2 Soft Compounds

2 Soft Compounds - Race Week: Who Has The Edge Down Under?!

• W4 Podcast Studio & GrandPrix247

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2 Soft Compounds Ep. 3 - Race Week: Who Has The Edge Down Under?!

🏁 Lights Out in Melbourne! The wait is over – Formula 1 is back! This week on Two Soft Compounds, hosts Rick Houghton and Paul Velasco (GrandPrix247) gear up for what could be the wildest F1 season opener in years.

🇦🇺 Australia kicks off the season - and with rain on the radar, chaos could be on the cards! Plus we've got eight all-new driver pairings - who will sink, who will shine and can Lando Norris finally unleash his inner ruthless racer? The guys also discuss Hamilton's Ferrari dream vs. Verstappen’s dominance—is 2025 the year history gets rewritten? And there's some nerdy chat around McLaren & Ferrari’s flexi-wings - banned from Round 9! Could mid-season rule changes shake up the title fight?

With bold predictions, spicy takes, and unfiltered banter, this is your fast-lap guide to the 2025 season opener down under!

👉 New episodes every Tuesday – follow us @TwoSoftCompounds on Instagram to join the conversation!


Podcast Rundown

1️⃣ Welcome & It’s Race Week! – F1 is back after 90 days—let’s dive in!

2️⃣ Australian GP Preview – Why Melbourne is the perfect (and possibly chaotic) season opener.

3️⃣ Flexi-Wing Controversy & Team Sandbagging – Are McLaren & Ferrari hiding their true pace?

4️⃣ Biggest Driver Battles – Hamilton vs. Leclerc, Norris vs. Piastri, and Verstappen’s dominance.

5️⃣ Red Bull & The Rookie Factor – Can Max keep control, and is Liam Lawson a surprise package?

6️⃣ Midfield Watch – Mercedes, Aston Martin, Williams & more—who’s a dark horse?

7️⃣ Australia GP Predictions – Who wins, and what chaos awaits in the first race?


Production Credits:

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

Rick Houghton:

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

Paul Velasco:

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

Rick Houghton:

Hey, welcome to episode three of Two Soft Compounds with myself, Rick Hutton, and Paul Velasco, the founder and chief editor of GrandPrix247.com. And it's an exciting episode because, of course, finally, after over 90 days, we can say it is race week for the first edition of Formula One 2025. So, Paul, how are you feeling about having Formula One finally back after the break? You know what?

Paul Velasco:

they say when the flag drops, drops, the bullshit stops, and I just can't wait for that flag to drop. So yeah, man, it's been a really long off season. So much chitter chatter. So, yeah, fully fired up and we're going to discuss how this is probably going to be one of the most amazing seasons of probably all time.

Rick Houghton:

I I really miss the fact that the season has not, in the last few years, started in Australia, because I love Australia being the first race, because it's often a race of chaos. And then I look at the weather forecast today and they are forecasting heavy rain for Sunday. It couldn't get any better. Yeah, australia.

Paul Velasco:

Actually Jad Malik, the editor of Grand Prix 247, was actually saying it's so good that it's Australia starting it off again. And, yeah, I agree. I mean you know there's certain traditions, like you know Wimbledon's always in June or July or whenever you know it's in summer in the UK. So you know, yeah, it feels like it's all back to normal now.

Rick Houghton:

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the first race and of the teams and how we think they're going to do, based on, maybe, what we've seen in pre-season testing, I just want to bring some breaking news to the podcast is that madrid are going to host the spanish grand prix from 2026, and have you seen what they've named the circuit? Oh, my god. Yeah, they've officially launched the circuit name today and it's called Mad Ring.

Paul Velasco:

Mad Ring. I mean, who thought of that? It's like a genius pioga. Ha. Mad Ring, yeah, but mate, it's Mad Ring. Mad Ring, yeah, anyway, it's another street circuit.

Rick Houghton:

It looks pretty good. But let's concentrate on Australia. We saw the pre-season testing. I spoke to a friend of mine who thought that Ferrari were the team that were actually sandbagging at the pre-season test. Engines turned down. I think Ferrari's going to do really well this coming weekend, but we're going to break the teams down and talk about Albert Park as well and the evolution of the circuit. There's been a couple of little tweaks and changes over the years, but McLaren changes over the years, but mclaren I think we're going into the season with them as favorites for the first half of this season because we are expecting some developments. Apparently, adrian newey, for instance, has now stopped concentrating on 2026 to actually get some power out of the car for the remainder of this season, which is just mind-blowing news to me. Where did sorry, where did you?

