2 Soft Compounds

Hungarian GP: May The Best McLaren Win!

• W4 Podcast Studio & GrandPrix247 • Season 1 • Episode 28

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Hungarian GP: May The Best McLaren Win! 

This week on 2 Soft Compounds, Rick and Paul dive into the drama of the Hungarian Grand Prix - a race where technical compromises stole the spotlight and McLaren cemented its place at the top. Pole for Charles Leclerc but a podium place quickly evaporated thanks to a bizarre fix for plank wear that left him wrestling an “undriveable” car. Over-inflated tyres? Engine mode tweaks? It was a strategy so strange it left Rick tearing his hair out once again! 

Elsewhere the guys dig into Lando Norris's potentially career-defining win, clawing back from P5 with supreme tyre management and race IQ that screamed “future champion.” Or does it? McLaren’s grip on the front of the field looks stronger than ever but it wasn’t all sunshine in Hungary.

Lewis Hamilton left everyone, including Rick & Paul, buzzing after calling himself “useless,” dropping cryptic hints about “stuff going on in the background,” and sparking speculation over whether he’ll even return after the break. Add in Verstappen’s latest meltdown in a car he called “undriveable,” rookie Gabriele Bortoletto starring for Sauber and Liam Lawson upstaging Red Bull and you’ve got one hell of a mid-season shake-up.

As F1 heads into the summer break, the big questions loom: Can Ferrari fix their chaos? Is McLaren unstoppable? And what the hell is happening in Maranello? Hit play on 2 Soft Compounds!

Production Credits:

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

Rick Houghton:

I'm Rick. Paul Velasco is with me. Editor-in-chief and founder of Grand Prix247.com. We're going to, of course, talk and founder of Grand Prix247.com. We're going to, of course, talk about the Hungarian Grand Prix, but just before that, there was some maneuvers going on behind the scenes in the paddock pool between the Spa Grand Prix and the Hungary Grand Prix. Let's bring people up to date on those maneuvers okay.

Rick Houghton:

Straight after Spa in fact I think he was told at a dinner at Spa on Saturday night Fred Vasseur was confirmed as Ferrari team principal. I think they dragged it a bit too long. I mean, maybe we read too much into it as media, but there was a time where they left him super exposed at the Canadian Grand Prix when the Italian media really took their knives out and stuck it into the team. Their knives out and stuck it into the team. He weathered that storm and of course, christian Horner became available. And we all know that Ferrari have romanced Christian over the years. I never denied it. But by signing Vasseur when they did is a statement of intent. I believe they just dragged their feet because they were probably busy or whatever, but they allowed a bit of rumor mongering to sort of damage the momentum of the team. But Fred's in for the long run and that's a good thing. Which then brings up the question you know what's happening to Christian Horner and I must say since he left, zach Brown's been sticking the knife in. You know, just saying the place is. You know Red Bull's a better team without him and blah blah really going for it. You know Bernie Eccleston also said a few things.

Rick Houghton:

He said, yeah, maybe the guy just got a bit too power hungry, but he was surprised with the move. Martin Brundle was more sensible, suggesting that it was just a power struggle which he lost, and Ralph Schumacher really going for the jugular. By saying that he was. He likened him to the Greek mythology Icarus he would try to get too powerful and flew too close to the sun and burnt himself and was the architect of his own self-destruction, which ultimately he was. I mean, that texting thing probably opened a can of worms that would have eventually been opened, but I think that was it.

Rick Houghton:

So, in terms of Horner, I don't think we've heard the last of him, but I would imagine after 20 years of running a team come on, think about it, how many people do you know that have been even a company for 20 years? He ran that team for 20 years. I mean, if he takes a break for a year or two see you at the landscape last Formula One it'll be very different in 26 and probably sort of stabilizing in 27. So he can take a two-year vacation and then probably pick and choose. So yeah, that I'm thinking. What are your thoughts?

