2 Soft Compounds
2 Soft Compounds is a weekly podcast focusing on Formula 1, hosted by radio broadcaster Rick Houghton and motorsport journalist and GrandPrix247 founder, Paul Velasco.
With a focus on unfiltered analysis, behind-the-scenes insights and expert commentary, the podcast offers fans an entertaining and informative take on the fastest sport in the world.
2 Soft Compounds
Saudi Arabia GP: Piastri's Dominance - Red Bull's Spin Doctor Can't Fix This One
Saudi Arabia GP: Piastri's Dominance & Red Bull's Spin Doctor Can't Fix This One
š Jeddah Masterclass! On this weekās Two Soft Compounds, Rick Houghton and Paul Velasco are joinded by Grandprix247.com editor Jad Mallak and break down a Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that may have just reshaped the championship narrative.
š§” "Oscar Piastri was untouchable" was the general consensus from the 2 Soft Compounds team, as the Aussie delivered a flawless performance under pressure. Calm, fast, composedā¦ he made Verstappen look rattled and now sits firmly in the title fight.
šØ The guys also discuss Verstappenās aggressive move at Turn 1 which earned him a penalty as well as dig into Lando Norrisā ongoing struggles in the McLaren and Leclerc's quiet brilliance to pull off a podium for Ferrari.
F1ās title race is wide open and Two Soft Compounds is all over it. Bold takes, sharp insight, and no holding back ā this is how F1 should sound.
Production Credits:
Presented by: Rick Houghton & Paul Velasco
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producer: Ian Carless
Produced by: GrandPrix247 & W4 Podcast Studio
Welcome to another Two Soft Compounds, paul Velasco and Jad is here from GrandPrix247.com. My name's Rick. We're off the back of the third race in an exciting triple header across Asia and the Middle East, and we've just witnessed a fairly fabulous Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia, in Jeddah. So, boys, welcome. I'll start with you, jad. Actually, what did you think of the weekend in total?
Speaker 2:Well, it was a great weekend. It's always nice to go to Jeddah. You know it's a street circuit with high speeds and it's like Paul and I used to say we call it Monacon steroids. It's a great track and it's always a challenge for the drivers to go there, and you know the fact that it came at the end of this triple header like the teams are exhausted, the drivers are exhausted. You know they're flying all over the world and then it just bam. You go to this very, very challenging track.
Speaker 2:So it was interesting to see, and what made us more like looking forward to this race was the fact that how things went down back in Bahrain. You know, with Lando Norris needing to bounce back after the whooping he got over there. And you know Max as well. He needed to bounce back after the whooping, he got over there, and Max as well, he needed to bounce back and to show that he had a decent car. He said ahead of the race that it was going to be a better track for them. It turned out that it was. That was the case. So it was a surprising race. At some point you could see the rise of some, the drop of some. Russell was nowhere during the race. Ferrari painful, although Leclerc got the podium. But Lewis, yeah, it wasn't a really good race for him Lando, with the crash, his drive, his comeback on race day. Overall it was a nice race Lots of overtaking, lots of action, so yeah it was a good race to watch, paul.
Speaker 1:Your take on the race, your take on the build-up. Maybe you've got some comments about the practice. I know that we had a little bet as to who would be the first driver to bin it, and you said Lance Stroll. In fact, lance Stroll was the first driver to spin in FP1, but he didn't hit anything. The first driver to bin it into the wall was Yuki Tsunoda.
Speaker 3:Yeah, indeed, indeed, and I felt the Grand Prix was won and lost on that first corner. So'm gonna start at the beginning, like I like to normally. So, yeah, piastri got a bullet start. That was absolutely unbelievable, and max did. You know, basically there was space against the wall. Max, if that was lewis, I reckon he would have, like, edged it, closed that door, but piastri was so quick I think by the time max realized that piastri was in front, into the corner and max did what he did. He crossed the track and it was obvious For me, it was immediately obvious that that was wrong.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. Piastri maybe didn't give him space on the exit, but it was Piastri's corner. It wasn't his obligation to actually give him space there. Afterwards, max had to tuck under his wing, max didn't, went wide and then it was the crash. He led for a bit and then there was a crash Correct me if I'm wrong and then there was like two or three laps under the safety car when, if Charlie Whiting was around, he would have said hey, max, give that place back. It was wrong, they didn't, and they messed up the race. At that point they had three or four laps to decide, and even when they were going to release the cars, when they were doing that talk, they could have said okay, let's do one more safety lap to save this race, because we're going to tell Max to give the position back.