Rick Houghton:

yeah, that news that's like I read that over the last couple of days and with some comments coming through on Twitter, that Adrian realizes the car's that bad. He's got to do something about it in the short term before he can fully turn his attention to 2026. So that remains to be seen. We know that the McLaren probably goes into the first race in Albert Park as the championship favorites but, like I say, things could change mid-season. And one of the things that I noticed about McLaren it seems McLaren and Ferrari are still using the flexi wings, which the FIA are basically going to ban from round nine onwards. So I read lots today about other teams who maybe struggled from the start of the season may benefit from Spain onwards because of the flexi wing reduction. Is that something you would agree with, paul?

Paul Velasco:

mate, you know, when it comes to winglets and tinglets and engineering stuff, that's not my gig. I'm a driver guy. I'll analyze the drivers. I'll leave you to do the nuts and bolts, because I actually don't care. Make the car fast and that's all I care about that.

Paul Velasco:

It took a winglet to get the DRS to activate the other thing. That meant the other thing went faster. That's just for nerds, seriously, I mean. So yeah, look, if you listened to our previous riveting episode, let's be honest. We did say that there were guys sandbagging, there were guys playing around. We don't really know what the true pecking order is. So we're just going with a bit of a thumbsuck, which is based on an educated guess, and that McLaren have the hop.

Paul Velasco:

But my whole ethos of Formula One per se as a sport is based on the fact that it's supposedly a team sport and the goal in Formula One is to be number one, to win, and there's only one place on the podium in the number one spot. So that means that this teammate thing is a bit of a snowman, because if you actually want to win, you have to beat your teammate first, first and foremost, because if you've got the best car and you don't beat your teammate, you finish second, you've got the best car, and you don't beat your teammate, you finish second, you've got the worst car. If you don't beat your teammate, you're worse than your teammate. So the irony of the sport is that they call it a team sport, but it ain't, because each driver hates each other, and you've seen it. You know Senna-Prost, you've seen it Hamilton-Rosberg, you've seen it Hamilton-Alonso. So the key for me of Formula One is the drivers, and this season, why I'm so driven by what we have in store is that there's eight different driver pairings, guys who've never raced in the same team together, and that, to me, from Lewis, leclerc, verstappen, lawson, blah, blah, blah, blah, which we're going to discuss. That, to me, is the first most amazing thing is we're going to see these inter-team battles, which brings me to McLaren.

Paul Velasco:

Okay, back to you on the McLaren thing. They've got a problem because who is the number one? Is it Norris or is it Piastri? We saw last year, they did it and the Papaya rules didn't rule. They all did their own thing and I still think it's a bit like that. In all fairness, it's Lando Norris' chance and if Zach and the boys are smart, they'll put the ball in Norris' court. They'll make Piastri play the game, and that's what I'm thinking. I Piastri play the game, and that's what I'm thinking.

Paul Velasco:

I don't know what your thoughts are on that and do enlighten me in terms of the cars, the winglets and the trinkets that you think is going to make those cars.

Rick Houghton:

I wanted to make a point about Lando Norris. I don't know if you watched the new season of Drive to Survive, but I thought he came across in that as a little bit too giving in in the way he revealed his character before this season. I always said last year Lando could have won the driver's championship if he'd have been more gutsy, if he'd have raced hard and dirty like Max does. Max will almost do anything he can within or sometimes outside the rules to get the win. I thought Lando wasn't like that at all last season. I thought there was two or three races he probably could have won that he didn't because his elbows weren't out.

Rick Houghton:

And in the drive to survive episode that concentrated on McLaren and Lando Norris, he was literally on camera saying I hate doing media. I hate oh, there's too many photographers there I hate doing interviews. He said I like, I want everyone to like me. I thought you shouldn't be saying that, lando, you've got to go into this season this year. You've got to go in like a raging bull. You've got to. You know the gloves have got to come off if you've got any chance of winning your first driver's championship.

Paul Velasco:

Look, I'm a Norris fan. I think he's a good kid, I think he's a good driver. Good guys don't finish first. They say yeah, you know, let's face it, formula One champions tend to be bastards. You know, bastards in the sense that they'll do anything to win. Now I'm going to say this if Lando becomes world champion, it will be a triumph for good guys. Yeah, I agree, you know, and he will be a guy who will always be a bit like a Jensen Button. You know, you couldn't really knock Jensen. I see Lando a bit like that. It's like if he wins, it means that good guys can win, and I think he can win, just depends. You know you flung an arrow at him.