Paul Velasco:

well, he's fighting at oxfordshire council at the moment because they won't let him build an indoor swimming pool and his massive mansion, you know. So that's his importance at the moment. That's what he's concentrating on. I think you're right. You know he hasn't. He never missed a single race in 20 years with with red bull, so I'm sure he's probably that's probably looking forward to putting his feet up and maybe having a holiday. Maybe, you know, doing the house up as he seems to be, and you know what.

Rick Houghton:

You know, as you say, that I just thought man he was sitting there watching the Hungarian Grand Prix and he was giggling into his beer mate, exactly the team.

Paul Velasco:

You know. The team has not fared brilliantly since he's left and no one can dispute that. All right, well, let's talk about the Hungarian Grand Prix, because this was a very, very interesting weekend. I'm going to start.

Paul Velasco:

When we arrived at the circuit on the Friday for free practice one and free practice two, and it was immediately obvious from both those initial practice sessions that McLare's had the upper edge here, they were in FP1 at least half a second faster than any other car on the grid, and I was like this is going to be an all out whitewash or a papaya wash. And the same thing happened in FP2. And I was like, wow, no one's going to touch these guys. The same thing happened in FP3. Was like wow, no one's going to touch these guys. The same thing happened in fp3. They were both streets ahead of any other car on the grid. And then, of course, we get to qualifying. There's loads to talk around around some technicalities, things like the plank, which I know you absolutely hate talking about, paul, but it's very important we talk about it this weekend.

Paul Velasco:

Yes, tell me about the plank, I'm so interested so when it got to qualifying, of course we everyone presumed it was going to be a mclaren one two, and we weren't sure whether it was going to be piastri or is it going to be norris. I made and this is, are you going to call me out? I know I made the prediction that if piastri qualified in front of norris, that this would be the weekend when they came together because Norris would outbreak himself into turn one. The actual opposite happened, but we'll come to that very shortly. Got to qualifying and, almost out of nowhere, I think he surprised himself.

Paul Velasco:

Charles Leclerc puts it on pole, and it was like the McLaren guys couldn't believe it. I mean, if you looked at it, mclaren had a much faster time in Q2 than they did in q3 in the end, which sort of opened the door a little bit for leclerc, but even so, I mean leclerc got out the car. He's like have we done that? Uh, and this leads me to the whole ferrari thing, which we'll come on to a little bit later when we start talking about the main body of the race. But yeah, back to my uh, my little faux pas.

Paul Velasco:

When I said this will be the time when norris and piastri come together. I predicted that it would happen at some point this season and I just thought, if norris starts behind piastri he's that desperate to get a win in before the summer break he's going to make a lunge or do something a little erratic and there's going to be a turn one incident. In actual fact, what happened was Norris was ultra cautious going into turn one, braked far too early, uh for the apex, which meant that Russell and Alonso were able to to get past him heading down towards turn two.

Rick Houghton:

So he was over cautious and that means I look like a right Wally indeed you do, because, uh, basically, what happened is, uh, piastri drove like Norris and nearly took him out. Did you see that? I mean, that was like millimeters, honestly, and it was, yeah, piastri having a Norris moment. But, yes, norris didn't put a foot wrong in terms of his comeback from P5. He was down to P5 with some pretty heavy hits in front of him. He managed those tires in a very, very good way. You think he, being in the fight with first Alonso and then Russell, that his tires would be wasted? He drove an impeccable race.

Rick Houghton:

And again, I'm having a love affair with this story of the pendulum swinging. As you see, it's the seesaw that just keeps on going up. The two of them one minute, it's this one session, then it's this session, then it's every session becomes. I think they got complacent in qualifying and that's why Leclerc could ambush them. But Leclerc has these moments when the Ferrari sort of sings and it was Suddenly the temperatures were changing and the wind directions and all this kind of stuff impacted. When you're talking these fine, fine edges, especially when you listen to guys like Piastri when they discuss how the pace goes off the cars off, that super edge means these guys are just constantly, constantly tickling the edge, and I find this duel absolutely enthralling. Now there's only nine points between them. Any of them can be champion. You know, like I said, I thought Norris drove like Oscar on Sunday and I think that sort of says a lot for both of them and just shows you how close it is.

