2 Soft Compounds
2 Soft Compounds is a weekly podcast focusing on Formula 1, hosted by UK radio broadcaster and F1 fan, Rick Houghton.
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
Singapore GP: Russell’s Redemption, McLaren's Drama & Verstappen Keeps The Pressure On!
This week on Two Soft Compounds, Rick is joined by motoring journalist and Formula One commentator Damien Reed to unpack a record-breaking Singapore Grand Prix and a night race that tested the limits of every driver under 60°C cockpit heat.
As George Russell delivered a flawless weekend to take victory and crown Mercedes’ comeback, the guys debate whether Singapore signals a genuine shift in momentum and what it means as F1 heads toward Austin.
The guys also discuss McLaren’s dramatic weekend and a constructors’ title clinched amid tension between Norris and Piastri. Plus, Ferrari’s frustration deepens, Alonso reminds everyone he’s still got it and Lewis Hamilton’s brake failure sparks a fiery radio exchange and a lucky five-second penalty.
Plus, Rick and Damien spotlight rookie sensation Isack Hadjar, who continues to impress against veterans and analyze how Mercedes, Red Bull, and McLaren are shaping up for the final run-in. And Nikki from @LightsOut delivers the stats that matter - from Russell’s record lap to Singapore’s first-ever race with no retirements and no safety cars.
All that and more, right here on Two Soft Compounds.
Production Credits:
Presented by: Rick Houghton
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producer: Ian Carless
Produced by: W4 Podcast Studio
I don't make mistakes, I make prophecies that immediately turn out to be wrong. Anything can happen in Formula One, and it usually does.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, welcome to another edition of Two Soft Compounds with me, Rick, and my good friend Damien Reed, who is a motoring journalist and Formula One commentator. Damo, how are you? Good to see you. Very well, thanks. Very well. Good, good. So off the back of Singapore. It's important to stress that this is one of the most stressful races of the season for the drivers. At some point during the race, it can reach 60 Celsius in the cockpit. Many of them were using these new cool suits or cool jackets, which apparently sometimes work and sometimes don't. Max Verstappen actually singled himself out to say he wouldn't be using one. So it's a race that the drivers specifically train for just because of how grueling it is. It's under the lights, obviously, but still red hot in terms of uh the humidity, which seems to affect all of the drivers. And another thing to note, when they go to Singapore, they stay on UK time. So the race in the UK started at 1 pm. All of their watches will have been saying 1 pm. And that that means, of course, they will have had incredibly late nights, but that's just the way uh they seem to operate when they go to Singapore. So Damo, uh, let's talk about qualifying uh straight away. Uh a mixed bag for some of the teams. Williams, for instance, disqualified because of the gap in their DRS was too big. Uh, but some solid performances in there. Anyone who who, I mean, obviously George Russell put it on pole, but anyone else uh that you saw that you thought, wow, they're doing a really good job.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, firstly, it was a crazy, I mean, it it is the craziest race of the year on the body in terms of the time zones and the weather. It's just it's it's it's incredibly intense. All the hotels go into flip upside down, you have dinner at breakfast and breakfast at dinner and all that. So, you know, I don't know, these guys really, really sweat it out. And of course, carrying this, this, this, uh, this, this heat pack or the cool pack, whatever you want to call it, they had to, if they didn't, if you didn't carry it, you had to carry an extra two kilo weight penalty on the Friday and Saturday, and then on the Sunday had to carry an extra five kilos if you didn't want to carry it. So those that did did. Um, but yeah, so it just threw it through variables into it. But I mean, yeah, George Russell's lap was was phenomenal. Um, Ferrari, when they came out in the practice sessions, you know, uh up at the up at the top of the timesheets. I mean, that was that was phenomenal. I was I was working out how that was trying to work out because no one was expecting to see that at all. But I think overall, um, Mercedes-powered cars were the the Mercedes power units performed better than I expected that they would in those conditions. Um, and not overly surprised by seeing McLaren down a little bit in the first sessions to start off with, anyway, because uh it it it's just to me, it wasn't a track that was going to suit them all that well to start with. But I mean, you just got to look at what George Russell did towards the end, was just was just a phenomenally good lap from a guy who who sort of kept pretty quiet in the lead up to it, not and not feeling the best either.