Paul Velasco:

I'm going to say that McLaren didn't give him the backing he did, because McLaren don't know how to win. Every time Lando wins, it's a new win for McLaren, because this McLaren is not the McLaren of Ron Dennis. It was like a winning machine. We're talking about a whole new team built under Zac Brown. They have three or four wins under their belt, yeah, so you know what I'm saying. They're growing together. So they didn't know how to handle Norris and I think by the time they woke up that Norris could win the championship, it was over. So yeah, I'm going to say as it stands at the moment, if they can sort out the pecking order of their drivers and the cars as good as it seemed in in in Bahrain testing, they're going to be hard to beat. But again, give me the technical secrets. What have they got this? This flexi wing, I've heard. I'll look. I'm obviously making a bit of it, but I'm not very into the technical stuff. But it's important to know.

Rick Houghton:

So give me the lowdown on the flexi wing, so that they had this last season, and so did Ferrari.

Rick Houghton:

So apparently the, the front wing, flexes at high speed, which effectively gives them a sort of a second helping of DRS, if you like.

Rick Houghton:

The other teams complained about it last year, especially Red Bull, and the FIA have said we are going to clamp down on this and we're going to do something about it, but we're not going to do anything about it until round nine, which is Barcelona, barcelona. So when that happens, teams that are playing catch up from the very start of the season have a chance to perhaps close the gap, because they've been running with traditional technology, if you like, and a couple of teams have been running with this sort of flexi wing, which is all mod Khan, and did them very well last year. So, along with a number of other rule changes the FIA have introduced, I mean, this one seems a bit crazy not to have introduced it from the very start of the season, but bring it in at round nine seems a little mad to me. But anyway, that's what they've decided. So that could mess things up in the pecking order as we get into round nine.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, but let's go back to McLaren. What's your call on on on Norris? I mean, I just threw a curveball at you and said I believe it's McLaren. They're not really a winning team.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I think I think I would agree. I love Lando Norris. I think he's great. I think he's got a brilliant personality, brings Formula One alive. I think he's helped increase the popularity of formula one with with younger people. Um, he seems like an all-round good guy. You're right. I'm just my question about him last season was it was almost. He was almost too polite and, and, like you say, nice guys really very rarely win in formula one. However, he has the raw talent and the raw speed. I think he just needs to to discover a bit of aggression. And you're right, if Zach puts his faith in Norris and almost makes him team leader this year, that's going to give him the extra edge and the extra confidence. Hopefully, to say right, I'm in charge here, I can forge my own destiny this year and I'm getting more help in the garage than Oscar is, for instance.

Paul Velasco:

I think we're doing the world of good yeah, well, therein lies the problem, isn't it, oscar? Yeah, because that kid is good, that kid is super, fast, super. In fact, he probably has what norris doesn't have in terms of aggression, and uh, the thing is, it's too, it may be a year too soon, but uh, honestly, if, if he improves like he improved between rookie season and season number two, do not write him off Again, one of those amazing battles. You know which teammate do you back? Which again similar story Ferrari. You know what are your thoughts?

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, moving on to Ferrari, I think Hamilton's really embracing this new chapter. I know he's 40 years of age, but I don't think that in his case is going to make any difference whatsoever. I think Hamilton, you know, has moved into the factory effectively. He's been sleeping there, he's been in the simulator every day, he's been working closely with the mechanics, he's been trying to forge the sort of relationship that he had for so many years in Mercedes and he's having to do it really quite quickly. So many years in Mercedes and he's having to do it really quite quickly. Charles, obviously, has been there for so many years. He has that relationship already.

Rick Houghton:

So Hamilton, I think, is having to work harder, but the they seem both drivers seem to have a spring in their step. They certainly did at Bahrain. It looks as though there was nothing that was going to phase them and that's what makes me think that they may have been sandbagging a little bit of the pre-season test. And I love what Fred said. I think he only said it yesterday. He said I do not want my drivers to be best friends. I want them to be fierce rivals but have the respect that goes with a team competition.

Paul Velasco:

I thought that was a great quote and I think they're going to push each other all the way this season and that's so exciting for me indeed, yeah, I mean, it's again one of those amazing battles and I've said it before and I'll say it again if lewis actually achieves the eighth world championship with ferrari this year or the next, it is probably one of the greatest feats of a sportsman in the history of sport, let alone formula one. You know what I mean and I know that the the palmy media vary. They're never biased about lewis. Uh, they've got him winning a world championship already. So I mean, you know I don't want to rain on everyone's parade and I love Lewis, but Charles Leclerc is going to be a hard, hard nut to crack. So, yeah, that which brings us on to the guy they've all got to beat, right? Yeah, forget the team.