Paul Velasco:

I thought it was probably the most mature drive of Norris's career so far and probably his most deserved win actually so far. I mean, he fought hard. The team played him a blinder with the strategy, but at one point it didn't look as though that was going to work at all. But then things fell into place, and one of the reasons things fell into place was because Charles Leclerc had strong pace in his first two stints. I mean, piastri couldn't get near him. There was not going to be an overtake on the cards there. And then near him, there was not going to be an overtake on the cards there. And then the controversy with Ferrari occurred when he came in to change tires for the second time, and the rest is almost history.

Rick Houghton:

But I can shed some light on what happened with the clerk. Yeah, I do do, do, just do. I'm interested in the technical side yeah.

Paul Velasco:

So George Russell summed it up in the in the press pen after the race, because he said we've all seen the data and we, we kind of think we know what's happened. When the clerk was in the car in the third stint, he was on the radio quite a lot. He was very vocal. Guys, you need to listen to me. We need to talk about these, the things that we discussed before the race. We need to implement blah, blah, blah.

Paul Velasco:

All of this was was mentioned on the radio. He sounded as though he was really struggling with the drivability of the car. At one point he said it'll be a miracle if we get a podium. This thing is completely undriveable. And in the press conference after the race, leclerc was asked about this and he said actually I spoke too soon. It wasn't something the team had done, it was something to do with the chassis. Then we cut to George Russell in the press pen and he says well, well, all the other teams have seen the data. We know exactly what's happened. We mentioned this earlier in the season. What did happen? I'm telling you now. We mentioned this earlier in the season.

Rick Houghton:

You sound like a frustrated headmaster. Yeah, I want to know you, jesus.

Paul Velasco:

This is like the longest sort of build-up of all time, so earlier in the season, we commented or I commented, that Ferrari have a problem with the plank under their car. Just in case you don't know, every single Formula One car has a wooden plank underneath it. I'm aware, I'm aware, okay, and one of the reasons for that wooden plank is that, for regulations, at the end of each race, the wooden plank is measured and if it's been worn down too thin, the car can be disqualified. It happened to George Russell last season, if you remember. Okay, so Ferrari have had this problem with the plank wearing out too quickly during races because their car is too low. This is a fundamental issue with the Ferrari for 2025. The car runs too low. Hungaro Ring is a very, very high downforce circuit, so naturally, the cars run lower than they would at another circuit, like Spa, for instance. So the car's running low anyway, and this is Ferrari's solution, and it amazes me that they haven't got another solution than this.

Paul Velasco:

When they realized the plank was wearing down and he was at risk of being disqualified for the third pit stop or the second pit stop, I should say they over inflated the tires.

Paul Velasco:

The hard tire that went on had a higher tire pressure than the ones that come on. Therefore, when the the tire pressure is higher, there's less of the actual tire in contact with the racetrack. So when they did this, it raised the car, but it also made the car completely undriveable no grip whatsoever. And another thing thing that George Russell indicated and they saw this on the telemetry apparently was that they changed the engine mode so that they were less fast on the straights, which means when he hits the brake the car doesn't go as low as it has before. This is all to protect the plank. We've heard in the past Ferrari giving messages to Leclerc and to Lewis Hamilton saying lift and coast, and one of the reasons they're asking him to list and coast is because the plank's wearing out too quickly and they're worried about getting disqualified. How a team like Ferrari has an issue which is the wearing out of a plank and they can't figure it out without increasing the tire pressures just seems a bit like keystone cops to me.

Rick Houghton:

yeah, a bit like yeah look, I mean that was. I have to process all that information.

Paul Velasco:

Seriously, mate, that's like wow yeah, it's a lot, but you break it down though. It's quite simple. You know, planks wearing out, they're gonna get disqualified. Oh shit, what should we do? Let's put more air in the tires. That's about it, really it sounds.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, it sounds true. It sounds like the towel rack that broke in max's car yeah that was stupid too, wasn't it? Found himself with a towel in the car. Anyway, let's redigress when were we.