SPEAKER_02:No, uh George Russell and Lando Norris both caught this bug that was going round the paddock, apparently. So both of them were feeling fairly lousy. Certainly on the Friday. Uh Lando Norris said it improved immensely on the Sunday, but at one point he was thinking, am I going to be able to do this entire race? Uh, but he was, which is good. And of course, George Russell landed two exceptional laps in Q3, didn't he? I mean, he he put it on provisional poll and then better his time on his second run.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and just kept it, just kept it quiet. And you know, again, this is a track where no one was expecting Mercedes to to do so well. The general consensus this year is that when the when the weather's cool, Mercedes does well, when it's hot, it doesn't do so well, and yet it went out there and did this. Now the thing is is is that when you inc when you increase uh airflow through the car, so when you're when you're cutting holes in the bodywork to cool the car down, so you've got larger air apertures on the on the engine cover to sort of keep things cool, that also reduces your downforce and reduces your downforce on the on the, particularly on the rear of the car, because obviously there's more air flowing through the car, so the floor doesn't work quite as well as it does when the car is sealed up. And Mercedes had a few, you know, more apertures on their car opening. And whether that played into it or not, I noticed it had a uh it had a quite a quite a wider rear aperture at the rear of the car around the around the tailpipes than it did compared to previous rounds. So they they did make a few little adjustments here and there, but it it paid off. And uh it was something that was phenomenal. Even Kimmy Antonelli was was putting in some really solid times on Friday and Saturday as well, to the point where George was looking at his data that helped him get his times.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, someone said said this morning, whether this is true or not, I don't know. So Mercedes don't do very well when the sun is shining, um, but they do well, you know, they do well at a damp or overcast circuit. And obviously there's no sun shining in Singapore, but it's still very hot, so it's a bit of a baffling one, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:It it is, it is, and and it doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason, and I think a surprise, Toto, as well, that how well they did perform there. Um but you know, you gotta you've got to take the runs when you can. I think it's gonna be very different next time out in Austin. I think they're gonna a little bit like Red Bull in the last couple of races, they're sort of cashing in on the tracks where they know they're good at um and putting them away as bankers because uh I I think at the next round in Texas it's not gonna suit Mercedes as well. So they've they're very happy and they've I mean George is very surprised with the performance of his car uh to put that one in the bank.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I also read uh this morning that McLaren, and this is the the sort of secret to McLaren's Achilles heel, uh, which we've seen at some circuits this year, is that McLaren don't do well in heavy braking on a bumpy circuit. So we saw that obviously in Baku uh and we saw it in Singapore. Lots of heavy braking zones. It's uh not a permanent track, so it's a street circuit, so there will be some bumps in there. And I think that sort of took the edge off their pace this weekend.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think it did. I mean, you know, one one of the things that I've picked up or read about with with the McLaren is that uh the drivers tend to steer the car with the rear wheels more, and that that is, in other words, have the nose a bit pointy and make the use of the floor because the floor is is giving them the their advantage over the over the other Mercedes-powered cars this season. So when you're going to circuits like um the faster circuits, like at Monza and uh and and at Baku, um it it hasn't really suited them as much as say the the Dutch Grand Prix, the Netherlands, where you where you do get that down force. So um I was in some ways expecting them that this circuit would have would have would have helped them out, but then as you say, when you've got a bumpy circuit like a street circuit, then that get then that interrupts the uh the the ground effect between the floor and the and the road surface, and then you lose your grip, then you then of course, as you as it's a very, very pointy car where you're using the back to sort of so to to back it in the corners, you're using you you're you're losing that front end grip as well. So it made it a very difficult car to drive, I think, in Singapore from from what I've read.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think there were a number of teams that were struggling with uh with problems. Obviously, we'll we'll talk about the race itself shortly. Uh another interesting fact is that you know, we all said, I think, after Baku, Max Verstappen is now back in title contention, uh, albeit you know unlikely. But Red Bull are still bringing upgrades to the car. They had a new front wing this weekend.