Rick Houghton:

It's team Rumble Racing Red.

Paul Velasco:

Bull Racing. No, I call it Team Verstappen. Yeah, well, of course, that's how it looks from the outside.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, so Verstappen's quest for five. It was an interesting quote going round over the last week or so that when any driver had won a world championship with an Adrian Newey-designed car, never went on to win another one. So, for instance, vettel won with Red Bull in an Adrian Newey design car. Yeah, yeah, left went to Ferrari didn't win anything at Aston Martin. Obviously, max has stayed with the team that Adrian Newey has now left, but it's going to be, I think, an uphill battle for Verstappen.

Rick Houghton:

But, as you mentioned many times, it is like Team Verstappen. The whole team revolves around Max, who's going to go down in history as one of the best drivers of all time, without a doubt. His aggression, his desire to win, his desire to not be there to make friends, all that sort of stuff, and the fact that his dad is currently in his corner and he also has influence over Christian Horner and Helmut Marko. It really is team Max Verstappen, red Bull, and no matter if they have early struggles with pace, which we think they might, based on some of the comments that are coming out, max himself said he doesn't expect to be on the podium in Australia, which is fascinating that he would say that, by the way, because he never really gives the doubters any sort of ammunition. But he said it and that might mean he's trying to lower expectations for certainly the first part of the season. What do you think, paul?

Paul Velasco:

Well, you can never discount Max. Okay, that's a reality. He is the greatest driver of this era. He's also one of the drivers who can win Grand Prixs and World Championships, as we saw last year, with not the best car, yeah, and I think that's super important. Lewis could do it, fernando could do it, but Max did it last year and I think you cannot discount him. I detect an angry Max. Yeah, although he's won his fourth championship, I think the booing at the O2 Arena, you know, and Lando getting all the love.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Velasco:

I think Max just wants to get down and kick ass and that's why I say he. I always say this when in doubt, back Max. If you're a gambling man and an angry Max is a dangerous Max, and I think we have both these and I think I'm going to put it out there that Max wins in Australia wow, okay, that's really interesting.

Rick Houghton:

Um, and if we are in, indeed if we're looking at a wet race in Australia, by the way, I mean, anything could happen really. Max will win that too. Yeah, Max is fantastic in the wet, and so is Lewis Most of the British drivers are great in the wet because they grow up go-karting in the wet, oh, british drivers.

Paul Velasco:

Did you see what Max did to Landa and all the British drivers, the whole?

Rick Houghton:

British.

Paul Velasco:

Navy was there and they got. Max did pirouettes around them. No, max is just on another level. If it rains, they might as well go to the next Grand Prix and give Max the point. No, seriously, I have a lot of admiration for Max. I don't believe that the Red Bull's in a bad place. Of course he's going to say it's in a bad place as long as they say oh yeah, think that's the whole thing. We wait till qualifying.

Paul Velasco:

I have a bit of a red flag on Red Bull. I don't quite believe that it's in such a bad place and again, as much as it is team Verstappen. He has destroyed every teammate he's ever had, as you know Now Liam Lawson's in the lion's den, I'm going to put it out there too. I think he's ever had, as you know, now Liam Lawson's in the Lions' den, I'm going to put it out there too. I think he's going to be the surprise package. He only has to be three-tenths of Max that's what Helmut Marker said If he can be three-tenths of Max everywhere. Everywhere Max goes, liam's in his mirror.

Paul Velasco:

Liam's doing a good job. He's got two, three, four years to go where he can lift his game. He's got to go there and he's got to learn from Max. He's got to drive like Max. He's got to do everything like Max, because Max is the perfect driver and I don't think there's a lot of pressure on the kid. I think you might even find there could be pressure on Max, because the kid's got nothing to lose. You know the problem with the other guys, like Sergio Perez, and that they looked at how Max drove the car. They went there and thought, geez, I can't drive like this guy drives. They tried to change everything. I mean, they just got worse and worse and worse and they got all lost. And then you know you get a piece of kit. It's the same. If I was Lawson I'd say give me the exact same piece of kit Max has got, and I'm going to try and drive it as quick as Max.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, and I'll adapt to it.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah exactly, Don't go there trying to reinvent the wheel. You're a rookie. You've got 11 races. If he can absorb like a sponge and learn, he's going to be a surprise package.