Paul Velasco:

So we talked about Ferrari, and then the problems Leclerc had, and then, of course, you can't mention the team without talking about Lewis Hamilton. Yeah, but let me talk about Leclerc, okay, go on I think it's important.

Rick Houghton:

Look, Charles, Charles, I think he's due a good car. You know, I was reading some statistics. I think he started from pole 16 times and he only won once. Yeah, and in 26 front row starts he's also only won once. It's like ridiculous. The stats are absolutely silly. So there's something going on with the execution, and I mean Ferrari. Nearly one thing I'll say. This weekend, I think every team had their pit stops like at the highest level I've ever seen.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, they really did. No one dropped the ball. We were always expecting someone to drop the ball. No one did. It was superb to watch. These guys were so slick.

Rick Houghton:

But having said that, something goes wrong. You know, ferrari, this is again. It so epitomizes the beauty and yet the kind of like horror, if you'd like of Ferrari is that on Saturday, the clerk puts it on pole to justify and to give it poetic justice, to Vasseur signing a new contract and you think, okay, if this can carry on over today to Sunday, that would be the most beautiful story ever. And kaboom, it's like they just dropped the ball totally. And, yeah, lewis, I mean, I don't think that's Ferrari, I don't think Ferrari, ferrari, I don't think ferrari, I think that ferrari is good for pole.

Rick Houghton:

And lewis came out p12, yeah, p12, and he looked like he was going to start. Well, he didn't look like he was crying, he was just so disinterested in the pen and he actually said it's me, maybe it's me, maybe I gotta go, maybe ferrari gotta get rid of me. It was like wow, I've, I've. Honestly, I've never seen an athlete actually so despondent. No, about a racing driver. I mean, really, he took it mea culpa and yeah, we only talk from a couple, two, three tenths, but anyway, it's like, it's like he's he's been making and also very cryptic sounds that even the italian media picked up on, like I'll see if I'll be back once and stuff, yeah, yeah, stuff. And and you're thinking, hey, lewis, just chill, mate, it's formula one. It's not the world's not ending. Yeah, you're just 40, you know yeah, you are not the guy you were.

Rick Houghton:

You know the clacks 27 or 28. You're talking lewis 2014, 2015, at his super peak. Leclerc would probably not stand a chance against him, but that's not the same Lewis we have in the car today at Ferrari. I'm sorry, it comes every occasionally, like with Fernando Alonso. There's these amazing moments where they come out because they've got the kit. But really, these old guys, I'm thinking they don't have it anymore. I mean, what are your thoughts Just before you carry on? Maybe they're getting too much into this whole netflix thing and creating this drama.

Paul Velasco:

I mean you know what? Um, anthony davidson said something after the race. He said if you look at it and you analyze it, lewis hamilton has never been comfortable in the ground effect cars since 2022. We struggled with mercedes, but we knew they were off the pace then. But the same things as happened with Ferrari. You're right, I have never seen a more despondent race driver, let alone a seven times world champion, talk to the media the way he did on Saturday. He was in the on the radio in the car going. It's always me, it's always me. That's when he made the comment about you know, you've seen that one car's on pole, mine's 12th position. I'm useless, I'm useless, I'm useless. Then he said they talked about replacing him in the car with another driver and then on sunday after the race, again despondent in the press pen and this is the quote you're referring to when they said oh, you need, looks like you need a good break and he went yeah, hopefully I'll be back after the summer, which is just bizarre.

Rick Houghton:

Which is yes, and I discussed this with Jad. There's a double entendre there. Maybe I'll be back, like, come back, I'll be back on the pace that I am. But he also left it open, which was very naughty of him. But the Italians picked it up because they're not stupid and Lewis sometimes can be naive with these public utterances, and here he's kind of sort of it's not a nice thing to say, it's very like I don't know, I'm, I'm, I love Lewis. He's the greatest ambassador for the sport at the moment. He's going through a really bad patch and the way he's handling it's proven.

