2 Soft Compounds

Qatar GP: Norris Crumbles, Verstappen Hunts and McLaren’s Biggest Gamble Yet

• W4 Podcast Studio • Season 1 • Episode 43

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This week on Two Soft Compounds, Rick Houhgton and Damien Reid break down the chaos from Qatar and set the stage for an all-out championship decider in Abu Dhabi.

After another McLaren strategy disaster and a baffling tire call, Verstappen’s title chase is alive, just 12 points behind Norris with everything to play for. The guys debate whether McLaren’s refusal to back a number-one driver could cost them it all, and why Norris may be cracking under the pressure while Piastri quietly circles.

They also tackle the toxic fan fallout over Antonelli’s incident, Red Bull’s rookie shuffle, Williams’ shock rise, and the brewing tension at Ferrari as Hamilton’s frustrations boil over.

With three drivers in contention and Yas Marina’s chaos waiting, this finale could rewrite F1 history.

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

Rick Houghton:

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.

Damien Reid:

Hey, welcome everyone to another Two Stuffed Compounds podcast with me, Rick and him, Damien Reid, motoring journalist and F1 commentator. We're coming to the end of a very long season, and it couldn't have been more of a disaster for the McLaren team last time out in Qatar. We've got loads of other stuff to talk about on the podcast today as well. But we are nearing the end of the season. It's a three-way battle for the drivers' championship, and McLaren did themselves no favours in the desert.

Rick Houghton:

No, they've managed to do it again. After being uh disqualified in Vegas, they've gone and done it again with uh with this most bizarre pit stop strategy that they didn't do when everyone else did, and effectively gave themselves a two-stop pitch strategy and and handed everyone else a single-stop strategy, which ultimately cost them a race, potentially even a one-two, which I find one of the most bizarre things I've seen this season.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, it's as if um they're just on the cusp of greatness and then they sort of pull the rug from under themselves. So uh let's just remind everyone what happened. It was a mandatory 25 laps on the Pirelli tyres in in Qatar because of the nature of the circuit, the fact that it's very fast, left and right hand bends. Um so the teams were told, okay, you can't go further than lap 25 before you come in and change tires. So lap seven was the safety car window for all those teams. So at first safety car happened in lap seven or onwards, then most teams would pull the trigger to get both cars into the pit lane to change tires, meaning they wouldn't have to change again until lap 32. So when the safety car came out on lap seven, the McLaren decided they were going to stay out. Now they say afterwards that they thought that half the pit half the pit lane would stay out as well, but obviously that didn't happen. It was a split-second call. They probably had no more than about 15 or 20 seconds to make that decision when the safety car board came out, and obviously they decided to stay out, uh, which is just bizarre. And then one by one, every other car came into the pits and changed tyres.

Rick Houghton:

It's crazy. And you know, I was going back and looking at it again, and they actually had more time than a lot of people gave them credit for because there was a radio call to, or Oscar gave the radio call when the when the safety car came out saying, Do you want us to box? And this was well before the final corner, and they uh they hesitated before they answered, and then they said no, stay out. And that was still before the final term when everyone else was, you know, where when they had plenty of time to come in and pit. So when you look at the when you look at the numbers, as you say, it's a 26-second stop under a green flag situation, under a safety car, that it's a 15 and a half second stop. So that's a 10 and a half second delta. Max won the race by 7.9 seconds. So in my mind, that's where they lost the race. And we're not even talking about the fact that with that second stop with seven laps to go, why they would put them onto hards when softs would do it. I mean, even Pirelli came out and said before the race, the fastest way to the flag, according to Pirelli's sim, was to go medium, medium, soft, running softs at the end of the race when the track was had the most grip and the car was light with no fuel. And that's a memo that every team and even journalists and you know idiots like me got. Um, and yet they threw hards on the car at the end, on both the cars. I just, you know, I just don't understand. That was a potential one, too, for uh for McLaren.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, I mean, Norris was desperately trying to chase down um Antonelli uh uh towards the end of the race, and obviously Piastri was trying to chase down Max Verstappen for the lead of the race, both got on hard tires. When that happened, I think I audibly screamed at the TV. I was like, what are you doing? I know they had they didn't have any brand new softs left, I know that. But they had uh softs that had done just a couple of laps in in qualifying, um, which they could have easily put on both cars. I uh it's baffling to me that they made two massive mistakes in my eyes in one race, and when it's this crucial at the moment.