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's right. They're one of the few that brought it brought upgrades to this weekend, and clearly they're not giving up um on the chase. They are out for it. And I guess they're in an enviable situation in that there's no pressure on them to do anything right now. They've had such a mixed-up season in the boardroom and on the track that they're happy to, you know, people are probably expecting them to be happy with whatever they get. So therefore, there's there's no pressure to defend a championship and to, you know, to defend a points gap. Just go out there and do whatever you can. If it doesn't work, well then they can say, well, that's the year they've had. If it does work, it's it's a bonus. So they can afford to roll the dice a little bit and experiment uh and see what happens. And and I I'm loving the fact that they haven't thrown the tally. I'm loving the fact that they're actually getting getting more determined to sort of just getting a slight sniff to see that there's a potential here. And if they experiment and do a few things, bam, it's on. And I'm loving it. I'm loving the the the aggro, the the the aggression that's coming out of of the Red Bull team to try and be a disruptor in the championship.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, let's move on to the race then. Um I just a general point about this season from me is that I fully expected there'd be some uh carnage at turn one in Singapore. Uh, we've seen it so many times over the years, and we know that you've got basically three drivers at the front of the grid that are all fighting for a championship. You've got someone like George Russell starting from pole who isn't fighting for a championship, but is fighting for a new contract, and I thought there's bound to be comings together. And then I looked back at the other races so far this season, they've all been fairly clean, haven't they? There haven't been anyone, you know, throwing one up the inside into turn one and causing carnage like we've seen in years past. It's like they've all decided to knuckle down mature, and no one's really doing that, and I find that quite interesting.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was kind of I got a little bit excited, I have to admit, when I when I saw the tire covers come off the cars on the grid and so hang on, Max is the only one on softs. He's gonna send it, he's gonna throw it into turn one, but it uh it didn't didn't work out for him. And uh yeah, you're right, which which I don't want to sort of pre pre preempt what I'm thinking about next the next round out in Texas, but if there's if there's a potential for turn one carnage at any tracking on the calendar, yeah, it's Texas. And uh and and that's in the back of my mind already as to what we saw happen on the on Sunday night. So um yeah, but they have been quite restrained about this, but you know, the way things went, certainly the the first two guys, I mean, George got a blinder out of there. Max, to be honest, yeah, I I I I don't think even with those soft ties, it was such a short run down there that he could have actually sent it if he tried to. Um and then we saw the aggression behind it, which I which I also enjoyed.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean I think he was on used softs for the start of the race, which was gonna obviously I'm I'm thinking he was thinking either we get into the lead at the start of the race or we we we encounter a safety car and then we we switch out to the hards and try and do the whole race on them. Um neither of which happened. Um so George Russell launches from poll. I think the the biggest thing for him was keeping off Max Verstappen at the start, which he managed to do. Um Russell succeeded. Um he built a lead of over nine and a half seconds to Verstappen um before the first stops. I think you know George Russell just uh had a blinding race, didn't he? I mean, he was uh he was fantastic. Um a victory margin of just over five and a half seconds, or just under five and a half seconds, uh returning to the top step of the podium for the first time since Canada. He didn't put a foot wrong on Saturday or Sunday, did he?
SPEAKER_01:No, oh absolutely not. I mean he absolutely nailed it in qualifying. As other people pointed out, that there was a it was a uh a lap that was something that was very similar to what Ayrton Senner would would do in the way he drive the car, uh, as was pointed out by someone else that that the way he managed to um is he's is a he turns late into corners. So he max he opens up the corners, he goes out very wide and throws it in at the last second to straight line it, whereas Max tends to go down the inside and then turns it on the nose and gets the thing going. And and as uh as some of the old older guys who have been around for a long time were saying, that the way he was that George was doing that, straight lining it and managing to get apex to make apexes to flow. I know it sounds very basic, but it was a way that Et and Senator would put together a really good lap, and and the lap just comes to you, and and it was just a phenomenal uh qualifying lapse that you pointed out, two laps that he did that did that. But then on the grid, now the one of the one of the issues with with with Max, I think, was even though he's starting on a soft tire, because it's such a short run down to to turn one with a staggered grid, it's just under a two-meter gap between first and second on the grid. That that they're separated by that with the stagger. So, in effect, you've got basically six seconds to get to turn one. So the the the the request from Red Bull to Max was to you've got to you've got to find two meters in six seconds, otherwise the strategy is not going to work. So, in my mind, it's like that was a very ambitious to start with. And then once you're behind George and once you're in dirty air, it's a hard track to overtake on soft tires. I think Max is on a bit of a hiding to nowhere right from turn one.