Paul Velasco:

Quite telling actually uh yeah, and another thing he said in the, in the press pen, which was really eye-opening to me. They were asking a bunch of questions. He didn't really answer any of them. He was looking down, he looked as though he wanted to be anywhere else but there, and then at one point he said he said you know, there's some stuff going on in the background, man, he said you know stuff in the background and did he say that I didn't.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, yeah, he said there's stuff going on behind the scenes, man, and you know, and I was like, oh okay, so you know, is it something to you know? Is it something to suggest? Well, the clerk's been there six years, the car built around him and they're not prepared to make any, uh, you know, changes for lewis is is, is everything okay between him and and charlotte? Are they? Are they getting on of this? Has there been a fallout in the garage? Hasn't been a fallout with fred viser? Because lewis was all smiles, uh, when the news was confirmed that he was re-signing, but since then he hasn't mentioned it once. So, yeah, you know there could be a whole load of permutations with this one, but I've just never seen a driver so despondent yeah, I don't know what's happening with lewis must say I find those statements quite weird.

Rick Houghton:

I'm a super fan of his. I'm kind of confused because he's got tattooed on his back. Still, we rise and we will rise. I mean, the bottom line is, at the end of the day, this wouldn't be happening if he could find pace. He hasn't found pace. In fact, if you look at all the guys that have changed teams in between 2024 and 2025. Who have really shone? Yeah, none. You know what I'm saying. And even all the rookies, you know they're all struggling. These cars are hard to drive. Let's see what comes next year. Lewis just got his. Yeah, just, I don't know. I don't know. I'd like to give advice but I can't because I've never seen this and there's no precedent. Really, you know, the only precedent I have is Alonso quitting and then coming back. But you know you're hitting 40, and I'm just thinking times are different. I don't know. I'm disappointed and I'm sad, but listen, let's move on. We spoke about Russell finishing third right. He had a good drive.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, it was a very good drive. I mean, he was over 20 seconds behind the McLarens, but we saw their pace all weekend long and no matter what happens in qualifying with the McLarens, you know that race pace is just phenomenal, nailed on. Tire degradation is just nailed on. They've got, you know, the best car, the best power unit, the best setup.

Rick Houghton:

This is as good as the. Mercedes in.

Paul Velasco:

Without a doubt. But like you say, yeah, George Russell drove a good, competent race. He had a good start, he held on in there. He eventually obviously overtook the failing Leclerc in the final stint of the race to bring it home for a podium.

Rick Houghton:

Man was Leclerc dirty Did you see that I mean moving on the brakes nearly taking George out. Yeah, twice. Yeah, it was good he got a penalty, but there that shows his frustration. Yeah, without a doubt. As he dropped to fourth right, he finished fourth eventually.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, the second time Leclerc did that it was really dangerous. I mean they were breaking from 200 miles an hour.

Rick Houghton:

Well, I wouldn't say really dangerous. I'm going to difference that I think it was more deliberate than dangerous. I mean because George saw it coming. We just more deliberate than dangerous. I mean because George saw it coming, we all saw it coming and he was kind of making a message there. He says I'm just frustrated, I don't know, I don't think there was malice in that. I don't know, I never thought Leclerc was a malicious driver.

Paul Velasco:

No, me neither. Yeah, it's just frustration, isn't it? We have to talk. We're going to come on to talk about Verstappen in just a bit, because it was a fairly big weekend for Verstappen in terms of well not performing.

Paul Velasco:

I have to talk about Aston Martin. Now Aston Martin brought some big upgrades to Spa, did they? Did they, yeah, yeah. So they had new side pods just before Spa and they'd also changed the floor for Spa. Now in Spa they didn't go well at all, but for this weekend at Hungary I read that they kept the side pods but went back to the old floor. So suddenly they've unlocked all this pace. Now we know the Hungara Ring is. You know it's a high downforce circuit. Some people describe it I don't know why they do but some people describe it as Monaco without the walls. I think that's bullshit. But anyway, without the walls, without the yachts, without the chips.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, it's just yeah.