Rick Houghton:

But that's the thing, and and you know, the case study was there at the f at the start of the race because uh Nico Holkenberg uh brought out the safety car on lap seven when he was scything through the field on the soft tires, and they had and at the end, the other end of the race, they had seven laps remaining, so they know that the softs would have would have gone seven laps, but even on a track that uh always had a lot more rubber up by that stage and the cars that were a lot lighter. So, you know, it was it was a no-brainer. And and for that second stop, I don't know what, well, I do know why, because they're trying to play evens, which is costing them the drivers' championship. But if they had have gone, okay, Oscar is the guy most likely to win this race out of the two with the when we're getting towards the end of the race there. So split the strategies, put Oscar in first, get Lando to back up Max, because Max's tires were graining, and hold him up to build that buffer up that Oscar had so that he could chase down that 15-second deficit. And if they did that, then that, as I said, that would have been the win for Oscar. But that was probably could have also been a P2 for Lando if he hadn't done that. But they're playing this, this, this, this even, even, you know, stuff with the drivers, which goes back to, makes me think back to an interview that Zach Brown gave on November 9 leading into Vegas, where he said that he would prefer to have Max Verstappen win the drivers' championship than to have to pick a number one driver amongst his own two, which to me is just stupidity beyond belief.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, it really is. And of course, the door's wide open now for Max. And I actually personally think, I don't know how you feel about this, I personally think Max is going to win it now. He's 12 points behind Lando Norris. He's three, is it three points ahead of Oscar Piastri now or four points? Um heading into the final round in Abu Dhabi this coming weekend. Uh, we know that Max has been very, very strong there. The only saving grace, I suppose, is that McLaren were strong there last year. Um, it's a circuit that that suits their car and their setup. Um but it's just baffling to me that McLaren did all this. Um, before we move on to sort of preview Abu Dhabi just a little bit, I'm gonna talk about um uh Lucille's circuit. I hate it, I absolutely despise it. It's the worst track in Formula One for me. The drivers quite enjoy it apparently. George Russell says it's one of his favourite tracks. Uh, but for me, no overtaking. The only overtaking happened in that race was because of other people's mistakes. That was it. There was nothing. The only slight overtaking uh point on the circuit is turn one, but even that's too fast for be a proper overtaking zone. You can't outbreak someone into turn one at Qatar. I can't believe they've signed a contract till 2032 to have a race there every year. It just stinks to me. I don't like it at all.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I I get where you're coming from, and um, and I and I can I'm with you, you know, there's only one spot really where you can pass. But the drivers tend to like it, as you say, because it's that the drivers are saying, and it's probably the most physical track, even more so than Singapore, uh, you know, on their neck muscles. Uh, and we saw that, you know, we saw Charlotte Clerk, Kimmy Antonelli, Oscar, Lando, Pierre Gasly, Colo Pinto, they all made mistakes. Um, but Max didn't. So I guess that that was that was a decisive factor. But you're pushing flat out. There's no room for error, huge demands on the neck and on the arrow. Um, so yeah, I can see why the drivers like it. It's it's a thrill, but it doesn't really make the best television for for as far as I'm concerned either.

Damien Reid:

No, I mean we had the tire drama and we had the uh the strategy drama, which made it interesting, but apart from that, it's not one of my favourite circuits at all. Um let's talk about Kimi Antonelli then, because uh this this got way out of hand. It's the dark side of Formula One with bitter and twisted fans, which has always done my head in. Um I love Formula One as a sport. Some of its fans, though, have no place following a sport like Formula One, in my opinion. Uh, Kimmy Antonelli um obviously uh he didn't allow anyone to pass him. He made a mistake on track, but it was a Red Bull radio message towards the end of the race that said, it looks as though Kimi Antonelli has just pulled over to the side and let Lando Norris through, um, which caused a 19-year-old Formula One driver to receive well over a thousand abusive death threats and horrible comments on uh social media, uh, just completely uncalled for. So much so that Red Bull had to issue a statement the following day saying we do we do not condone this. Um we made an error. It's quite clear from uh from looking back at the race that uh the Kimmy had indeed uh lost grip with some oversteer, and that's how Norris got passed. Um it was uh it was slammed by uh Toto, who said it was completely unacceptable. And that is really the ugly side of Formula One. I you know, I know everyone has a favorite team and a favorite driver, but that sort of response is just terrible.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, this this is the side that I can't stand with with uh the social media and the whole thing. And you know, to see this kind of thing happen. And we saw this, this is a carry-on too. We saw, you know, we've seen this before. If you go back to, and I hate to bring it up, but I'm gonna bring it up at Abu Dhabi 2021. Um, and and you know, all of a lot of that was fueled by the social media and by the uh the the commentary on the television, not from the commentators, but from the radio. And and and you know, that very short-lived one season where we had where we could hear the uh the the pit wall talk to uh talk to the race director, that fueled a lot of the social media hate. And and and we're seeing that now with you know with with this uh talking pit radio uh to drivers and to their team managers or engineers, and that's fueled this. And I I'm not I know it sounds good on television and I know it probably bumps ratings up, but I'm not a fan of having that being broadcast because that instantly, you know, people say things in the heat of the moment, whether drivers or engineers or whatever, but it just fuels this ridiculousness that we're seeing. And I know that probably the guys from Red Bull regretted it immediately, um, and you know, and said, well, okay, we're sorry, but unfortunately the genie's out of the bottle with social media and as idiots in social media who go out and do this. And Kimmy Antonelli, he's still only a young fella. It hurts him, it's physically, you know, it it it scars you. We've both been on the end of it, you and I, in terms of being being in the public with radio and that sort of stuff. You you do cop a bit of flack every now and then. You can't say that it doesn't affect you, it does. And you think for a kid who's just finished school this year, I mean, it's just uncalled for.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, uh, totally is the ugly side of Formula One. Um, there are millions of Formula One fans around the world. Most of them are decently uh behaved when it comes to making comments on drivers or teams, but there are uh I mean I I I remember putting something on Twitter a couple of years ago where I questioned Max Verstappen in one particular race, can't remember which race it was. And I must have had 300 responses from Max Verstappen fans, most of them with abusive words in in uh in their tweets, you know. So, I mean, I understand passion, but I think that's uh that goes far too far. And let's talk about Red Bull and Max Verstappen. So we know he's 12 points behind Lando Norris. He still can absolutely win the world title in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Um, he had a a fairly faultless weekend in Qatar.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, he did. I mean, he just played a straight bat, went down that line, and as he said himself, he said it even before the race in Qatar, and he said it again justifiably doubly after after the race in Qatar. He's just carrying on doing his business and letting other people, i.e. McLaren, make mistakes. And he's just scooping them up. And they had a flawless race, and you gotta you gotta doff your hat to to Max Verstappen and the pit wall at Red Bull. They didn't make a single error through any of that, and uh they got the rewards for it. So, you know, as I say, after after Las Vegas, the gap between Max and Lando was 42 points, it's now 12, and we're still getting over Vegas. That was only just a few weeks ago. It's game on, absolutely game on.

Damien Reid:

I think he was asked after the race if he if he was now thinking about the drivers' championship, and his response was, I don't care. I just don't care. I'm gonna go to Abu Dhabi and a race the car, and I don't care about anything else.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, and and what I'm really keen to see is when we go to Abu Dhabi, um, now whether whether Max says he cares or not, Red Bull are thinking about the World Drivers Championship now. They know they're in with a chance, that means a lot of money in terms of sponsorship, but they can carry a number one on the car for another year. And there's three other Red Bull cars out there. There's not one, there's not Yuki Sonoda, who's just been dropped tonight. There's three. And Isaac Hadjar's gonna be his teammate next year. Is Isaac gonna be the is is is he gonna put his elbows out and help him? That this this is this is another thing that we've got to think of for this weekend.

Damien Reid:

Well, you know, Isaac Hadjar's put in some great performances this season, a real good rookie season for him. I just hope that he's not gonna be we we spoke about this earlier in the year. You know, it looked as though Isaac Hadjar was gonna get the drive in Red Bull, and he has. Um, is he gonna finally break the Red Bull duck for the second driver, who's never been able to come anywhere near Max Verstappen in terms of performance? Obviously, big rule changes for next year, so that could play a part.