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, um, and like we said, the soft tire gamble didn't pay off. I think with Max Verstappen, who finished the race in second place, obviously. Uh, he was he was uh complaining for most of the race. He had uh some brake balance problems, he had uh some downshifting problems. At one stage, he felt the the rear tires had the handbrake on. Uh he was continually complaining and communicating with the team, they were giving him steering wheel orders back over the radio to try and fix the problems. I mean, ultimately he was able to hold off the McLaren's and we'll come on to them shortly. I think at the start as well, one thing that may have hampered his launch, the track was still a little bit damp, wasn't it, in in that one? I mean, obviously it it dried incredibly quickly. Um, but there was some debate on the build-up to the start whether some teams might start on the inters. Um obviously none of them did, but I think there was still a bit of dampness and moisture on that tarmac as they went into turn one.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and this is this is one of the one of the things I love about Singapore is because it does bring in such variables like this. You know, it's it's a it's a tropical climate. We've seen it during during the the day races in Malaysia, we've seen the monsoons come in, we've seen the rain in Singapore before. And uh and when that happens, you've got high humidity, so the water evaporates quickly, but then it's a street circuit, so it's got nowhere to go to. So it's a it's a bit of a mystery as to how that all plays out. Then you've got the other issue of, and I was waiting to see whether this was going to happen or not. Um thankfully it it didn't, I guess, with the rain, it didn't, it wasn't a wet, wet race. But what we haven't seen yet is wet rate is a wet race under full night conditions, because driving in the rain at night is a lot harder than driving in the rain during the in the rain during the day, because you got the glare off the water droplets as well. And there was a potential that that might be the case. As you say, some teams are even thinking right to the end. Do we start on on inters? There's a bit of dampness out there, there were still some clouds hanging around. And it just that's what I love about it. It just threw so many strategies up in the air is to say, okay, what do we do? It's uh it's it's I don't know. I love Singapore because it's it's just so different to everything else.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's definitely a duel in the Formula One crown as we go through each season. Um let's talk about the McLaren's now. Chaotic chaotic start for Lando Norris. Uh he blamed again the damp surface for slightly tagging Verstappen as they came uh in between turns one and two, and then he blamed the damp track for the little bit of uh wheel rubbing that uh he had with teammate Piastri, which resulted in him damaging his front wing. Uh now this is going to be something that's talked about for a long time, I think, because many commentators, Martin Brundle actually yesterday during the race, said, right, that's it now. That McLaren have turned the corner. Piastri has been so used to following those uh sort of papaya rules and playing fair and switching positions with Lando and finding himself leading the World Championship. Now he's kind of, you know, I've never heard uh Oscar Piastri on the radio uh as fuming as he was after that uh lap one incident with Norris. Um and he kept on about it, and he kept on about it, and he kept on about it, even towards the end of the race on the cooldown lap. It looked as though he disconnected his radio whence the teams were saying, Congratulations. Um he was not a happy bunny, and I think that now means the gloves are going to be off for the rest of the season because now that the constructors title is sealed by McLaren, who of course won it yesterday, uh they've got nothing else really to lose, so they can afford for their drivers to be more aggressive. And I have to say, it was nice that Lando Norris did get the elbows out a bit because he wouldn't have done that last season. Last season he was I in my eyes, he could have won drivers' championship last season if he'd have been more aggressive, if he'd have, you know, blocked Verstappen. I I'm thinking back to uh Texas last year at the start where he had the pole position and then he sort of left the window wide open into turn one and Verstappen overtook him. He needs more aggression, I think. Would you agree?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I think you know, the way that kicked off, you're right, the gloves are off now. I mean, the fact that that that Oscar pulled the radio pin on his boss on the cool on the on the the inlap um when when he's congratulating him for winning the the constructors championship was kind of set at all. But um, yeah, you're right. I mean, you know, Lando put the elbows out and into turn one, no problem with that at all. I thought turn one uh was was fine. I didn't see a problem with with with what happened in turn one at any point whatsoever. I thought, you know, you've got to put the elbows out in Singapore, especially in turn one, you've got to have a crack at it. And if it had it been any other driver, any other driver pairing, if had it been any other team, had it been anyone else on the grid other than the two McLaren drivers going in there, no one would be saying a thing about it. Uh it's just that this is a rod that McLaren's made for its own back, and you know, that the the you you've got to look back to obviously you've got to go back to the to the pit stop back at uh you know when when they're told us to told to swap the positions around. So therefore, with that, you've he had quite within