Paul Velasco:

But you know one corner leads into another corner pretty rapidly at the Hungara Ring, so maybe it's the nature of the track that unlocked the performance for them. But Fernando Alonso, bringing it home in fifth, had a great race and Lance Stroll in seventh, which I thought you know. Alonso, we know he's got the capability of driving virtually anything on the planet and making it look half decent, but Stroll, it just shows you the overall strength of the Aston Martin team this weekend.

Rick Houghton:

I think Stroll was pretty much the kind of guy we're used to seeing when he was, I think, pretty good.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, he looked racy.

Rick Houghton:

But you know, sort of the pink Mercedes days, but it's not the. You know, he doesn't bring this every weekend. And Alonso too, I mean, you know, I think, like I said, you give him a sniff of a good car again. He out-qualified Lance and was good in the race. I mean, you know he kept his own battles. I mean he was a bit nasty to George, I felt, but he picked his battles.

Rick Houghton:

And look, mike Crack said, yeah, this is all the work of the people at the factory. You know the usual. I mean, I think they all have the same book, right, probably Ron Dennis, and they go like, okay, let's translate this, dennis speak. And it says we thank everybody at the factory. Now, yes, we can do that after three or four races if they can keep that car in that window, you know, in that performance window of top five. Oh then, yes, you're gonna blame it on the factory. But most of these teams, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, and you're gonna, you are because you're technical most of these teams, I feel, apart from mclaren, which the car is so fantastic, it's good on wet, dry, fast, slow, it's just one of those perfect cars, but the rest, none of them really know what car they're going to unpack on any given weekend. I mean, yeah, I think you'd be dead right on that yeah.

Rick Houghton:

It's like I think even Piastri mentioned it he says you know, it's quite interesting because, yeah, he's trying to make out like it's not just a two-horse race, right, because they have to do that for the benefit of the championship, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And he was trying to say, yeah, you never quite know. You know, it could be Mercedes, could be Ferrari, could be you know whoever Red Bull challenging us, and that's it, it's won a weekend. You know what I mean? None of these guys can sustain the attack. So I'd like to see if this indeed is a step forward, and we'll see that at the next race in Zandvoort, but that's still a long way to go. But again, p5 Aston Martin, was a good weekend for Aston Martin.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, seriously was, and a massive weekend for Gab Gabriele Bortoletto, I mean this is. I mean Alonso said Alonso is sort of his manager and he chased Alonso down for most of the race and kept, you know, a decent pace behind his mentor.

Rick Houghton:

Sandwiched by Max, because Max was behind him, right? So you have Max Verstappen, rookie Bortoletto and you got Alonso man. Yeah, I mean got Alonso man.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, I mean Alonso, said afterwards. He said, if I don't know he wasn't being racist, by the way, but he said you know, if Bortoletto had been a Brit, he said that would have been front page news on every English newspaper that he brought Sauber home in sixth place. And I saw an interview with Bortoletto on the build-up to the grand prix I think it was martin brundle that had been speaking to him and he said okay, so tell us the story. He said well, he said I didn't do much driving before I got into formula one because there was problems with him getting the super license and he had to sit out some of the uh, the races that he was in last year and you know, it was a bit complicated. And he said, you know, and I started, I knew it was going to be a slow burn. He said, you know, I think people were expecting results off the bat and when it didn't happen, I thought, okay, I need to remain cool. He said what I've learned is I've learned how to give feedback to my engineers. I've learned how to tell them what I'm looking for and they've been telling me what they can provide.

Paul Velasco:

And I said I've understood the whole schematics of Formula One, if you, I've understood how to be a driver. I've understood how to do the publicity that we're all required to do and I've slowly sort of chipped away and built up, and built up and now, halfway through the season, I'm starting to feel more confident. When I step into the car and you know, when I step into the garage, I'm confident with the men and women of the team around me and they're starting to have confidence in me. And I thought it was a brilliant, brilliant interview. But it just shows you. I mean we had Hadja down probably as the rookie of the season and Hadja's brilliant. I love him. Again. A great qualifying session. Didn't do so great in the race, but Bortoletto to bring it home in sixth, I thought was just brilliant.

Rick Houghton:

Sure Spoken like a real fanboy mate.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, no no, absolutely.