Rick Houghton:

I noticed when they did the season test at Silverstone mid-season last year when they put Liam Lawson in the same car as Max. Max did a lap and Liam Lawson did a lap and this was featured on Drive to Survive. He was within two tenths of Max and I think that's what convinced them to give him the second seat at Red Bull. So I think he definitely has raw pace and we saw a couple of times last year some aggression from Liam Lawson, Particular time when he went up against Perez in the sister Red Bull and they had a bit of an argy-bargy this was Mexico, I think and he ended up giving him the finger down the straight, you know, and I was thinking okay, there's a kid who's got an attitude and that's exactly what you need.

Paul Velasco:

Exactly. That's why I like him. I think he's going to be really good. If you can learn from Max and he can be number two to Max, he'll probably be the second best driver in the world. That's the reality. Listen, you must remember Red Bull is a four-car team, right? Yeah, so let's talk about those two guys. That's like a temper tantrum going to happen every session. With Yuki Tsunoda, who was snubbed. Let's be honest, he was snubbed by Red Bull. I mean, this is supposed to be a junior team. He's already been there three or four years, yeah. And now they've got Isak Hadjo, who's like a little hothead in his first season of Formula One. I mean, what is your call on those two guys?

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I mean, I've Sunoda. I kind of a little bit of dynamite and I thought he was with the limitations of the car. I think he was wringing the neck of the car and getting more out of it than he probably should have done. Hadja, I know from the lower formulas, very fast, very keen, can be aggressive as well. I think those two together, if they can work alongside each other for the benefit of the team and get the data which they always say doesn't come from Red Bull but we all know does, and use it to their advantage throughout the season, they could be best of the rest. I mean, personally, I think that at the moment is going to be Williams, but the Racing Bulls have potential.

Paul Velasco:

Seriously, racing Bulls best of the rest, mate, those two kids are going to be like it's going to be like kindergarten on steroids, mate. Seriously, there's. Oh no, okay, look, I want to be wrong, because I love every formula one driver deeply, but those two boys, well, I think that's going to be. That's going to be the fun package, the dynamite fun package. Honestly, I don't see them. They just don't have the experience or the whatever, in my personal opinion, to actually take that team forward, because it's not a team that wants to go forward. It's a team where they're going to find out if these guys are any good and then move them up to be Max's teammate. Yeah, true, yeah, I don't really see them.

Rick Houghton:

I'm not as optimistic as you put it that way, and that's more than fair enough. That's, that is let's, uh, let's. Let's. Move on to mercedes then. So a bit of a new era there. George russell has now been confirmed at mercedes. You are, george, team leader now. You've got kimmy antonelli coming in, um, whose previous outings in a formula one car didn't really go to plan. It was what the Monza test and put it in the wall, if you remember, at the Parabolica. But George Russell's got this mantle of team leader now, and we've seen in the past that perhaps his confidence hasn't always been as up there as it should be, because he was competing against Lewis and almost certainly Lewis was getting the main focus of the garage, maybe not last season, but certainly seasons before that. So I think it's George's chance to step up and really make his mark with Mercedes this year.

Paul Velasco:

George yes, indeed, I believe George, being like a bit of how's the word? He had to have huge respect for Lewis couldn't stand up on Lewis's toes while giving him a hiding. You know what I mean. It's a bit difficult, you know what I mean? Again, back to that whole very basic thing To win in Formula One, you've got to beat your teammate. And if you can beat your teammate, the more you beat him, the better, and if you can destroy him, even better.

Paul Velasco:

Now, I don't think George destroyed Lewis, but definitely he outperformed Lewis last season. So it's obvious he's ready for the next step. The problem is, I feel he's a little incident prone, but again, I think he's just. We're going to see a totally. I think we're going to see the real George Russell this year, what he can do if he can stay out of the little incidents and stuff like that. But you've got to remember one thing Although he's the team leader, it's only because max won't sign, because if max says, hey, toto, I'm available, it's like hey, george, ciao. Or it'll be like whatever, they'll do whatever. So that's the one thing george will have on his mind is that toto wanted to sign max. Okay, we know that for a fact now, although it was poo-pooed when we reported it. Now it's all overdrive to survive. So there's one thing that would irk me if I was George, why you want to sign Max. If I'm your dude, do you know what I mean?