Rick Houghton:

That's the key, that's absolutely the key. And I think Isaac would have had a much better result. Unfortunately, he had that puncture right at the end in Qatar and it showed the the flaws in the Pirelli tires at that circuit, why they had the 25-lap rule, everything else, unfortunately hit Isaac, otherwise, he would have had a much better result. But yeah, I mean, timing might be on Isaac's side for the first and the number two driver at Red Bull for the first time in a very, very long time because it's all it's all back to the drawing board for the start of next season. And when we hit when we hit the track for uh for for winter testing in Barcelona and head to Melbourne next year, the 2026 Red Bull might be a much better car for the number two driver, and Isaac's in the box seat. So you never know, it might actually play in his hands.

Damien Reid:

Yep, so um we've got Arvid Lindbland, um, who's joining Liam Lawson at the Racing Bulls. Uh Yuki Sonoda's staying on as reserve and test driver for Red Bull, so he's not losing his job as uh per se, but we're not going to see him in a car very much next year at all. Um tell me about Arvid Lindblland. I know Linblad, is it? I know nothing about this guy. I know he was in the Red Bull junior program. Do you know any more than me?

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, look, Arvid's, you know, he's he's half Swedish, he's half Indian, um, but he was born in the UK, so he's uh he's got a little bit of everything going on there. Uh he's he's competed in uh in Formula Four in the Italian Championship, but here with in my area, in the UAE Championship. Also did the Formula Regional Middle East Championship, but uh, but this year he's been doing Formula Two. He's uh currently he's finished that with sixth in the championship for Campos. But he won the uh Formula Regional Oceana Championship with M2 competitions. So you know he's got a few runs on the board, but he still needs to prove himself to, you know. I mean, you you really shouldn't be in Formula One based on the on the results of Formula Four championship results, but he's got that F2 one up his sleeve, uh, and and we'll see how he goes. But he, you know, he's he seems to have proved himself um and he might be just what they need. So we'll we'll see how that goes. But with with with Yuki, I mean, I know he's gonna sit as a reserve driver with Red Bull. In the back of my mind, somewhere I still can see him at Aston Martin with with the Honda connection because we know whether it be Satoru Nakajima or Takuma Sato and all these other guys, they've been employed by Honda and have been seconded through the teams, and that's how Honda works. And Yuki is a Honda driver, and Aston Martin's going to Honda, so it might be a placeholder until Fernando retires or the board of directors at Aston Martin get tired of nepotism. Um, and and and and he might go there. But in the back of my mind, I can still see Yuki perhaps maybe do their GT championship with Aston Martin and sit as a reserve driver for next season. Interesting, yeah.

Damien Reid:

Okay, well, that's something to think about. Let's talk about Mercedes. It was a decent race for Antonelli until the uh final lapsaw him get passed by Lando Norris. He seems quite cool when he's being uh chased down. He has been like that all season. Uh George Russell, a bit disappointing with his finishing position. I think George lost out when they did the safety car pit stops, didn't he? Uh basically the pit lane was so crowded they had to hold him for a considerable amount of time before they could release him into the fast lane. Um but Mercedes there, they looked all right in Qatar.

Rick Houghton:

They did indeed. And uh yeah, I mean, George, he made a mistake early in the race, which knocked him out of position a little bit. Then he dropped places, he was stuck in traffic, and uh, you know, that that kind of crueled it for him. Otherwise, George Russell would have been a contender, I'm sure of that. But yeah, Kimi Antonelli, I I don't know whether he's been to the Fernando Alonso school of blocking or not, but he's doing an amazing job to keep to keep the elbows out. Uh, legitimately, I'm not sort of throwing any shade at him at all, but but he's he's manages to place the car beautifully. He did it in Vegas and he did it again last weekend to keep the lead to keep those behind me that he needs to do. And uh you've got to keep that in mind now that he's not a guy that you can just fly past. Now that was one of the defining passes for me of the season, the way that Oscar Piastri did pass Isaac into turn one and really sort of sent it down it and and got away with it. And it's something that that Lando couldn't capitalise on, and Lando was stuck behind him for a long time. But then you look back to Vegas and he, you know, and Kimmy did it back there as well. So that's a skill that we have to keep an eye on for Kimmy Antonelli in the in in the future and next season, that he has he could be an amazing wingman to help his teammate or help another Mercedes-powered car if they ever gets to that.

Damien Reid:

Let's talk about Williams, who uh who've now consolidated their fifth place finish in the uh constructors' championship, was a massive achievement for them considering uh where they were last year. And of course, Carlos Sainz gets another podium finishing third in Qatar. Um, the whole team seems to be working together really well, Damo. Would you say?