Rick Houghton:

Look, you've got to give credit where credit's due. But that was the longest soliloquy I've ever heard of you blowing smoke up a driver's ass.

Paul Velasco:

But anyway.

Rick Houghton:

No, it was, it was beautiful, it was well put. I mean, honestly, I might even steal that and just say, the fanboy number one said on his podcast no no, I think you nailed it and honestly, destroying Nico Hülkenberg, absolutely destroying him on all fronts. Okay, nico got third the other day and all that kind of stuff and everyone got all excited. But really, let's take drivers like Max Verstappen, who's the benchmark, okay, do you ever remember Max being charred, destroyed by any of his teammates?

Rick Houghton:

that's the thing about nico he brings one, two, three, four races and then he off the bubble and really he didn't. He didn't even make it out of q1 and the kid was up in q3. So you know, this really exposes these guys, you that they're journeymen and they're fantastic racing drivers and we love their personalities. We're talking about the best 20 drivers in the world and honestly I'm not saying I don't think Nico Hülkenberg is one of the best 20 drivers in the world.

Paul Velasco:

Okay, let's move on then. This has never happened before. Oh, did I touch a nerve there? Did I touch a nerve there? No, no, but I like Nico. He's got a nice smile. I thought I thought, okay, I kind of want to see him win a race at some point before he dies. Yeah, I know You're going to be old.

Paul Velasco:

Liam Lawson finished ahead of Max Verstappen, so racing bulls in eight with Liam Lawson, who had a fairly decent weekend, and then we come to Max and we come to the Red Bull team. In general, mekki's now in charge of the team. Not much can have changed between him taking over only two races ago, but we're used to seeing Red Bull turn up on a Friday, have a bit of a nightmare in FP1 and 2, and then the boys and girls of Milton Keynes sorting out overnight and then arriving on Saturday and putting in a decent qualifying lap. This, for the first time in a long time, did not happen. Whatever the reason was Verstappen on the radio on Friday saying it's undriveable, I've got no grip, I've got no front end, I've got no rear end. He was still saying the same thing. Going into qualifying on Saturday, he had a miserable FP3 as well. They weren't able to sort the car out. Normally they are. What do you think the problem is there then, paul.

Rick Houghton:

Exactly what you said. You summed it up super well. You're on a roll today. I must say I can't recall Max having such a bad weekend Because, as you say, he tends to be all over the place and he finds the sweet spot by qualifying and he's up there and he just was never there and that was scary. This Red Bull is really, if he can't drive it, and really Tsunoda can't, so I will say that there's something. Look, you know, you can't blame this on Horner.

Paul Velasco:

No.

Rick Houghton:

And say, oh, because Horner left, they're in this position. But people will. People will say you see, you got rid of Horner immediately. You went bad.

Rick Houghton:

So it's a very delicate situation because now it's fully teamed Verstappen. I think Verstappen's got their way and maybe they're paying the price. I don, you know, I don't know. But one thing I do want to touch on is I think it's very important is Yuki Tsunoda. You know, every time he gets slightly close to Max and slightly close means like two-tenths, three-tenths everyone goes oh, he's just improving all the time.

Rick Houghton:

This is kids, he's not, he's just I'm going to say this he's the worst teammate that Max ever had to help, because Max doesn't compete. He needs someone to help him in this battle and Yuki Tsunoda just isn't it. You know it's too much flesh in the pan. There's not enough consistency. People say he's fast, show me the speed, you know. Again, I ask is in the pan? There's not enough consistency. People say he's fast, show me the speed, you know. Again I ask is he the top 20 driver? And honestly, if I was hadja and lawson and and they came to me and said, listen guys, uh, we want you to drive the second red bull, I'll tell them to fuck off. I say no bro in that car.

Rick Houghton:

If max can't drive it, I'm not driving. Yeah, you know what I mean. So, yeah, I think really, if anything we know horner brought a lot of trouble to the team with his the way he behaved last year, but really his downfall and his biggest mistake in 20 years was this funny and you've got to blame marco because he's involved with the driver thing. This funny driver thing is theirs to blame.