Paul Velasco:

And the other thing is Antonelli. He's an 18-year-old, as you said. He burned it in his first off. He's quick, apparently, et cetera, et cetera, whatever. I don't really believe the hype at the moment. I think he's good in that, but he made some really bad mistakes in Formula 2. I'm going to agree with Jacques Villeneuve, who we quoted on Grand Prix 247. We quote him a lot because he's not mainstream. He doesn't depend on espressos from the Mercedes bar or Ferrari espresso machine, he just calls it as it is. And he said the kid's just too early. It's one year or two years too early. It's Toto Wolff's pet project. So let's see, it's a big gamble. You know, this is Mercedes, it's a big team, it's a huge team. So to bring in an 18-year-old untested and a new team leader when they could have had signs? They could have had signs.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Velasco:

I think, yeah, Toto's put out a lot on the line and if it works out, good for him. But Antonelli is a big ask and you know he was smart. He was smart, he got Bottas as a reserve. So Bottas is a 10-time Grand Prix winner. I don't know why he's sitting out of a race when you've got Nico Hülkenberg, who's never been on the podium and he's got to drive. Anyway, there's Valtteri Bortes just hoping Antonilli doesn't do it so that he can go back in the car, and that's it. So if Antonilli doesn't work, they plug in Bortes Done.

Rick Houghton:

Done deal through the junior formulas in the past and been put in an F1 car far too soon.

Paul Velasco:

And you know Like who, Like who. That's backfired on I can't remember, you're going to have receipts, mate, you're going to have receipts. Pi Gasly, when he went to Red Bull. Good boy, good boy, good receipt. There you go, absolutely. I think Alex Albon too, to a certain degree, yeah, yeah, good, good, good lad, good lad, I caught you on the hop there, which is good.

Paul Velasco:

That's good to be challenged. Let's move on to Aston Martin. It looks by all accounts that Aston Martin have not a very good car. Fernando Alonso, give me the Nui story again, because that one hasn't computed yet.

Rick Houghton:

Okay, so Source source Source.

Paul Velasco:

Source is googlecom chat. Gpt source is a couple of your competitors no, you name them, name them, I like them. Motorsportcom planet f1 was one of them. I think that are the apes f1.com.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, go for it so basically, the adrian knew started, he's arrived, They've done the pre-season test in Bahrain and they've gone. Ah, the one team on the entire grid. That hasn't really changed a bit since we finished Abu Dhabi last year and I think that's worried them. And I think Adrian Newey is now going. I'm going to have to fix this before I get into the nuts and bolts of 2026. And, of course, with Adrian Newey's just lives, sleeps and dreams designing Formula One components, he'll have, you know, during his gardening leave he'll have done nothing but think about the rule changes for 2026. So maybe he does have a bit of time to try and develop the 25 car.

Paul Velasco:

Indeed man. Thank God they're doing this. We're racing people, racing in our blood. Oh, okay, we're going to get new and we're going to build a car in 2029. What?

Paul Velasco:

the fuck, seriously, get the car going now. It's a heap of rubbish. We're Aston Martin, we've got the resources of Ferrari, we've got big team ambitions. Apparently, the fact we've got to go there, guys, we've got to try to find a gig to go to this Aston Martin factory, apparently it's like, you know, neon on steroids, anyway. Well, aramco, they there lacks nothing.

Paul Velasco:

Laurence Stroll has built the perfect Formula 1 team for his son, who's unfortunately a wanker. So it's not going to work. Car is getting better and better and better. No, he is. No, I mean, you know, lance, you know, look, wanker is not a nice word to use, but in in a motorsport terminology, you know, you respect everyone who's made it in formula one. But in motorsport terminology, when you're a guy, a real motorsport guy, like Ernst Stuck or Jackie X or hey, listen, lance Charles, I have a banker. You know what I mean. That's it. It's going to be that they're not going to say oh well, you know.

Paul Velasco:

So anyway, lance Charles brought this perfect team it's absolutely the most perfect team ready to win. And now you've got this great designer. So you've got a lawnmower that doesn't work and you've got this guy going to build a new lawnmower. He said, no, don't look at that lawnmower. Of course he's going to look at that lawnmower. One gardening leave. He came up with a solution. So again, another unknown. You know what I mean, you know listen. Fact is, fernando will destroy Stroll, but the unknown is the car. Now, if you give Fernando a half-decent car, what did he do last time?

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, at the start of the season last year, alonso was on the podium, wasn't he? Three or four times, so you know he can get the most out of any car, and it's not just Formula One, by the way. You stick him in a touring car, the same. You stick him in an Indy car, the same. He gets the best out of Indeed. Who are we slaughtering next? Let's move on to Alpine. Alpine don't look good this year. I don't know why. I'm saying that Again. Referring back to Drive to Survive. Flavio Briatore I thought he was. You know he was talking to Jack Doohan. He was basically going.