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I mean it's it's remarkable how that team has come together. Williams thought that this was going to be the hardest race of the year for them because they the car doesn't like long corners, and that's all Qatar is. It's nothing but long corners. Barcelona was another one, Hungary was another one. They experimented with the setup and it worked. And uh and and you and you look at the way that this is that the team has turned around. I I got a statistic after the race um on Sunday night, and that is 65% of their workforce have been there for less than three years now, and that's not through turnover, that's through growth. Um, Carlos has now signed on for another season. So, you know, he's now got three podiums with uh uh so they've now got three podiums. Ferrari, the team that he left, has got zero. So, you know, and and I think also there's a Carlos effect now. You could I think you can say that he's been in the Formula long enough that there is the Carlos effect that whichever team that he goes to, they lift themselves in the championship, whether it whether it's his morale, whether it's it's his advice that he's giving to engineers. But you know, you look back to Alpha Torre or Tororosso, as it was called, you look back at Rene, McLaren, and now Williams, they've all improved during the time that Carlos Sainz was with them.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, that's very true indeed. Um I wanted to talk about James Voles just uh for a little bit. He has a glint in his eye which makes me think he's seen next year's car and thinks it's gonna go really well.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I think you're right. And and uh, you know, one thing they've been very quiet about is that they've got the richest sponsor in Formula One. Atlassian is the team with the most is the is the sponsor with the most amount of money of any Formula One team. And this is part, yeah, this is the thing. This is part of their their rebuild and part of their massive hiring pro process that they've been going through, as I said, 65% in the last three years. You bring in a uh a sponsor like Atlassian, if they're if they're they're good for the long term to bring that kind of money into the team, rebuild it. You've got Carlos Sainz, and we all, you know, we all saw on on television with the documentaries how hard James Vows worked to get Carlos to sign with him and chased him down and hunted him down. I mean, he's uh he's an amazing talent to for the team. James is an amazing talent to the team, bringing those all those years of experience with Mercedes and being the uh the the underling to Toto Wolf with him. It's just got that feeling, and I've said this to one or two other people, it's got that feeling to me that where McLaren was about four years ago, uh where McLaren went nowhere, and and uh and people were saying, watch this space, things are gonna happen. And you know, long after Lando and the GP2 engine stuff left and uh and McLaren started to get on the treadmill back to success, I can see Williams being in that situation right now. It might be fast track with the regs for next year, it might be delayed with the regs for next year, but as a slow burner, yeah, I can see I can see Williams being back to their glory years and say in the next three or three years or so.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, I have that feeling as well. I think they uh I mean no one knows which car's gonna be performing the best next year. We'll know in Australia, I'm guessing. Um, and then they'll develop as the year goes on. But it's gonna be so interesting to see the cars in action uh down under for the first time. Um let's talk about Ferrari then. Uh dismal weekends for the last two weekends for them. It's just they just haven't had any pace, any grip, anything really.

Rick Houghton:

Staggering, isn't it? I mean, for the team with so much resources behind them, so much history, so much capital, so much experience, and yet we saw them genuinely outpaced by Sauber, which I'm sure would have given Mateo Bonato a a wry grin, um, knowing that he's passing his old team. But, you know, uh Charles Leclerc, it's amazing he got points at all in eighth position. I mean, he used all the tires that he had at his disposal just to get out of Q2 before the race even started. Um, but the car was undrivable. He had that massive spin. Lewis finished down in 12th. What I'm sort of reading out of all that is is perhaps it's not so much the power plant. I think the power unit might be okay. It's the chassis in the aero is absolutely diabolical. I think it's the aero that that that is worse than a rental cart. You know, it's it's it's absolutely appalling. And and we, you know, neither driver could could hang on to the to their cars, Lewis as well, but that big spin that that Charles had to me was a big telling point.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, I mean, we we had the issue with Ferrari earlier in the year when they were running their cars too low to the track in an attempt to generate more aero. So I think you're right when you say it's it's been a general aero problem for the entire season. Lewis Hamilton now saying he can't wait for the season to be over and he's not looking forward to next season, uh, which is a bold statement when you consider the rule changes coming on.

Rick Houghton:

Well, it is, and uh and and and the the bad news for Lewis Hamilton regarding next season, and I don't know, the bad news for all of us, I guess, is that uh it's not too far away. Um when you look at the when you look at the first day of winter testing in Barcelona, it's on the 11th of January. That's 36 days after the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi. That's the shortest off season I think we've ever had before they're back into it. So yeah, I mean enjoy enjoy the Christmas pudding, but get back into the gym uh because it's gonna it's gonna come around very quickly. That's one thing I can't understand.