Speaker 3:If Max didn't give the position back after they were told, then I believe that he should have got the penalty. But it was one of those moments when we needed a race director with balls to just say hey, red Bull, pull your man back. That was an illegal move. Do it before the safety car, otherwise he gets a five-second penalty. And then we would have had a fabulous race because we'd have Max planted to Piastri's tail and that was it. But once Max didn't give the position back, he knew he had the five seconds. He had to really drive hard and I think that was race over. Because once I did the pit stop, piastri had quite a massive lead. It was like three and a half second lead. And I felt that the race was done then because it was cat and mouse Max attacked, max attacked, max attacked and that kid was just absolutely 110% in control.
Speaker 3:And I'm loving this Piastri boy because I've got to mention something about him which is very, very important the man has 51 Grand Prixs to his name. Okay, 51. Take that number down. Lando Norris has 140 starts, max Verstappen 217 starts, george Russell 135 starts, charles Leclerc 162 starts and if you go to like this twanker, lance Stroll has 174 starts. Oscar, at 50 starts, is better than all of them as far as I'm concerned, right at the moment, on current form, except for Verstappen, and he's only got 50 races.
Speaker 3:So I'm in awe of this kid, mark Webber. I'm sure he's doing a good job there behind the scenes. You've got to give him the applause. Mclaren are handling it well and I'm going to go back to my old saying to be world champion, to win races, you've got to beat your teammate. Oscar's done that. He did it Normally. Norris comes back, raises the bar, and then Oscar comes back, raises the bar. Did not happen. It's true. Love to Oscar right now. Adv back, raises the bar. Did not happen. It's true. Love to oscar right now. Advantage oscar. And norris is at sea. Yes, he had a great race from p4, but that's the race he should have won. Okay, that's my summary of the. The rest year there was racing and russell and le clac and all that, but as far as I'm concerned the championships among three guys piastri, norris, verstappen. One of those three is going to be world champion and at the moment, verst Verstappen is Verstappen. You can never ride him off, but that was a world champion drive I saw on Sunday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would agree. I think Oscar Piastri is demonstrating race in, race out that he's got such a cool head on his shoulders. He doesn't make mistakes very much. In fact, I don't think he made a mistake all weekend, from FP1 through until checkered flag at the race. We saw Lando make the mistake in qualifying, which saw him put him into the wall in Jeddah. So he is making mistakes and he has got a vulnerability there, whereas Oscar Piastri just seems super cool, super level-headed and super confident at the moment. Jad, would you agree with that? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Look. Like Paul said, oscar needed to beat his teammate and he started doing that emphatically right now. The problem is that with Lando now he's going into a downward spiral and it's very risky for Lando when he is right now. It's a very risky position. He needs to pick himself up. Now he's got a break. Maybe he needs to do some reflection during this break to come back, because that was not the answer to Bahrain that Norris delivered in Saudi Arabia Binning your car in Q3, that was not the answer. He should have been on pole over there. And if you look at Max's lap his pole lap it's fantastic as usual. You know, max, how he takes the car to the limit. But he got some help with that toe from Tsunoda and, yeah, it was all to play for. But Norris was not playing the game, he was out, he was watching from the pits. It was Piastri, it was Russell, it was Max who were fighting for Paul, and that is not what he should have done. He should have been on Paul. So that's one thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like Paul said, he did a great race, driving from 10th up to. I think he finished fourth, but I didn't see him going through the field as fast as he should in that car. He should have been progressing faster. He reminded me a bit of Perez. You know Perez, when he gets stuck in that fast Red Bull and he can't climb up the order and you find him stuck behind cars and you don't understand why. So that was the situation with Lando. Yeah, he had a clean race, he finished in fourth, but a podium should have been there.
Speaker 2:No, it didn't happen and he was slow up the order. And that's all good news for Piastri, because now, piastri, he sees his teammate dealing with his demons. Because I feel Norris is now dealing with his demons and Piastri doesn't have that. He's cool-headed, he's very calm, he's doing the business and, yeah, he's now. I think Paul said it's a three-horse race for the championship. I say no, it's two, it's Verstappen versus Piastri. If Norris doesn't bounce back emphatically very soon and by that I mean Miami. He won Miami last year, so he needs to win it this time as well. If he doesn't do that, I think he's out of the race.