his right to pop the question up in the air to saying, okay, well, it's a driver error, so how about we swap them around? Because last time we swapped them around, it wasn't a driver error, it wasn't even a car error, and it wasn't even my car, but we still had to swap them around. Um, so yeah, you gotta you gotta put the question up in the air. But but again, my thoughts going right back to if you go back to Silverston when he asked to for the position to be swapped around. I thought that was for that Oscar asked, I thought that was wrong too. But McLeod have created this mess for themselves. Just let them get out there and race, not really, really, really, really hope that now that the constructors' championship is sorted, that they just go, guys, it's it's it's nil all, go for it. Because what's happening is that they're going they're at risk of letting Max Verstappen in the door. They're letting the fox in the henhouse. He's, you know, I mean, the the they've closed the championship. Max has closed this closed the championship down. If you look back to since the Dutch Grand Prix, there was a 104-point difference to Oscar. It's now down to 63. That's a 41-point net game. Now, that's the difference between between uh um uh Max and Lando right now. So he can take he can take P2 in the championship off Lando if if McLaren stopped this this ridiculous stuff and just let him get on with it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and uh obviously Piastri uh also had a slow 5.2 second stop in the Singapore Grand Prix because of a a stuck uh wheel jack to the rear of his car. Um again, you know, that didn't uh didn't do him any favours. He could probably probably could have caught Norris towards the end of the race if he hadn't have had that long pit stop.
SPEAKER_01:They didn't ask Lando to uh to to end the position over, did they, after after the exact thing happened. But but yeah, I mean look, let's get on with it. But going back to your point about Lando being aggressive, yeah, he was, he was great. But one thing I keep thinking about is and I was watching it again towards the end of the race, is that yes, Lando is more aggressive this year for anyone that's not Max Verstappen. I think he's still got Max playing inside his head. And you know, there was plenty, there was plenty of opportunities with a with a with an ailing Red Bull in front of him, and Max was really struggling, where Lando didn't even attempt it. Now, whether he's thinking ahead, thinking of points that he potentially could lose by coming into contact with Max, or whether he's just thinking, it's a bit like with the Airt and Senate days or the Michael Schumacher days, is like, don't go there, he'll take you out. Um whereas Oscar, I th if I I I would think if if Oscar was in P2 in that situation, he probably would have he would he probably would have had a few shots at at Max. Uh whereas Landau was prepared to sort of sit back and take the points for P2.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I thought at one point when he was in the dirty air of of uh Verstappen it looked as though he was really struggling with the handling of the car. The the damaged front wing will not have helped with that, of course. Um but I thought, yeah, I mean it there was a number of laps in concession that he was he was in DRS zone. It never really looked like he was ever going to throw one down the inside at any of those uh 90 degree turns though.
SPEAKER_01:No, I think it got to the point where he was also looking at the at the gap behind him to see you know how far along as long as Oscar could could stay out of his well out of his DRS as it ended up being, it was several seconds was fine. But uh but I think Lando was more thinking of like, okay, second is better than nothing, uh, because he knows that if he does stick it down, as we saw, he did try that one that one attempt and and and and Max sort of I wouldn't say shut the door on him, but he certainly he certainly made that gap narrow down to the point where they locked up, and then that was it. He pulled out of it and went for it and and and and conserved.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so we talked about the uh the top finishers, let's talk about the uh the rest of the drivers. Kimmy Antonelli, as you mentioned before, had a pretty decent weekend. It seems that when he's not in Europe, everything goes well. Um he had a steering rack issue on the grid, which they were desperately trying to fix before the race. Obviously, they fixed it to a certain degree, but uh for most of the race, when he was driving down a straight, the steering wheel was right hand down. And that on a on a street circuit with narrow walls, that cannot be an easy task, but he seemed to pull it off with no fuss.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know. I mean, yeah, he's a rookie. He's uh but he's had a real hot and cold season so far, and you know, he's made some, to be fair, some rookie areas leading up to it. But then when you come to a track like this, a track where there's no room, no margin for error whatsoever, uh, under very difficult s c conditions and physically tough conditions, and he just seemed to seem to stitch it all together, and and you could see that he was struggling with that steering issue, but he he managed to drive around it uh and just seemed to have things very well planted. And I was really impressed with the way that that that sort of Kimmy brought this car home. He he he he was in a in a in a uh midfield battle there for a while, um, but was managed to hold things off and he did quite well. I was really, really impressed with the way that he managed to keep that car on track in very difficult conditions.