Damien Reid:

So the Barcelona test on the 11th of January, that's private. There's no cameras there, right? That's right, yeah, yep. So there will be some journalists there, but no cameras. I don't understand why they're going to Barcelona in January. When they used to go in February, it used to snow. It's more likely to snow in January. What's the what's the point?

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I don't get it. I I I I like you, I don't get it. And it's not representative to the way any of the races are going to be run in terms of the climate. But I don't see why they don't sort of head down in my part of the world and go to go to places like Bahrain or you know, uh oh, go go to Jeddah, or you know, or they can't, that that circuit's not ready yet. But but you know, they could they could go to Qatar um and sort sort some stuff out because there's not gonna be much media there, um, and and and knock it over in the better in the better weather. But yeah, you're right. I I don't understand why they'd be going to Barcelona when it's so cold.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, very. Um the other thing to talk about next year is the uh is the Madrid Grand Prix at the uh comedy the comedy gold name of the Mad Ring, uh, which apparently isn't ready and they may have to drop the race.

Rick Houghton:

That's not the first time that that would have happened, and uh that there's there's a couple of races that are probably waiting in the wings ready to ready to pick up on that. But um, yeah, and and you know, this is an interesting thing, is that the calendar, there's still more races coming on where I heard the other day that that Thailand, Bangkok of of all places are looking to put a bit in. Um, but there's just not enough room in the calendar. So I can see a situation where they'll start to alternate and and maybe every second year run at these various places. Uh Korea wants to come back into the into the books as well. Germany wants to wants to get back on the on the calendar. Uh so yeah, I mean, if the race is not ready for this year, then they can probably run it at one of the other tracks and then alternate after that. But uh yeah, I'll tell you what, it the sport's popular, but there's just not enough weekends in the year.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, that's very true. Uh before we leave Qatar in in the dust, um, let's talk about uh Lano, Fernando Alonso. Um decent qualifying for him, I thought. Decent weekend overall, finished seventh. Um, so not a bad job. Um his teammate, Lance Stroll, uh, as you can imagine, retired. Um, do you know what the Lance Stroll retirement problem was?

Rick Houghton:

I still don't know yet. I know that, like uh, as I said, you know, uh Alonso, he had a he had a couple of spins, he had that that's that final turn in the gravel in uh in the sprint, then he went off in the race as well. So but he still bounced back. He finished finished seventh, which was amazing. Uh, but I'm not sure what happened to uh to to to Lard Stroll. He's the king of one-word answers, if at all. He's probably the most least interesting guy to speak to in the in the pit box, and you just want to tick the box and move on to the next driver who will give you something decent.

Damien Reid:

Talking of fairly mundane guys, uh Adrian Newie confirmed in the week as the team principal of Aston Martin. That was a surprise to me.

Rick Houghton:

Uh yes, yeah, talk about mumbles. Uh he's he's a guy that doesn't really uh warm to the media, and nothing wrong with him. He's he's a lovely guy, but he's just he's not media savvy. But you know, uh when when I can't see him as being the team principal long-term. I I I can't see him being the great motivator standing at the top of the stairwell to a to a staff of 2,000 people, giving him the big cheer up. And you know, he's great with a with a with an etch a sketch and a pen and uh and designing stuff. Um and I know I know Lawrence Stroll has has publicly knocked this on the head, but I'm still keeping one ear to the ground for Christian Horner to step in there because the day before um Adrian Newey was officially announced uh in this role, he took he took Christian Horner for a private tour around the factory at Aston Martin uh to show him everything. So uh I've got that on good authority. He lives just down the road, not too far away from the track at Silverstone. And uh I can still see a situation where the old band can come back together. And I know there's personal grievances, but at the end of the day, money talks, results talk, and I think Adrian New is a bigger man than to let personal grievances with Christian Horner block a situation where Christian could be TP and Adrian or Adrian would be the would be the CEO and Christian would be back as team principal.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, it's interesting that uh Lauren Strahl came out and flatly denied it, though, isn't it? Because why would he do that if that was you know going to be on the cards maybe six months down the line? I mean, Christian Horner can't go yet because he's still on his gardening leave till the middle of the next year.