Paul Velasco:

I own you. You believe everything that you see on Netflix? No, no, but I mean it was a camera. Quoting him nonstop.

Rick Houghton:

It was a camera in a room with Flavio and Jack Dewan, you know. So it was witnessed by a Netflix camera and he was basically laying the law down to Jack, saying I can make or I can break you, and I felt really sorry for the kid. I thought this is, like you know, his dad or his headmaster's basically laying the law down. What is your general or genuine opinion opinion on Flavio Breratori's back involved with Alpine um a help or a hindrance?

Paul Velasco:

Flavio Breratori. Well, we know him. Look, he's probably the guy who knows the most about Formula One than any one of those guys in the paddock put together. This guy, whether you like him or not, sleazeball or not been to prison or not cheated or not, all that stuff he's been accused of. The bottom line is he was always a player in Formula One, his friends, he's on speed dial with Domenicale Wolff, all those guys it's a cabal, they're buddies. Boom, boom, boom that he got back into the sport. I think it was a smart move, to be honest with you. I mean, who else was Alpac going to bring? They really this Di Meo Renault CEO. He's destroyed this Renault team. So basically, he needed someone who knew what he was doing, because the mayor does not know what he's doing. And they brought in Flavio and Flavio is getting, I think he's getting. They're going to be a surprise team. They could be. In my opinion, they could be best. Of the rest, oli Oaks is no fool. That Flavio brought in Oli Oaks was a very, very smart move.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, actually I shouldn't have said that, because it's not alpine I was thinking about, it was hass. I was thinking the way I'm going to kick and sauer as well. Yeah, they're sponsored by kick. No, I think alpine. I think you're right. I think alpine, along with williams um, have a chance to be a lot further up the grid than they were last year. I think alpine, you know, had a decent end to 2024, didn't they? And it looks as though they can use that momentum with Flavio in the mix now, you know, they can bounce back in 25.

Paul Velasco:

They know the sport, you know he knows the sport. So let's see, in terms of Williams, I'm going to agree with you there. I think Williams, with science, is a galvanized team. I think they re-energized. They're never going to be anything of the great Frank Williams era, very much like McLaren. There was a Ron Dennis era then a whole new team. This Williams is a whole new team. Old James Viles he fancies himself as a rock star and he can't get enough of airtime. But he's doing a good job. The fact that he signed signs is a statement of intent and also it's going to be a wake up call for Alex Albon another intriguing in a teammate battle, because Albon's been, you know, kicking ass with guys like Sargent and Latifi, but now he's got a proper driver on his side and we saw last year when Colapinto came into the team for some races Albon was flustered. So going to be interesting season to see where Williams end up.

Rick Houghton:

Let's briefly mention Haas then. So we've got Oliver Berman, who really impressed when he jumped in a couple of times last year, especially when he drove the Ferrari. I thought he was brilliant. And Esteban Ocon, who just's just a team hopper and Esteban Ocon's not a driver I've ever really rated, so he's hopped to yet another team. That's the new driver pairing.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, pretty much. Berman's there to learn. Ferrari are paying for him to learn there. And yeah, ocon, I mean, what's he going to teach Berman? I mean, in fact, I hope Oliver Berman doesn't learn anything from Esteban Ocon.

Rick Houghton:

Well, he could teach him how to crash into his own teammate. Yeah, things like that.

Paul Velasco:

You know the fact that Esteban Ocon has a drive and Valtteri Bottas is a reserve. It's just someone's blowing someone. That's all I can say. Anyway, what are your thoughts on Saba?

Rick Houghton:

I think Saba were really disappointed last year. I think they have been for a number of years. I like Nico Hülkenberg as a driver. I know he's never had a podium, but I like the guy in terms of his personality. I think he's very popular amongst the other drivers as well. I don't think he races dirty, but maybe that's the problem. So I like the Hulk. I really do always have done, and we've got a new rookie in Bortoletto who's come into the Sauber team. But, like you say, it's a transitional year, so really it's a difficult one to call.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, I don't think they're going to do much, I think they're just going to tread water. I don't know how Hülkenberg got the drive and they kicked out Valtteri Bortes, which tells me this is the one thing that worries me about the whole Audi effort is Benotto mate. That guy's like really, what has he ever done?

