2 Soft Compounds
2 Soft Compounds is a weekly podcast focusing on Formula 1, hosted by radio broadcaster Rick Houghton and motorsport journalist and GrandPrix247 founder, Paul Velasco.
With a focus on unfiltered analysis, behind-the-scenes insights and expert commentary, the podcast offers fans an entertaining and informative take on the fastest sport in the world.
2 Soft Compounds
Flexing the Limits: Wings, Rules & What to Expect From The Spanish GP!
Flexing the Limits: Wings, Rules & What to Expect From The Spanish GP!
🎙️ On this week’s 2 Soft Compounds, Rick is joined by GrandPrix247 editor Jad Malek as they gear up for the Spanish Grand Prix and the spotlight shifts from street circuit glamour to raw technical grit.
🔧 The guys run through the FIA’s new directive banning flexible front wings - effective from June 1st - which could significantly impact the pecking order. Do McLaren now face the real test?
🏎️ The pair also dig into Max Verstappen and Red Bull, Ferrari’s ongoing radio drama with Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso returning to his home crowd, ground as well as Isaac Hadjars rising start status, Williams’ quiet consistency, and the implications of Barcelona potentially falling off the racing calendar.
🎧 With one of the most revealing races of the season ahead, this episode dissects the tech, tension and trajectory of a championship that’s still wide open.
1️⃣ Flexi Wings Ban Explained
2️⃣ Barcelona Track Challenge for McLaren
3️⃣ Ferrari's Communication Problems
4️⃣ Team Performances and Expectations
5️⃣ Monaco Circuit Improvements
6️⃣ Barcelona's Future and Street Circuits
7️⃣ Race Predictions and Closing
Production Credits:
Presented by: Rick Houghton & Paul Velasco
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producer: Ian Carless
Produced by: W4 Podcast Studio & GrandPrix247
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. Hey everyone, welcome to another edition of Two Soft Compounds, me Rick and Jad Malek, the editor of GrandPrix247.com. We're here to preview the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona, catalona. How are you, jad?
Speaker 2:Yeah, all good, all good Looking forward to Barcelona.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the interesting thing about this race is the FIA banning of flexi wings, and you're much more technical than I am, jad, so I'm going to hand it to you first. You can explain exactly what the outruling of these flexi wings, what were they, how were the teams getting an advantage and what is going to change when we get to barcelona yeah, well, first of all, let's be clear.
Speaker 2:This is not the first time f1 has flexi wings. It's been something. That's that's that's come and gone over the years. I remember even red bull in their dominant days back between 2010 and 2013,. There were lots of questions about their front wing flexing. So this is not a new issue to the sport. I think it started last year in Baku when everyone could see that the rear wing of the McLaren was acting like a mini DRS. You know it's flexing and it offers a boost in top speed. So that was highlighted and I think the FIA clamped down on that early this season.
Speaker 2:So the rear wing was not an issue, but the front wing. That's a different story and basically it's something related to the nature of these current ground effect cars, because these cars tend to understeer a lot, so they need lots of front wing to manage the front end. But with the way these cars are designed and the way they operate, generating the downforce from the underfloor, the problem is, when you have too much front wing on them, they will be unstable in high speed corners. So the solution for that is that you need to have less front wing and more front wing within the same lap and the solution for that is having the flexi wings. So basically, when the car is going fast, the front wing it will bend down, it will be flatter, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This way it allows the car to be more stable on the rear, especially when you're going into high-speed corners, but then when you brake, the front wing goes back to the proper position and simply it generates downforce at the front and it prevents understeer. So Red Bull and Ferrari they were having doubts that McLaren are using this kind of trick and we all know that McLaren is very strong in the low-speed corners. So they've highlighted that the FIA were a bit reluctant to do anything about it last year, but since the season started they changed their mind about it. I'm not sure if the visit that Christian Horner did to Dubai at some point early this season helped, because I heard that he visited Dubai and we know who lives in Dubai. So the FIA now are clamping down on this and yeah, let's see what happens this weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interestingly enough the clampdown happens from the 1st of June, so effectively they could use the flexi-wing in practice tomorrow. But obviously for the race and for qualifying they're not going to be able to. So we saw the straight line speed that the McLaren has is pretty impressive. They say they've always suffered in high speed corners. Um, obviously in monaco lots of low speed corners, so naturally they did really well. I mean, do you think it's it's going to change the way mclaren race in spain this weekend?