Rick Houghton:

Exactly right, and that's the thing. I think this might be a seat warmer um to get them over the Christmas New Year period and and introduce the the team to the to the 2026 season. They've got to have a figure head at the helm. It might be a good way to sort of say, look, there's change in the wind, it's not Lored Stroll. Um, so we're gonna have this guy here. And then uh when when the gardening leave is over, uh Christian might be able to sort of slap back in. Now it might be someone else, but I just got a feeling that it's that Christian Horner is there. And don't forget, he's got a hundred million sitting in the back pocket that he wants to invest in a team with somewhere, which to me rules out any Ferrari talk because I think we've said this before that that if he went to Ferrari, he'd be a he'd be a number in the system, he'd be an employee, uh, and he'd have no say in the running of the team whatsoever. And you and us, you don't want to go there, it's a poison chalice. So uh yeah, I I I think an uh an equity, an ownership stake, what they've done with with uh with Adrian Newey might be something that would be on the cards for Christian come April 1 next year.

Damien Reid:

And of course, um Christian's gonna get to to look at the first few races in terms of where Aston are in the order. You know, if they're if they're at the top, it makes it far more attractive. If they're the final car on the grid, which I doubt they will be, um it makes it less attractive.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, definitely. You know, it it gives him that beautiful time to watch that. And gardening leave is one thing, but you know, you've got the intellectual property in your head. And let's not forget they're using the same power units that Red Bull were using when Christian was the boss, and he knows the he knows the management and the personnel at Honda as well. So he's got that relationship going on with the engine suppliers. Uh yeah, and it's all in your head. You can't take away IP once it once it's buried away in the back of the brain. So yeah, I think you're right. I I think you he'll watch, see how it goes. If if the wind's blowing in his in his favour with it with a good Aston Martin, by the by the end of the uh, well, April would be the end of the flyaways or or approaching towards the end of the flyaways, he can start to uh to make some movements as to whether he wants to go there or not.

Damien Reid:

Interesting. Let's turn our attention to Abu Dhabi this weekend, the final race of the 2025 season with everything to play for. Three drivers can win the World Drivers Championship. Uh, we've seen uh this happen before in Abu Dhabi, but it just seems more more drama on the line this weekend than any other, apart from maybe 2021. I just have this premonition there's gonna be a turn one pile up. I don't know why. I think the drivers won't be looking for that at all because they'll be wanting to have a completely clean race. Um, but I have that as a premonition. I also have a premonition that Max is going to win the World Drivers Championship. I don't know why that is. He's 12 points behind. If Lando can finish uh first or second, then he's Almost got it on the in the bag. Oscar Piastri as well. He's chasing down Max and Lando, but it's all to play for. How do you think it's going to pan out this weekend?

Rick Houghton:

Honestly, I think the person who has the most of fear out of this weekend is Lando Norris. I really do. Because, you know, when you're when you're but when you're the hunted, um, you've got a lot to worry about. You there's there's no pressure in that regard on uh on the other two guys' heads, they're just gonna go out there and do what they can. The other thing history tells us, okay, first of all, we don't have to go back too far. Turn one last year, Max and Oscar came together and took them, effectively took them both out of the of the of the uh the hunt. So yeah, that can definitely happen again. Um, but if we go back further, the last two times that we've had three drivers going into the final round of the championship, and I'm talking about 2007 and 2010, the guy in third place on Sunday afternoon was the guy who won the championship. Kimi Rikinen won it in 2007, 2010, it was Sebastian Vettel. Alonso was leading, Mark Weber was eight points behind. Sebastian went in 15 points behind and he won the title. Oscar's 16 points behind. So there is there is precedence that the guy in third can still win the championship uh on Sunday at Abu Dhabi if things go his way.