SPEAKER_02:Uh so Ferrari then, Charlotte Clerk, who finished in sixth place in the end, said that from lap six or seven he was complaining of braking issues. We know what happened to Lewis Hamilton. We'll speak more about him in the end, uh, or a little later, I should say. Um he let Hamilton through for an unsuccessful tackle attack on Antonelli because Hamilton basically had a free pit stop and was able to switch to the soft tires. Uh if you thought they'd give that a go, but obviously we saw how it all unfolded. Charles Klerk, I think, is having a frustrating season overall with Ferrari, isn't he?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, look, it's not, it's just everyone at Ferrari's having a frustrating season, I think. Uh it it things are just just not, you know, going as well as they expected. Uh Charles Klerk came into it. Uh I think he was another driver that decided not to run with the cool suit. I think he took a weight penalty. Um but you know, he he he gained at he gained a position on on Antonelli to to run in fifth, um, which which was which was which was good. But uh overall, yeah, it's struggling. As you say, the brakes were were an issue with uh with both Ferraris. They run a different brake to different brake company manufacturer to to Mercedes and half the field. Um, and that was something that really sort of started to come out in the wash. Now I think Sauber run the same brakes as well. Um, so I'm not sure whether uh I think Gabby had an issue at one point as well. So there might be an issue going back to the brake manufacturer saying, listen, you've got some issues under these conditions because it's certainly impacted at least two of the four cars that I know that run those brakes.
SPEAKER_02:Uh let's move on to Fernando Alonso before we uh talk about uh Lewis Hamilton because Fernando Alonso eventually was promoted to seventh with Hamilton's penalty, which we'll get to. I thought it was a brilliant drive from Fernando. I thought it was a fascinating battle with Isaac Hadjar. Uh Hadjar proving he's no pushover when it comes to one of the most experienced guys on the track. Um he reclaimed the place he lost at the start to Hadger and then had to pull the overtake after the pit stops sent him plummeting down the order. He had a 9.2 pit stop, uh, which was uh really unfortunate. However, um he had a great recovery drive, which saw him cross the line in P8, promoted to P7. Um he had a rant on the radio about Lewis Hamilton, which I think was was proper, uh proper and just. And I really enjoyed his overtakes, I really enjoyed his competitive spirit throughout the weekend.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and you've got to remember, you know, you uh how he how well he went in practice as well. He topped the timesheets. Um, you know, the the oldest guy on the grid at the physically the toughest track in the season, and uh and he put it up the top there. So I was really impressed with the way that uh that that Fernando sort of you know r ran that car the whole weekend, and and you're right, he had a he had a very valid point with uh with chasing Lewis to sort of you know in in P8 at the end. He absolutely blew up on the radio when he came into the into the pits with a load of expletives saying what what's going on? Um and and and quite rightly I think he was asking, you know, should should that car been been technically black flagged for for not having brakes? But uh but you know, he got around it um and drove a great job in in a car that's been underperforming all season. So, you know, maybe this is something that we're seeing now from Aston Martin. Maybe there is a bit of bit of Adrian Newey feedback starting to come through in that car in the last couple of races.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's gonna be very interesting 2026 for uh for Alonso and for Aston Martin with the newly designed car. Um another thing I would mention about Fernando Alonso, he's a bit like Max Verstappen. He is just lives, breathes, drinks racing. I mean, uh a good example of that is when they f when they do the final race in Abu Dhabi, he then invites all his mates to go to the Dubai Auto Dr Drome to do a 24-hour cart race. I mean, you'd think after a long season he'd just want to relax, but no, he still wants to race.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, and uh and I've I've been lucky enough to have been in the same race with him a couple of times down there as well because you know he gets gets into the rental carts and uh and brings his mates, he's he's quite often he's gonna bring Stoffel van Dorm or Pedro Delarosa and a couple of other guys uh to uh to get out there and and just get in the uh in into the the the the average Saudi rental rental car and go for a 24-hour race. But then he will go back and he'll do the same thing back in Spain and uh and then as we saw in the last couple of years, go and do Dakar as well. And and I think he and Max are very similar in that regard. You know, you look at what Max is doing. And that's another thing just blows my mind. The faith the way that Max Verstappen can can switch his brain from from an open-wheeler car to a fully enclosed Ferrari and then go out and win at a track that he's never raced on before with with the with the GD3 at the Nurberg ring, and his dad wins the world, uh wins the Dutch Rally Championship in the same weekend. Like, man.