Speaker 3:Mate. 20 more races to go. 19 more races to go. Look, put it this way, the McLarens can win the championship and only Max and the Red Bull can win the championship. It's one of the two McLarens, but I don't know. I mean, okay, let's see, you might prove me wrong.
Speaker 3:I think Norris will bounce back. I mean, this was a super, super tricky track, miami, like you said, he won before. So yeah, you can't write Norris off just yet. I don't think. I mean you know he will bounce back. He's an intelligent driver. I don't think he's peaked at all and I'm going to agree with you you should have slaughtered those, those guys upwards. You should have been on the podium. There's no doubt about it. Everyone was wow, wow, wow Norris. But you see, the problem is this, guys and I'm sorry, with due respect, rick, but I know you, you understand this from a Formula One fan point of view if Oscar was British, mate, jeez, it would be. It would be. But because Oscar's Australian and they're not Sky and they don't give him as much love as he deserves. But Norris, on the other hand, I think he'll go back, regroup the car's good, he can take the championship all the way to the end if he just finishes behind Piastri all the time. But I think it's still a long way to go.
Speaker 3:Norris has got to remember one thing, and this will. I mean I gave him advice before he doesn't listen. You know he obviously doesn't read grand prix two for seven. If he did, he'd be better. All he had to go and do is go check out the max verstappen videos of him winning from 10 and beyond. You know what I mean. But again, norris, it's a big, big character. Building a week for him, a reality check. Now he's going to see how he's going to come back. I you know, in terms of how I'm looking at at the moment, if you take it from a tennis point of words to love to him at the moment and, uh, to to piastri, with norris really having to raise his game. I think he's got three or four races to stay in the hunt. When it hits the 10 race mark, if he's not within striking distances, and that's within a you know 10 or x points, um, I feel that then you can write him off. But that car is so good man. Come on guys, I saw a fantastic race car there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, I've got a piece of audio I wanted to play for you guys. It's not something we're going to do every episode. I just found it quite interesting. Now we're talking about lando norris. This is the team radio between lando Norris's engineer, which, by the way, sounds like the coolest, most laid back dude in the world. It sounds as though he's smoking a spliff whilst he's doing this, by the way, but obviously you need to remain calm when you're on the radio to your driver. Now, this is edited footage so it's not in real time, but I've edited it together and added my voice as a reference. So this is when the car is on the track, just before the parade lap to race start and to the safety car incident in the lap one crash between Gasly and Tsunoda here we go.
Speaker 3:Have a listen to this.
Speaker 1:So this is Lando sat in the car before the formation lap Lando tyre and flow.
Speaker 2:Your fellow hard-ons are Straw Hatcher and Hulkenberg. Everybody else starts on medium.
Speaker 1:Tight information from his engineer and this is engine start. So engine start for the formation lap about 30 seconds before the green light. Switch on speed limiter. Engineer telling Lando to switch off his speed limiter.
Speaker 3:You don't want to forget that Purple C-13, position 11.
Speaker 1:That's Purple C-13, position 11. Instruction for Lando to change a setting on his steering wheel to set the engine mode for the launch at the end of the formation lap and it's no full pedal from now, engineer telling him not to use full throttle for the remainder of the formation lap. A big lift into turn 27, final turn on the track. Big lift, come off the throttle and it will be purple C6 position 10.
Speaker 2:Before the burnout sets purple C6 position 10.
Speaker 1:Another engine mode setting. They'll have decided how many burnouts they're doing before they get to the grid in advance. And that's an engine setting from the engineer to tell Lando to set the engine up correctly for those burnouts. Last car approaching the grid instruction for the engineer telling him the last car is approaching the grid, look for the lights and this is the race. Start now. Safety car deployed. Safety car deployed. Uh, this is for an accident, as you saw, and we will be staying out. And mine are purple c7 position one. Please, purple c7 position one.
Speaker 1:That's another engine mode setting to use during the safety car period and there is a recovery vehicle on track. All right, there you go, guys. So it just shows you. You know it's quite dramatic, first of all, and it shows you how much information goes between engineer and driver. I mean, obviously that's edited so you're hearing it not in real time, but those steering wheel instructions, very important for engine mode settings and stuff. So obviously, when a safety car out, they change the engine mode because they don't need it to be turned up as high when they go for the launch, they need it in a different engine mode. I mean it's all complicated stuff and every engineer for every driver is providing this sort of information before, during and after the race. I mean, I find it quite fascinating. What did you think?