Rick Houghton:

He nearly destroyed Ferrari he did. And one thing when he joined, by the way, sorry to interrupt, but when he joined Ferrari, their strategy calls became the worst, I think, in Formula One history, in modern Formula One history. They were messing up on a weekend after weekend after weekend, and now he's with Sauber. I can see the same thing happening again.

Paul Velasco:

And I have no faith in terms of well, when I say I have no faith, let's put red flags to my faith came First of all. Andreas Seidel was the supreme guy set everything up. He was going to say he won le mans. He was very much part of the mclaren resurgence. They had him running the team, he got the boot and they brought ben antonin out of the blue. This guy who nearly destroyed like I said, nearly destroyed ferrari, promised botas that he had a ride until Bottas found out that he didn't have a ride.

Paul Velasco:

You know what? I question this Audi management. I think they're a bunch of numpties. Let's see they put the wrong guy in charge. I don't think the team's going to agree. They're not racing this year, they're racing this steak F1 Dayg day glow thing and, like I said, it's their last season. Why are they going to spend any money developing it? It's it's not even audi, it's not even. It's kind of like this uh, unwanted baby before the real baby comes. You know what I mean. That's how I kind of seeing it. So yeah, that's basically how I see. I see they're going to be like the worst team. But again, you know, let's see how they. Gabriel Botoletto, he's getting seat time. That's good. I don't know how good he is. He's come out of the blue a bit for me. So let's see. Although Formula 2 champion, he deserves a seat in.

Rick Houghton:

Formula.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah definitely A couple of things to look out for in the 2025 season. Hardly any rule changes. No extra point for fastest lap. This year is one of them. Unlimited gearboxes.

Rick Houghton:

I only read about today is another one that the FIA have mandated, so if you bust your gearbox, you can replace it to your heart's content all year long. And another one which it makes me quite sad for the first time in many, many years, no Rolex clock in the pit lane. The sponsorship's been given to Tag Heuer now, so you know the camera went to the Rolex clock just before the race started. That's gone, which makes me a little bit sad. So yeah, hardly any rule changes, but you know, I think Australia is going to be one hell of a race, rain or shine. To see where the initial pecking order is, it's always exciting, but I think to do it Australian instead of Bahrain makes it more exciting. They tested in Bahrain and now they're moving to another circuit for the first race of the season. Normally they test in Bahrain and then the first race is at Bahrain, so they all know what to expect. This time they don't.

Paul Velasco:

Indeed but you talked a lot, said a lot of words there, but you didn't tell me. You think it's going to win. Mate, you've got to give me a name not like one name, one driver, not like oh, maybe if the sun happens.

Rick Houghton:

I'm going to go for Lando Norris. I want him to start with a spring in his step. I want him to get the season off to a winning, winning, win.

Paul Velasco:

It's like a okay it is. It's a love thing. Okay, cool, I hope he look. The good cop in me says I hope Lando wins, but the bad cop in me knows Max is going to win, so I'm going to go, Max, Okay, fantastic.

Rick Houghton:

Okay.

Paul Velasco:

Which is, I think you've got better odds of Lando winning than me, than Max. So let's have a look and we're going to keep score throughout the season?

Rick Houghton:

Yes, definitely, we could set up our own fantasy Formula One lead just me and you.

Paul Velasco:

We just go winners and you get 10 points for winning, you get minus 10. If you don't get it right there you go.

Rick Houghton:

There you go and I bet you you win at the end of the season.

Paul Velasco:

Or should we do this? Should we do this If our guys don't win In front of the other. Yeah, there you go. That's fair, that's fair, there's always a winner.

Rick Houghton:

Brilliant. Looking forward to Australia. Thanks, Paul, very much for your company. Remember to follow us on socials and get involved. And if you've got any comments, by the way, and you think they're wrong, I'm right, feel free to jump in and have your say. We don't mind the odd argument because we'll always be right in and let's get the season going, man.

Rick Houghton:

Cheers, paul, ciao, and thanks to you for listening. We'll catch you next time on Two Soft Compounds. Two Soft Compounds was presented by myself, rick Hutton, alongside Paul Valesco, the studio engineer and editor was Roy DeMonte, the executive producer was Ian Carlos, and this podcast is a co-production between Grand Prix 24-7 and W4 Podcast Studio Dubai. Don't forget, if you want to join in the conversation, leave a comment on our Instagram page at 2SoftCompounds. We love getting comments, questions, and we'll give a shout out to some of the best ones on the podcast in the next few weeks. You can also email us at twosoftcompounds at gmailcom and if you haven't done so already, please do click that follow or subscribe button. See you next time.