SPEAKER_02:You see, I'm showing my age now because when I raced to the 24-hour races in Dubai, I was racing with Damon Hill. That's how long we're going back. That was 19 that was 1999. I had Gary Barlow in my team, and Damon Hill was race racing for British Airways. It was a phenomenal race. Uh it was a it was great. I had yeah, it was bizarre. Gary Barlow as a teammate. Crazy. Yeah, we're uh we're running out of time, so I'm gonna talk about Lewis and then summarise the rest of the field fairly quickly before we get some stats and facts from Nikki from At Lights Out. Lewis, obviously, um he had the break failure. I think breaking is a very important part of a Formula One card, obviously. Um I don't think it entitles him to uh to you know cut corners to try and hold on to a position. Alonso was right to have his rant, and the Stewards rewarded him with a five second penalty, um, which I thought he was lucky to get five. I thought it could have been ten or even worse, uh, maybe a grid drop for the next race, because that's dangerous as hell on a track with no runoff or virtually no runoff.
SPEAKER_01:Oh man, it's it's absolutely ridiculous. I was fully expecting uh what they call a meatball flag, the the technical black flag, to bring him in and get the car either car either get the car sorted or or box it, because you can't afford to have a car with no brakes going around there, and you can visibly see it. Whenever you see the the puffs of black smoke coming off the front wheels, that means that the carbon, that's the carbon dust. That means that disc is is moments away from exploding. And we've seen that time and time again, in particular in Montreal and Canada, that that heavy braking area into the hairpin or before pit entrance, that's where they usually blow up. And then you saw the onboard with the sparks coming off the left front brake caliper as well. And he got track limits that many times that he nearly got the black and white flag to say that he's done it too many times. Meanwhile, Fernando is trying to work out a way around him. Fernando's quite within his right to do it, and you're right. I mean, I think five seconds, very, very lucky to get away with that.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, uh the rest of the field in brief then, Oliver Berman, uh fairly decent job from him. I thought he had a decent overall weekend. Uh the two Williams drivers uh were disqualified in qualifying but allowed to race. Uh Carlos Sainz, I thought, did a pretty uh pretty decent job. Um he he had the uh the Baku podium, obviously, so it was a bit more disappointing than that outing. Um Isaac Hadjack continues to be rookie of the year for me. I don't know how you feel about this demo, but he just he he just seems to have a really mature head on those shoulders. And I think if anyone could uh f uh fill the second seat for Red Bull next year, it would be him. I don't want to offer him that poison chalice just yet, but I just think he's uh super impressive.
SPEAKER_01:He is absolutely a standout for me and the surprise package for me as well. You know, we came into the start of the year, we had six rookies coming into it, and everyone's talking about Kimmy Allen. Antonelli and everyone's carrying on like this. And and then and Isaac was probably the well not probably, I reckon for sure, was the quietest of the six in terms of the hype that was around the drivers. And uh and then then he had that disastrous start in Melbourne, um, where he can't got out of the car crying, and Anthony Hamilton, Lewis's dad, gave him big hugs, saying, Look, don't worry about it, you know. And then he's just bounced through. And I'll tell you, the this guy is just, yeah, without question, he's not only my rookie of the year, he's potentially my driver of the year, uh, the way he's performed. And like you, I I I know he has to say yes for his career, but I hope that he doesn't take that Red Bull seat. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, the uh rest of the drivers, kind of, yeah. Uh Lan Strahl, again, very disappointing. Yuki Snowder, again, couldn't uh couldn't work on the momentum he gained in Baku. Um, his future still remains up in the air. I'm hearing that he might be hired as a reserve driver for one of the teams next year. Uh Alex Alban, like science, strong recovery drivers pose after launching from the pit lane, uh, but no points. Liam Lawson, Franco Colapinto, Gabriel Bortoletto, Esteban Arcon, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg was dead last after a disappointing weekend. Right. Uh our friend Nikki works for a Twitter site called At Lights At. It's fascinating. He has graphs and facts that he uh publishes throughout practice qualifying and the race. His reports are really insightful. Let's have a listen to what he had to say after the Singapore Grand Prix.