Speaker 2:Well, the first thing, I just enjoyed listening to the gearshifts. When he's upshifting, you know, on the start it's always it's very sexy, the gearshifts in an F1 car, Although the noise is not as good as it used to be, but the gearshifts are great. Look, yeah, F1 now it's not only about, it's the pinnacle of motorsports, so it's the top of the technology and everything. So all these complications, they come with this status, you know, and it's very.
Speaker 2:It's a coincidence that you just played this clip today, because yesterday I was watching the race and I think we were on board with Berman or someone, and then you had a look, a clear look, at the screen of the steering wheel and you see all this information, all this data that is displayed there for the driver. And I'm just thinking about it. This guy is managing these data in his mind while he's going over 200 miles per hour and then just trying to make sure that he brakes at the precise point where he needs to brake. Yeah, it shows you the mental capacity that the drivers have, in addition to the physical capacity they have to deal with the G-forces in an f1 car.
Speaker 3:It's very interesting yeah, I find it too. I find the fact, look, it's like I said, I don't get it how they do it. I mean, you know the that whole wheel thing and you know it's not just sitting in that car and driving. So yeah, I can understand that you engineer types find that like super cool yeah, look, I'll say something.
Speaker 2:I'll say something. My father when I started watching f1 years ago and he just tells me like what are you doing what? What are these guys doing just driving around in circles? Where's the sport in that? So they could understand. Maybe a football player or basketball basketball player running around, he's doing physical activity, so that's a sport. But where's the sport in f1? And I tell them it's. There's more into it than you think. And I think, think I'm going to let my father listen to this clip and then he will realize more what it is.
Speaker 3:It's fighter pilot stuff. You know, it's fighter pilot stuff Exactly. I think that's what Formula One has evolved, you know. I think fighter pilots would be the only guys with the balls to race Formula One cars before the wings in the 60s, and you find a lot of them have that kind of military, whatever they, that fascination with flight. And then, you know, as the cars evolved, they became increasingly, increasingly fighter pilot-like and I think today what he's doing in a car is pretty much what a jet fighter pilot's doing in a jet, you know, and the only thing is the jet fighter pilot hasn't got this wall, you know, one centimeter away from his wheels.
Speaker 1:I would totally agree. I mean, all you have to do is drive your family car down a motorway at 70 miles an hour and someone asks you to change the heater setting, and you get an idea of, yeah, okay, well, I'll take my eyes off the road for a second. It's quite a scary thing, you know. And these guys doing 200 miles an hour with a wall next to them, like you say, and they're trying to, and it's not just, you know, one switch they're having to press, they're having to turn dials to get into sub menus, and then it's just, that's really quite frightening and I think I think the mastery of that is right up there with the mastery of the driving itself, because you know, you've got to be a skillful driver, but you've got to be a skillful operator to to do all the things that are required of you.
Speaker 1:So we talked about the top three. Let's now talk about ferrari. Charles leclerc was on the podium for this race, but it didn't feel like it was a convincing well, he was on the podium, didn't feel like a convincing performance, and I'm not sure whether that was the tire strategy. And then we've got lewis hamilton, who really didn't perform terribly well during the race Thoughts starting with you, jad, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Look, it's a good boost for Ferrari to be on the podium and they did that just one race after they got their upgrade package on the car. But, like you said, it's not a convincing podium for them and I think it was basically down to the fact that Mercedes struggled with their tires during the race. Russell, namely, he struggled with his tires and that's why he couldn't challenge for the podium and that's why Leclerc did it. Leclerc did the business. I think Ferrari did a good thing when they kept him out on track, leading the race in clean air and he could extend that first stint on the medium tires. He did a superb job with that and that just gave him more ammo in terms of tires. That was the end of the race, so he could push and he could. Just, you know he could. He passed Russell quite fast and then he could keep Lando at bay. So, yeah, it wasn't a purely on merit thing because, like others have to struggle for them to do that and yeah, but in the end it should be a bit of a boost for the team. It was a different thing on the other side of the garage with Lewis, it was honestly I don't know where he was. It was honestly.