Paul Velasco:

I would agree. Did you notice something in the race? I noticed. No one else seems to have picked up on it. But did you notice what they did with Tsunoda in the second stint? Tell me? They put him on soft tires. He was the only car on the entire field that went onto soft tires for a second stint and the only thing I could think about was they were using him as a guinea pig to see how the softs would run, because they might want to put Max on towards the end of the race. That's the only reason. So they which, which tells me the team had completely given up on Sonoda scoring any points. But Wasti's out there. We may as well try a few things to see if it'll work on Max's car. So the second stint you did on softs and his times were terrible and obviously they realized the soft was not going to be a decent race tire for max verstappen. That's the only reason I could think of why they would do that, can we?

Rick Houghton:

use the word guinea pig, I mean, yeah, is it broke? Is it politically correct?

Paul Velasco:

oh god, you know I can't be arsed with this woke stuff.

Rick Houghton:

You know it's to do mine yeah anyway, okay, we'll call him a little guinea pig, because he's not a big guinea pig. Little guinea pig, no no, I wasn't really aware of that. Look, I'm going to be honest, I'm elderly and I don't really give a shit what happens beyond the top 10, mate you know what I mean.

Rick Houghton:

I'm just talking to you know, because we need to talk about it in the show, but really you know what is there to talk about? For bad, for his heart. They were just so rubbish. Okay, berman was there, then he wasn't there. And Williams are just horrific. I mean, oh terrible, geez, albon qualified last. I'm going to give him a pass and say, okay, albon, matey, you've taken that wheelbarrow and you've done so much with it, but really that car is bad.

Rick Houghton:

I mean I would imagine that between the two of them they've set out more practice than any other team. That that's how bad the car and then Alpine are. Between the two of them they've sat out more practice than any other team. That's how bad the car is. And then Alpine are just the worst of the worst. I mean this Flavio Briantori is just destroying. He's absolutely nuked this team. I mean they were the slowest, they were the rubbishest, they were the most problematic. So yeah, I get angry, I get disappointed because again, formula 1 should be one of the top 10 teams and teams like Alpine are an embarrassment to the sport at the moment. They're just not doing Pierre Gasly any favors. And per Franco Calapinto, I mean you know what is he proving in that car. He's proving that he's not made for Formula 1. And it's a bit unfair because that's a horrible car. It's the worst car on the grid. That's why they lost in the championship. So yeah, like I said, I try not to go too far back because I get depressed.

Paul Velasco:

Well, listen, we enter the summer break now. Of course, the next race is at Zandvoort, so Max Verstappen will be hoping for some Red Bull improvements during the summer. But of course most people think, oh, they just go off and perfect the cars. They don't. They're not allowed to work on the cars during the summer break, so they have to close the factories down. Everyone gets a holiday, so there will be no real improvements in the performance of any of the team's cars during the break. We could have done the same thing Me and Paul could have been on a beach in Barbados for the next four weeks, toasting each other with cocktails, exactly.

Rick Houghton:

And private jets, yeah, but we decided no, no, but we won't go in jets, we'll go in one, right, yeah one you won't go in yours, we'll make it. We'll go in one. Yeah, it's just better for the environment.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, so we could have done that, but we're going nowhere. Um, we're going to try and come up with things to talk about in the summer break, because not much happens, but we're trying to line up a few special guests over the next few weeks. So do stick with us. Hit, subscribe, tell your mates, tell your friends that we are here on two soft compounds from me, rick and him paul. We'll see you next time on the podcast and if you want your latest fix of Formula One, head over to GrandPrix247.com. Yeah, we won't stop 247-365.

Rick Houghton:

We'll be digging up the news, doing you know, see what's happening, and, of course, every week doing the show. And yeah, zandvoort can't come soon enough.

Paul Velasco:

But, having said that, I think we all deserve a break. Two Soft Compounds was presented by myself, rick Horton, 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 2softcompounds, and if you haven't done so already, please do click that follow or subscribe button. See you next time.