SPEAKER_00:George Russell took victory in the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix, claiming the fifth victory of his career and his second win of the season. Russell is the sixth consecutive different winner in Singapore, while Mercedes's win, their first here since 2018, made them the fourth different team to win at Marina Bear in the last four years. For Russell, this was the first time he recorded consecutive podium finishes since the first two races of the year. His win is only the second time in his five Singapore Grand Prix appearances that he's scored any points. McLaren were crowned 2025 Constructors Champions at the weekend, equaling Red Bull's record for most races remaining, having already won the title. Red Bull also won the title with six rounds left to run in 2023. This was McLaren's 10th Constructors Championship win. They overtake Williams for second place on the list of most titles won. Only Ferrari are now ahead of them, with 16 wins in total. Max Verstappen finished as runner-up, recording his 121st podium finish. It puts him one top three finish away from equaling Sebastian Vettel for third on the all-time list. Singapore remains the only track on the current calendar at which Verstappen has never taken victory, but this was the third time after 2018 and 2024 that he's finished as runner up here. Verstappen made this the 13th time in the last 14 Singapore Grand Prix weekends that at least one Red Bull driver has finished on the podium. Since 2010, the only exception is 2023. All 20 drivers finished the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix. This is the first time in the circuit's history on the calendar that every driver who started finished. In every previous race, at least one driver had retired by the time that Lap 35 started. And this was also the second Singapore Grand Prix in a row to feature no safety car periods. Every single Marina Bear race up until last year had featured at least one safety car outing. And finally, Carlos Sainz maintained his 100% finish rate at the Singapore Grand Prix. He became only the second driver after Vettel to reach the checkered flag on all of his first nine appearances in Singapore. Sainz became the first Williams driver to score a point in Singapore since Lance Stroll finished 8th in 2017. Strangely, he also became only the second driver to score points from 18th on the grid at the track. The last driver to do so was Stroll with Williams in 2017.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, thank you so much, Nikki. Fascinating that I think you'll agree, Damo. Some great points though. And like I said at the top of the podcast, everyone's driving cleaner. No safety cars, every single car finished for the first time in the track's history. Fascinating facts from Nikki. Follow him at Lights Out on Twitter. You'll see the graphs and the polls and all the stuff that he produces. It really is good stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, phenomenal stuff. Yeah, it was a clean race. I think everyone got their biffing and barging out of the way during practice. And actually, while we're on that, disappointment of the race, the disappointment of the weekend for me was Liam Lawson. This is the track where he did so well. This is the track that got him his F1 drive when he stepped in for Daniel Ricardo and did an incredible job. And uh he stuck it in the wall twice, two days in a row, and then didn't perform during the race. He's up against his rookie Isaac Hadja, who is running rings around him. And it was just uh it was just one downward spiral after another. And I and also, too, on the on that RB situation, too, I still think um Daniel Ricardo holds a lap record in his last ever Grand Prix. That's true, actually.
SPEAKER_02:You're quite right, yeah. Uh well, Damo, we've come to the end of another podcast. Thanks so much for being with us. Uh Mr. Damian Reed, motoring journalist, Formula One commentator. Um, he'll be back with us again uh on the next podcast. I'm hoping as we start to preview Austin, Texas, which is always a fascinating race.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Light the barbecue up, get ready to stand at the top of the hill at turn one and watch the fireworks. We'll love that race. I love it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, um, we know that the Americans like to put on a show. Cheer leaders and Texan gun salutes and all kinds of stuff. So it's gonna be a fantastic weekend. That's happening in a couple of weeks' time. Uh join us next time on Two Soft Compounds for me and Damo. Take care. Have a good time. Two Soft Compounds was presented by myself, Rick Horton, alongside Paul Velesco. The studio engineer and editor was Roy Damonte, the executive producer was Ian Carlist, 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 TwoSoft Compounds. And if you haven't done so already, please do click that follow or subscribe button. See you next time.