Speaker 2:He was so anonymous in that race and it's a bit surprising because after Bahrain, he came up and said listen, for the first time since I joined Ferrari, I know how this car needs to be driven. He said that and once he said that, everyone's expecting wow, lewis made a breakthrough. He found that silver bullet with the car and then he goes to Saudi and he performs that way. Yeah, it's a bit of a disappointment. He still seems to need more time. I don't know. It's not for us to judge what's happening behind ferrari walls. Let's see what's going on and let's give him some more time.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it was a contradicting race for ferraris one car on the podium, one car struggling I've never known lewis hamilton talk so negatively in the, in the, in the media, with, with a situation, and at the moment he's he's just he's downplaying his uh performances so much yeah, because he was really, really shit.
Speaker 3:Let's be honest. I mean, you know he's the king, we know that, but he was shit. He's lost its seat. He doesn't know where he's going. He found it in Bahrain. He lost it in Saudi. You know, it's like one week apart.
Speaker 3:Look, I'm going to disagree. I think Charles did a fantastic job. I think Charles did a fantastic job. I think the tyre whispering was spot on. He only lost his race by eight seconds, mate. You know what I mean, and that's I don't see anyone else that quick. You know, norris was sure, but he kept Norris at bay. But Norris has got a rocket, comparatively speaking, I don't think eight seconds behind the winner in what was a sprint race all the way. So bad for Ferrari. I think Charles is getting a handle on the car.
Speaker 3:Lewis was 39 seconds down the road, half a minute behind his teammate. Now that is a problem, that is a huge problem. Lewis knows it, everyone knows it. But I don't think we can underplay what fantastic drive Charles did on the day, because I think he's taking the tire as long as he did was a masterstroke by Ferrari. And yeah, I'm looking at eight seconds and I'm thinking not too bad, not too bad at all, Whereas Lewis man, I don't know.
Speaker 3:You know they won at Imola the WEC. They're just having a fabulous time, you know. But Ferrari for like, if you're my generation, they were a great sports car team in the 70s. In fact, formula 1 was like secondary. Maybe they should send Lewis to the WEC in the hypercar just to get some lap times and familiarize himself with the Ferrari and put Antonio Fuoco, one of those guys, in the Formula 1 car.
Speaker 3:But Lewis is the lost at sea 30 seconds in what was a 50, that's a second, nearly a second. You know. It's between half a second and a second and I find that between teammates that's probably the biggest gap. You know, if you look at the next boys which you guys can take, which I thought it was an underwhelming weekend for Mercedes, I'm thinking Russell starting P3, I thought he had a go at the win but honestly, the car's finishing 27 seconds off the leaders. That is a head-scratcher for Mercedes. You know the leaders being a McLaren with a Mercedes engine, antonelli was good, kept his, did everything he had to do and finished. You know what was it? Five, six seconds behind his teammate. The kid is really doing a great job. So that's my take on Mercedes. What do you guys reckon?
Speaker 1:yeah, I think Mercedes definitely had problems getting their tires into the working window this weekend. You know, it looks as though McLaren have got a car that works at nearly every circuit well with tire management, the other teams around McLaren. Some circuits suit them better than others. It looks as though the hotter circuits don't suit mercedes. They never did. Mercedes never, never used to perform brilliantly at hot circuits. You know, saudi definitely hot miami, which is next down the line, it's going to be hot as well. But mercedes seem to have an issue with their tire working window. Would you agree, jed?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, exactly it. It's something. It has been something inherent in Mercedes cars, and not even from this generation. It goes back to the previous generation of cars.
Speaker 2:I remember one thing when Michael Schumacher rejoined and Mercedes started after they bought out Ross Brawn and they always used to say that they had a problem with tires on the rear axle overheating all the time, and they took that issue into the hybrid era because the chassis were not that different. We weren't yet into the ground effect generation, so they took that thing into the next era and they had the same problem. It showed at some points, but they had that very dominant engine and that very dominant car, so they masked these issues somehow during the hybrid era. But I think, yeah, they still have a problem with that. It's something that they've been suffering over the last couple of years and it hasn't changed. And, yeah, they felt the pain of it now in in saudi arabia and if, like you said, miami is going to be a hot race, it's. It's something that's good. That's going to happen to them as we go through the season, whenever the temperatures are high, that mercedes doesn't go well.
Speaker 1:They need cooler temperatures okay, let's talk about williams. Let's talk about carlos science, because it looks now for the second race in a row. He's finally getting a grip on that williams car. We know it's fast in a straight. He's finally getting a grip on that Williams car. We know it's fast in a straight line. He's beaten his teammate and out-qualified his teammate in Alex Albon in the weekend. We've just seen in Saudi. It looks as though he's finally starting to make things click. Guys, Would you agree yeah?