Damien Reid:

Uh, we tend to get a lot of safety cars in this Abu Dhabi race. This tends to be uh, you know, if if if there are crashes at turn one, for instance, that tends to generate a lot of debris and uh well, crashes anywhere it generate a lot of debris, but there are pinch points on that Abu Dhabi circuit where cars have traditionally come together. Uh, we've seen cars hit the wall as well in the latter part of the circuit. Um, so safety cars and strategy, once again, is going to play a big part.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, for sure. And and the thing with with the the Yasmir in a circuit, they're two very different circuits put together. There's a very fast part of the circuit, and then there's a Monaco-like street style circuit where there's impossible to pass. And let's go back to 2016 with with Nico Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, and you look back to the way uh Lewis Hamilton was backing up Nico Rosberg to get into the DRS of the car behind in order to uh to break away and win the championship. That could be something, and we're going back to what I'm talking about with the three with the three other Red Bull branded cars out there that could come into play for the second half of the lap. So once you once you're sort of heading into the Yas Marino Hotel complex area, that could be something that someone let's say uh let's say Isaac Hadjah might do, where he could back up the cars in front of him to give Max a bit of a free run, a bit of clean air. And then when it when it's on the fast bit of the track, away Max goes. So tactics are going to come into it, tire players are gonna come into it, the setting sun. Now, this is uh again, you know, Yasmarino, the the Grand Prix is unique in that it's a race that's held as the sun sets. And so we're seeing the the track get faster by up to two to two and a half seconds a lap as it gets cooler and the sun sets, and that's another thing that'll have to come into play. So there's a lot of variables in the Yasmarina circuit and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that we that you really can't factor into until after the race has started.

Damien Reid:

Okay, I hate to do this to you, but give me a prediction.

Rick Houghton:

Who's gonna win the World Drivers Championship? To be honest, I've been saying it now for about six to eight weeks. I reckon Max is gonna win it. I think I I think he's hungry. I think he's he's just he's hunting it down, and I uh and I just think that Lando's gonna be so conservative about making sure that he doesn't do anything wrong, that he's gonna leave a door open here or there, or not want to rub panels, or and and I'm not sure whether whether it's gonna be Oscar's day. I think uh an angry max is a is a max as we've seen before, that is absolutely 100% ruthless, and it'll be it'll be crash or burn, win win or crash, I should say.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, I mean that turn one is gonna be probably the most important turn one of the entire year. Um if they can get round cleanly, then anything could happen. But I I just I just get this premonition that something is gonna happen at turn one. So for me, um I think I'm gonna go with Max as well, to be honest, because I I just think McLaren have got themselves into this high pressure situation after Qatar. Uh the thing I noticed about Norris in the last three race weekends, his reaction time at the uh lights out is pretty good, but his second part of his launch phase is never that good. He he gets off the line fairly brilliantly, and then that second phase, when he releases the clutch for the second time, he gets a lot of wheel spin, and that's how Max overtook him at Qatar.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, yep, and and and you know, look at McLaren too. I mean, Andrea Stella has said just uh just yesterday that there will be no team orders going into Abu Dhabi. So if if uh there'll be no sort of asking, well, you say this now, but they said but no asking Oscar to help Lando uh or vice versa, if it's the other way around, it'll be game on. Um but again, I mean I don't believe them. I think that because we've seen that we've heard that before. But uh but also too, I mean the the McLaren's pit stops, they're hit and miss. They did a fantastic 1.8 second stop for for Oscar, the fastest we've seen this year. But then those pit stops have also cost both drivers races in previous years as well. So, you know, these these are more variables that have got to come into it. Red Bull are fairly consistent on that regard, uh, but yeah, I just you know I I can see McLaren dropping the ball in order not to preference one driver over the other, and and and that could be a repeat of Qatar again.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, I mean, and I can see both McLaren drivers taking each other out, but you'd think they'd be more sensible than that. Right. Well, we've got loads to look forward to this weekend with Abu Dhabi, the final race of the season. Um, and me and Damo will be back to uh look back at that and the entire year and then sort of look forward to 2026, which has its own uh exciting reasons to be uh watching. Um so at the moment I'm gonna say thank you very much, Damo, and uh wrap things up.

Rick Houghton:

Looking forward to Abu Dhabi. I cannot wait for this one. It's always a good uh it's always a good end of the season. Um three-way fight. You can't ask for more than that. Looking forward to it.

Damien Reid:

Yeah, I'm quite I'm I'm looking forward to it, I'm quite nervous as well. Uh thanks for listening to Two Stuff Compounds. We'll do it again next week. Uh enjoy your week and we'll speak to you soon. Two Stuff Compounds was presented by myself, Rick Gorton, alongside Damien Reid. The studio engineer and editor was Roy Damonte. The executive producer was Ian Carlisle. Don't forget, if you want to join in the conversation, leave a comment on our Instagram page at Two Stuff Compounds. And if you haven't done so already, please do click that follow or subscribe button. See you next time.