Speaker 2:keeping the the regulation change aside, barcelona is always going to be a different challenge for mclaren to deal with because Barcelona has a combination of high speed, medium speed and low speed corners. So it will not enjoy the same dominance that it had in Monaco, because Monaco is all low speed and you would expect Red Bull to be better in Barcelona. Now we always know that Barcelona is the ultimate test of an F1 car. Although the track doesn't allow too much overtaking, it's the best track to test the car because of the combination of corners it has. So any car that goes well around Barcelona in general goes well everywhere. So that's rule of thumb. So, without even having the flexi wing thing, it's going to be a different challenge for McLaren and it's not going to be as easy for them as Monaco was. This thing is going to add. The new front-wing rules are going to add another factor for them to deal with, but honestly I'm not really convinced that the front-wing is the silver bullet that McLaren found in their car. There are so many other factors.
Speaker 1:And the other factors we'll get onto very shortly. I was looking at something that Jolyon Palmer, former Renault F1 driver, was saying about Barcelona. He said overtaking can be tricky Turn one pretty much the only spot you can pass at, but it's also the trickiest corner, and turn four to five fairly nasty, because it's a downhill braking zone which can sucker you into braking a little little bit late, and we've seen cars go off between turns four and five in the past. I just had a look at the stats, though. The way actually and I always say that barcelona is is fairly boring race to watch as a viewer, but last year there were actually 86 overtakes, most of them into turn one. So we can expect some overtaking and we can expect, you know if, if maxstappen could put it on the front row of the grid, this is the kind of race he could shoot off into the distance isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yes, of course he needs to keep his lead at the start of the race, because I think last year Landon Norris was on pole and he lost his position to Max and that's why he lost the race. So yeah, look, it's a very long shoot towards turn one. Basically, whoever emerges out of turn one at the lead will have the advantage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's talk about Ferrari briefly, because they had a bit of a nightmare in Monaco. They did better than I thought they were going to do, but Lewis Hamilton is still having these massive communication problems with the pit wall. I mean, just what do they need to do to sort that out in a race like Spain, because you know communication and watching the race and keeping your eye on deltas and keeping your eye on where other competitors are on the track is a massive part of a Formula One race and Ferrari seem to really struggle with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, look, lewis is. I think he's still struggling to get integrated properly in the Italian environment he is now. It's a totally different place to where he was at Mercedes. Maybe, I don't know, maybe Ferrari should break the bank and hire Bono, get him over there. He will be a great help for Lewis. But, joking aside, I don't think that's possible. I think there has to be a change in culture and how Ferrari function at the pit wall to help Lewis more In terms of communication with the engineer. I don't know, maybe they have the chemistry, maybe they don't, maybe next year he'll have another one, I'm not sure. But in terms of operation, the pit wall has to be more efficient at Ferrari, and that's not the case currently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I found it very interesting in Monaco We've seen the problems they've had so far this season. But in Monaco We've seen the problems they've had so far this season. But in Monaco, lewis asking a direct question and not getting a direct answer. It was like a politician's answer. The guy came back and said something about the gap between the car behind Lewis and didn't actually get a firm answer on how many seconds he was behind. I just found that absolutely ridiculous. And there's been rumours circulating this week Now if Paul was here he'd probably shoot me down because I know he's not a big fan of rumours. But it was Bild in Germany that first came up with this that Ferrari had apparently approached Christian Horner about the possibility of replacing Fred Vasseau on the Ferrari team principal. Now, when I first heard that I thought that's baloney. But then a couple of other publications, including the Daily Express in the UK, picked up on it this week. What sort of rumors have you heard concerning that, jad?
Speaker 2:Well, honestly, this is the first time I've heard that. Honestly, I don't read Biled a lot. So, yeah, look, there has been a lot of speculation. It's not as gelled together as it was before and, yeah, the buck stops with him. But, honestly, unless they let him go, unless Red Bull let him go, why would Christian Horner go to Ferrari? Because he has to report to the board over there. I think he has more autonomy at Red Bull Racing and as long as the Thai part of Red Bull is supporting Christian, I don't think he's going anywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, some more facts and stats for the Barcelona Grand Prix this weekend. Seven-time Formula One world champion, lewis Hamilton, has won a record equaling six times. In Spain, the record is equaled by Michael Schumacher, but he's still waiting for his first win in a Ferrari. Of course, apart from the Shanghai sprint, mercedes are also looking to return strongly after a double blank in Monaco. With George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, spain's double Formula One world champion, fernando Alonso. He had his last win at this circuit way back in 2013. And I thought that the Aston Martin team showed some promise in Monaco Jad. Obviously, alonso had the mechanical failure that put him out of the race, but I thought it was probably the most promising start to a race they've had all season.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly. Look Aston Martin. When they brought that upgrade package at Imola, it was like a B-spec version of their car and that transformed the car. The car has definitely become better and, as usual, it transformed the car. The car has definitely become better and, as usual, fernando's extracting the maximum out of it, which is what we saw in Monaco. He was on course to score some points, his first of the season and, yeah, the car just broke down. He said later on that at some part of the race, all his electrical part of the power unit was gone. He was just functioning on the internal combustion part of the power unit. Now, monaco helps you defend, but that's impressive that he kept up with just half his engine working. Yeah, I think this weekend they will have another chance to fine-tune their package a bit more. Yeah, and Fernando will have the extra motivation of being in front of his home crowd.