Speaker 3:for sure. I'll tell you what Carlos needed to up his game. He was lost at sea there. He obviously found the fast keys on that car and he's put them in and he's making it work, although you could say that Alex really ran him hard all weekend, which is pretty much expected. But it's good to see Carlos back and a double point score is good. The only downside is you just can't shut James Vails after that. He just carries on and on and on. But anyway, it's all good, james doing a good job turning that team around, and to have two car scoring points, I'd say it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 3:With Mercedes, you know, six cars in the top 10. I'd say pretty good. And that close to the Mercs well, that close 30 seconds. It means that they're not. You know these are guys that were anchored to the back of the grid and back of the time sheets and the result sheets for most of you know, as long as we can remember, for far too long put it that way. And now that they're firmly in the mid-pack, scoring points is, I find, really good. Jad, what do you reckon? What's changed?
Speaker 2:Well, definitely, the car has changed. Look, I think James Vowell, since he became the boss of that team yeah, we know he talks a lot, lot. He likes to talk a lot about what he's doing and everything, but he's put in the systems. He's rebuilding the team slowly and, you know, you can see the team is functioning more efficiently in terms of the race management and the way they're building their cars and designing the cars and everything and, as a result, they have a decent car this year compared to previous years. And I I think James Valls is still riding the high of signing Carlos Sainz. That was the coup of the century for him. To be honest, he didn't imagine that he could sign a driver of his caliber. And now it seems that, yeah, like Paul said, sainz has found a way to start driving that car as fast as he could and he's delivering results.
Speaker 2:So it's the second week. He outqualified his teammate in Bahrain. He was clumsy in the race. This race no, he just kept his head down. He drove a clean race. And that bit of strategy which they did in the end giving Albon the DRS so Hajar couldn't attack, it was beautiful, it was beautifully done, it was beautifully done, it was beautifully executed, and that's not only to the drivers, it's for the team at the pit wall, for them to suggesting this and giving their drivers the instructions to do it. It shows that this team is now able to take more risks. They're brave and they're able to take more risks in their strategy and in the way they're in a race. So, yeah, they are on an upward trend right now and I think, regardless of the track, I think they'll be having a chance of scoring points at every race we go to with one car or with two, I don't know, that depends but yeah, I think they're in a good position and they're just slowly improving, which is credit to Vals, honestly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like the DRS trick in saudi was great. At one point lando was suffering behind lewis hamilton with the drs trick which hamilton knows so well around that circuit. So uh, just to explain if you, if you didn't notice, but lando for two laps was behind hamilton, tried to get him down the main straight with the drs sorry, got him into the final corner, corner 27, with the DRS. But then Hamilton had DRS down the main straight and was able to pass him again. It took Lando a couple of laps to figure that out and then he was okay. But there was interesting DRS battles going on during the whole race with many, many teams, and the Williams example you make there, jad, is a very good one. They knew that if they gave each other the DRS they'd be able to resist the attack from Hadja behind and I thought that was great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hadja, mate, hadja. One point Well done. And let's just address the elephant in the room before we go Tsunoda Tsunoda is really struggling with that car. I love the way the media are trying to turn it around, all of them. Oh, he did well, the Cuddly Toy. He really did so well. He's so close to Max. He's one second off Max in qualifying. What the hell is he close? He's not close at all. He's nowhere near Max. It's an absolute joke. Fire him. He's what he's done.
Speaker 3:Four races, yeah, ternoda just hasn't delivered. And if you fire Lawson after two races, surely he's got to go. This is his third race. He severely broke two cars like proper himself. You know what I mean. That move on Gasly. Yeah, it was 50-50, but I'm going to give a 51. It was more the other guy's fault. The Gasly-Tenota move was 50-50. Not really, though If you look at it really carefully, it was more Yuki. So, honestly, this conundrum that they think they've solved, which everyone, oh, yuki's doing so well, he's not. He's not. Do not fool yourselves, guys. That was not a good weekend for him. And the fact that he's got the drive Really, they're so lost. They might as well stick Hadja in the car. Really do it, try, give it a shot, because Yuki's not the answer.
