025 and try to win again, with 2026 being a major shift in the regulations, with the new power units and the cars and what have you. And it wouldn't be a smart thing to make a decision in 2025 and leave in 2026 to a team which you don't know and which you have no idea about their prospects for 2026. But I think if things keep going downhill for Max from now on this season, I think maybe he might leave by the end of the season. You know he won't wait. He said I'm going to take a risk with another team because I know I'm going nowhere in this team.

Jad Mallak:

If the situation keeps deteriorating. This is me analyzing things. If you keep going, what would keep Max at Red Bull now? If Max wins in 2025, if he takes his fifth championship, he says, okay, good, this team delivered me a fifth championship.

Paul Velasco:

It's not going to happen, Mike.

Jad Mallak:

Yeah, I know, I know, just humor me here. If that happens, he matches Michael Schumacher's record five titles in a row. And then, okay, I'll wait and see what happens in 2026. This is what Seb Vettel did with them. Seb, he won from 10 to 13. 14 was a disaster. He jumped to Ferrari, which it ended up being a disaster as well, but anyhow. But I think if Max loses this title and if this season ends up being a disaster, I don't think he might wait.

Rick Houghton:

We'll see, but we'll see and, and the key to that as well, has to be well, who built me the car that I won my world championships with? Oh, adrian newey. Where's adrian newey? Oh, he's had a year over a year to develop the 26 car with the best wind tunnel in formula one at the super duper multi-million pound headquarters. That is aston martin. I mean max will be thinking, well, he can build me a car that I can. Will be thinking, well, he can build me a car that I can turn on a dime. He'll build me a car that goes like it's on rails. That's got to be in his head. It's got to be.

Jad Mallak:

Look, there's an interesting thing about Max and Adrian Newey. Although Adrian designed all his cars, what I know, that Adrian Newey is not part of Max's entourage. You know Because you know every driver in a team. He has these team members who whenever if he leaves, they leave with him. Adrian is not part of that. The guy who's part of that entourage is the current technical director, Pierre Wachet. That's Max's guy and I think that's why Max kept the faith, because he was there, but it seems up to now he's not delivering the car that he needs. So it's interesting, you know, it's interesting. Yeah, he might leave his body behind to go and chase Adrian Newey.

Rick Houghton:

Wow, well, loads to think about as we move forward to the third triple in a row at Saudi Arabia this coming weekend, one of my favorite circuits. I've come to love it over the years since it's been on the calendar Very fast. The walls are very close. A quick question I wanted to ask, because me and Paul always do this thing. We're going to preview the Saudi Grand Prix in a separate podcast, but a quick question. Me and Paul always try and predict who's going to win the race and I think Paul last week said it was always going to be Max Verstappen happen.

Paul Velasco:

But we might. No, no, no, no, no, no. Let's get the record straight. Your memory is I think my memory is better than yours mine's really shot, but anyway. No, it was this. I called max when max won, rick. Did you call norris when norris won?

Rick Houghton:

I did yeah yeah, only once.

Jad Mallak:

I've only called it once and he called piastri this weekend did you call piastri?

Paul Velasco:

I think I called piastri this weekend. Did you call Piastri? I think I called Piastri.

Jad Mallak:

You said no mate, listen, your memory is rubbish, paul. You said that Max is going to win every race. Look, since I'm not getting this race I asked for I'm out for vengeance. Now you said Max is going to win every race and Rick said Piastri is going to win in Bahrain and Piastri won.

Paul Velasco:

There you go Well done. Rick Okay.

Rick Houghton:

Wow.

Paul Velasco:

Okay, humble pie.

Rick Houghton:

As long as I remember it, I'll eat humble pie Producer Ian is asking for us three to predict our top three in Saudi Arabia. Let's start with you, Jad Top three.

Jad Mallak:

Wow, I'm going to say Piastri, Max Russell.

Rick Houghton:

Okay, good call. I'm going to go for Piastri Piastri. You'm going to go for Piastri Piastri. Yeah, I'll go Piastri for the win. I'm going to go Antonelli, third and second. I'm going to go for Charles Leclerc.

Jad Mallak:

Good one.

Paul Velasco:

I'll go Max, yuki Liam.

Jad Mallak:

Max Yuki, liam, nice yeah.

Paul Velasco:

Wow, max first, yuki second, liam Dawson third. No, no, seriously, I'll sit to Max. I'll go. Max Verstappen, I'll go, just because you guys have cursed Piastri, I'm going to go Norris. No, in fact, I'm going to go Russell Verstappen, piastri.

Jad Mallak:

Okay, yeah, that's good. Look, since you said that, like I said, I was writing my takeaways column and one of them is that how worthy Russell is of becoming Mercedes' leader. He's doing a fantastic job there. Yeah, he really is. He ironed out these race craft issues which he had last year, you know, crashing for no reason in Singapore or stuff like that, and yeah, he can take the pressure dealing with this problem. You know he was calm with his engineer over the radio. Do this, do that. He tells him the dash is gonna turn off and he said as long as the steering doesn't fall out, I'm happy, you know I think he was taking a dig at aston martin with alonzo.

Jad Mallak:

What happened in that thing?

Rick Houghton:

but anyhow, yeah, it was he's a decent driver.

Jad Mallak:

He's a decent leader for Mercedes.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, and we're off next to well, the cauldron of speed in Saudi Arabia, very fast, very walls near. You know we've got lots of rookies on the grid who could make mistakes in practice. You know you trash your car in free practice one We've seen in Saudi before. It's an uphill battle to get a decent car on the grid for the race. It's going to be really interesting, really exciting. I can't wait. Thank you, jad malik, so much. Thank you, paul velasco, for being on the podcast, as always, and thank you to you for listening. We'll see you again next time.

Rick Houghton:

Two soft compounds was presented by myself, r Rick Hutton, alongside Paul Valesco. The studio engineer and editor was Roy DeMonte, the executive producer was Ian Carlos, and this podcast is a co-production between Grand Prix 24-7 and W4 Podcast Studio Dubai. Don't forget, if you want to join in the conversation, leave a comment on our Instagram page at Two Soft Compounds. We love getting comments, questions, and we'll give a shout out to some of the best ones on the podcast in the next few weeks. You can also email us at twosoftcompounds at gmailcom and if you haven't done so already, please do click that follow or subscribe button. See you next time.