Speaker 1:So let's expect something positive from him extra motivation of being in front of his home crowd, so let's expect something positive from him. Talking about williams now, obviously carlos science is making his home return to the spanish grand prix for the first time in a williams car. Alex albon had a good outing in monaco and we know the williams car is fast in a straight line and it's fast in those high speed corners which barcelona has many more of the monaco, so it could be an exciting weekend for james vol and the team.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, look Williams. Last year you could see Williams properly functioning on straights only, but I think their car this year is a bit more versatile. It's more flexible as the circuits change in nature.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I wouldn't rule them out for a top 10 performance this weekend Talking about Mercedes in a little bit more depth obviously disappointing last couple of races for them. This should be a circuit where they're bouncing back a bit. I mean, let's face it, every single driver knows this circuit like the back of their hand. The teams have got so much data from over the years, from when we used to go testing in Barcelona pre-season, so this is a track that everyone should excel at. I'm guessing it depends on the package. I'm not sure. I haven't heard maybe you have Jad which teams are bringing upgrades to the race this weekend. Have you heard of any?
Speaker 2:Well, they haven't. Usually I wait for the FIA to publish the car display documents, so that should happen a bit tomorrow, I think. But look, there's a lot of teams that have stopped their upgrades. You know, and I think most of the upgrades this weekend are focused on getting those front wings dialed in to pass the tests. I think that is the focus.
Speaker 1:And let's talk about the rookies for a minute. I mean, Hadjar is having a brilliant season so far. He really is the real dealad, isn't he?
Speaker 2:yeah, hadjar it's. He was a bit of a surprise, I think, for everyone. He surprised his team, he surprised red bull, he surprised himself, I think. Aside from his crash on the on the formation lap in melbourne, that kid has been delivering weekend in, weekend out. Yeah, we can keep expecting, uh, some nice performances from hajar, if he keeps you know, if he keeps his focus. I think, among the um, the rookies this year, I think he, along with antonelli, were a bit the most consistent. Behrman has been up and down. He's good, but he hasn't been consistent like hajar and antonelli. I think Bortoletto, we can't say anything, honestly, because that car he's driving is just a disaster.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, the Sauber is a car to forget. This season. The safety car probability in Barcelona is 38%, according to the stats I'm looking at. We're not going to have the same situation as we did in Monaco, with teammates backing up other cars to give their teammate an advantage. Here are we, because it's a flat-out circuit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, thank God we're not going to deal with that thing anymore. Honestly, it was such a fiasco in Monaco and, yeah, we don't have any mandated number of pit stops this weekend. It's going to be a classic circuit, so business as usual, let's say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just briefly talking about monaco, I know we did our review but since then, um, there's been a couple of interesting articles posted about how they can change the circuit to promote more overtaking. Um, there's been a couple of radical ones. Alex vertz, though, I thought, came up with a pretty decent one, and he was suggesting moving the chicane after the tunnel section um 80 meters further down towards the swimming pool and reprofiling that uh chicane so that it had slightly wider and tighter entry and uh, slightly wider and tighter exit on the chicane. He reckoned that that would promote, uh, quite a lot of overtaking at that spot. Um, what have you seen this week, jad, based on people talking about changes to the circuit, and what have you seen? Maybe that could be a solution for next year.
Speaker 2:Look, the problem with Monaco is that you're always limited by the buildings around the track. It's an existing road and you have to deal with it. So I don't know how radical you can be in terms of changing the track itself. But I think the solution that Alex Wurst has suggested, I think that is feasible because if you look at the area over there, there is the runoff area behind the chicane. Yet this space could be used to extend it.