Speaker 2:That's my opinion. What do you guys think? Yeah, I think you're right here. It was a disaster for him. Honestly, and, like you said, I just can't get my head around the fact that everyone's just going around saying, yeah, he's close to Max, like even before the race, alex Brundle came on with a feature on F1 TV and he just put the graphs, you know, for the lap times between Max and Yuki.
Speaker 2:And for a second there, for a second there, I thought, oh my God, yuki's going to out-qualify Max today. Wow, he's so good, he has improved so much. And then Max goes and out-qualifies him by nine tenths, almost a second out there, you know. Okay, i'm'm gonna give him, I'm gonna look, I'm gonna give him this. I'm gonna say there's three tenths because they used yuki to give max a toe. That's half a second plus, which is not the target. The target is three to four tenths and he hasn't delivered. Look, the only thing that I think now that that's keeping yuki is that there is that he has been getting the car into q3, but the gap is still. But like he broke, he broke two cars, I know, I know. But, mate, what do you expect from Red Bull now? Red Bull, now they're trying to avoid a PR disaster. Firing Yuki is a PR disaster for the team Two drivers in 10 races fired. It's a disaster for the team, not for the drivers.
Speaker 3:That's why they're trying to spin it. You know, because they are the spin Dr Kings. Spin it. You know, because they are the spin doctor kings. Right, oh, yuki's really on it. He's nothing exactly. Anyway, enough trash talking, little yuki. Yuki, go go mate. We want you to do well.
Speaker 1:We want you to out qualify max, you talk about the uh, the spin doctoring that goes on at red bull. Did you notice? Christian horner was going around every media outlet after the race yesterday with a still photograph of how he thought Max didn't deserve the penalty with the turn one instant. Did you see that?
Speaker 3:No, I was reporting on the race. He's rose-tinted glasses. I find him a bit strange. I mean, we get I was saying to Jad, we get to get a very interesting media take from Getty Images, which is a Red Bull content pool, and they don't hold back. And you can see Horner's chin wag with Mintluff, which is the CEO of Red Bull.
Speaker 3:I think Christian's doing a lot of spin doctoring. I mean, I did roast him the other day and say you know, jos did predict that steam would explode under Horner and it actually is doing so in front of our eyes. He's handling it well. But at the end of the day, when Max is not delivering results, that's when we're going to see the truth. But for now, max is dragging that thing by the scruff of the neck. But Kevin Melroy, our stats man, said it's over now. This is around the time when last year Max ran out of ammunition in this, in the rb20, and the rb21 is probably going to be really shit at all the other tracks. So we're either going to, we're going to see a magnificent max, because he always brings out the best, and I think we can see you keep breaking a lot of red bulls, so let's see like paul said, I was watching all the christian horner interviews.
Speaker 2:Forget about the phil photograph thing. That's just desperate, honestly. But he always interviews. We always know christian. When he's talking to the media he's very articulate, very confident. But you feel from his body language that there is trouble brewing in that team, you know, and every time he's talking he's like there's a lot of uh. But yeah, yeah, you know, let's see, he doesn't have a clear, straight answer for all the questions he's been given. So that's not a good sign. That's not a good sign. But what really made it interesting for me that, despite after that, he went and defended Max. He made sure over the team radio on the cool-down lap if you paid attention he made sure to point out to Max that his mistake on lap one lost the race. It's like the fact that you and your manager are coming and making fights without threatening that you won't leave because we messed up your race in Bahrain. Well, you messed up this one, buddy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it was subtle, it was subtle.
Speaker 2:It was there, mate. It was there. And I think when they know each other Max knows Christian, christian knows Max they understood the message I. When they know each other, max knows Christian, christian knows Max.
Speaker 3:They understood the message. I'm going to take it further. Max believed in Park, vermeer and everywhere this is a bit of the old Max that Max should actually try and conquer. He still believes he's right. He still believes that he is right. And that's what makes Max Max Even though he's wrong, he still believes he's right. He believes that corner was his and that piastri was a nasty and stuck him out of the track. And that horner blew smoke up his ass to try and back him just shows how desperate it is. Because if it had been honor of audio, they just said hey, max, file it away, mate, and really seriously, that wall that we keep on praising when they do well, we've got to hit them with a knock. Sorry, as much as Max is in the heat of the moment. Then Biasio wants to say Max, give it back. They should have just said straight Max, give it back, because it was not Max's corner. It really was never going to be Max's corner in my opinion. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 2:No, you're right, man. I think Max has a bigger problem on his hand other than this incident and this penalty.
Speaker 3:I think at that point Max realized that Oscar. Piastri is not Lando Norris.
Speaker 2:Look, max. Why does Max always play the friendship vibe with Lando? Because he owns him. He knows how to deal with him on track. He knows that every time they're going to face each other on track, he's going to win. But I think he got a wake-up call from Piastri because Piastri knows these tricks and he delivered in that fight what Max did not expect. Max knows now how much Piastri is more serious as a threat than Lando, and I think this is the problem that Max has to deal with now. Ok, lando, I think he's a side, he knows how to do with him. Now he needs to get his head around Piastri and how to fight with that guy on track, and this is what was pissing him off after the race, more than the penalty itself.
Speaker 1:Hey, good news guys, Really good news. Lance Stroll is a record breaker. Yay, he's broken the record for the most Q1 qualifying exits in Formula 1 history. He's been eliminated in Q1 for the 75th time.
Speaker 3:Bravo, lance. If I was his father, I'd be breaking records, all my vinyl records on his head. Man he's like really, and kick him out of that car because seriously and you know what I hate I hate really, it's just it irks me is is when you get the who's the guy? This, andy cowell, let me just get his quote, okay. So this is what Aston Martin CEO Andy Kyle had to say about his team performing. He says it was a straightforward race which was largely without incident, providing little opportunity to make progress with our shit boxes. Both drivers performed well this evening, giving everything lap after lap as we split the strategies. I mean seriously. Both drivers performed well this evening. What Grand Prix were they watching?
Speaker 1:I think Stroll's been lapped every race this season so far.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think he's. Yeah, Well, let's not go there, let's not go. I mean, you know we can do a whole episode on Lance Stroll, you know what I mean, but he was not driver of the day. Driver of the day boys. Driver of the day. Driver of the day. Driver of the day I'm going to go, charles.
Speaker 1:I think officially in the F1, official driver of the day was Max Verstappen yesterday, which I thought, uh, my driver of the day has to be Oscar. I just thought, you know, it wasn't just the race but the practice, the setup, the qualifying, the feedback he was giving to the team. I just thought he was a superstar all weekend. Chad, who was your driver?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think Chad who was your driver of the day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oscar, oscar was the driver of the day. Yeah, I'm going to go, charles, because I think what I said.
Speaker 2:I say that about Oscar because, just following up on what I said before, I think he rattled Max's cage in Saudi Arabia and I think that's why he gets driver of the day.
Speaker 3:Cool, listen, just before we go, rick, before trying to skirt away from the fact that you got all the predictions, I mean your predictions. Horrendous, mate, seriously. You had antonelli in there, you had, uh, lan strahl third, or whatever. Really it was terrible. I'm just gonna put my head up and say come on anyway, I you know what my prediction was Verstappen, piastri, russell, which was spot on for qualifying, but it was never going to stay the same in the race.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, I was proven wrong yeah, I think in the previous podcast I said Piastri, max and Russell, so I missed on the third step. So yeah, leclerc ruined my prediction. That's why he's not my driver of the day. He ruined my predictions cool.
Speaker 3:So now there's a break, guys, and we're going to still be podcasting at norse him. Yeah, definitely, we're still going to be podcasting for our growing band of fans and um, yeah, we've got some cool things to talk about. I want to talk about the formula one academy and, uh, we need to talk about the f1 engines as well.
Speaker 2:what's's happening?
Speaker 3:Yes, the F1 engines could be a good special. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:We're also going to do a special with the F1 movie coming out, starring Brad Pitt as a 61-year-old Formula One driver.
Speaker 3:What that might be solved. Lewis Ferrari's problem. They could just swap the two.
Speaker 1:They could put. They could take Lance Martin and put his father in. If that's the case, yeah, I think his father's better.
Speaker 3:I think his father's actually better than him. I think Lawrence yeah, the thing is, Lawrence is quite big. I don't think you could fit him in the car. But anyway, why don't you sign this thing off?
Speaker 1:Because I think we've talked enough crap for the so, yeah, we're going to do a podcast about Formula One movies and TV influences and all that as well. So Formula 1 movies and TV influences, and all that as well. So we've got lots to look forward to whilst we have this brief break in the F1 calendar. Thanks to Jan, thanks to Paul, thanks to you for listening. Please subscribe, tell your mates that Two Soft Compounds is here for your regular Formula 1 fix. We'll see you next time.