Speaker 2:And I think it makes sense because usually before that part coming out of the tunnel into the Nouvelle Chicane, that part has always been a classic overtaking opportunity over there when the cars had enough speed delta. So if you give them that extra rundown, I think, yeah, they could develop higher speeds and make that move happen. Actually. But for us I'm going to say here it's a bit on our weekly Park for May article, which Sean Stevens writes for us he came out with an even more radical thing, but that thing depends on changing the car. He said take a one-make F3 car, substitute the engines for a V8, normally aspirated version, add narrower tires, steel brakes, non-functional wings and then make it a one-off driver's championship. So no constructor points.
Speaker 1:I mean that is totally radical, it's totally radical.
Speaker 2:Exactly, but then you'll see some serious racing over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, someone else suggested extending the end of the lap so that it uses a completely different road that goes through the principality which extends the lap. And then someone pointed out well, angon, well, that means that you'd actually miss the start-finish straight and the pit lane complex. So that was a no-no. But obviously lots of people talking about how things could be improved for next year. I think everyone agrees that we want Monaco on the calendar for its prestige you know it's the jewel in the crown for Formula 1, but we need to see some overtaking and the teams backing up last week was just truly horrific. So Barcelona this weekend faces an uncertain future. The contract runs out next year and, of course, madrid will be added to the calendar. It's a street circuit, madrid, whereas Barcelona is a Classico-designed circuit. I know that Fernando Alonso has become ambassador for the Barcelona circuit and says it needs to stay on the calendar. I must admit, jad, it's not one of my favorite tracks to watch as a viewer, but I think the drivers like it and I think it's a popular destination.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, barcelona might not be the best track for overtaking, but this is not the problem. The problem is the direction that the sport is taking now towards getting more street circuits and on board, you know, like the Las Vegas, miami, now Madrid, I don't know Thailand, how it's going to be. Before there was talk about Vietnam, but that stopped, thankfully. So it's more that than talking about Barcelona. Yeah, barcelona has an issue, but always because it's a classic circuit. You can always do changes to that. It's a track that's existing over there and you can go and do changes, but you cannot do changes to a street circuit. It doesn't need to be always about the racing. It has to be sometimes about you know the show, how the cars drive, how you enjoy watching the cars driving and how the drivers enjoy driving these cars. It's not always about the the overtaking.
Speaker 1:But yeah, there is a trend now that we're going towards street circuits, which I feel it's it's a problem yeah, I mean, I'm, for one, glad that a number of years ago they got rid of the mickey mouse chicane at the end of the barcelona circuit, because I thought that was uh, I think they thought it would promote overtaking, which of course it didn't, and it just took the speed away as you were coming back onto the main start. Finish straight, um, so I'm glad about that. I think I'm probably the only person in history, jad, that actually liked the valencia street circuit. Um, you're gonna shoot me down now because most people say it was pretty awful, but I thought, from, uh, from an on-board perspective, it was fairly spectacular. I really liked it yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:Look, it's about every, every one of us, every one of us the see something in every circuit that you race at. Okay, you have something that you enjoy. There's a certain aspect that you enjoy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree these days it's how artificial it's coming that we have to go to drs and then we have to go and have discussions about how to change monaco to allow more overtaking. These are the kind of things I think we don't like about the direction of the sport today, the direction it's going in in terms of, like the cars we're going to have next year. Until now, whatever we see on paper, it's a disaster okay.
Speaker 1:Well, before we wrap things up for our short Barcelona preview, jad, give me your top three predictions.
Speaker 2:Top three predictions. Okay, I'm going to go. Verstappen, Piastri, Leclerc.
Speaker 1:Wow, interesting. I think I would also agree with Verstappen being the victor on Sunday. I think he's going to get the best out of that Red Bull car on the Barcelona circuit. I think Norris is probably going to feature in my top three simply because he's got his mojo boosted from the win in Monaco. I think that will have done him a world of good.
Speaker 1:We've talked about Lando Norris in our podcast over the last few weeks about his own worst enemy is his own head and I think hopefully he's got rid of some of the Gremlins. After that win in Monaco I felt he stayed really cool under pressure that he was getting from Leclerc towards the end of the race and I thought that demonstrated to me OK, cool head, mature shoulders for probably the first time this season. So I would say Norris, uh, second place and I would say piastri or leclerc in third. But I think you know, if ferrari have a decent friday and a decent saturday can hook up a good qualifying lap. There's no reason why leclerc or even hamilton couldn't feature on the podium when we get the chequered flag on sunday that was exactly my logic.
Speaker 2:why I said about leclerc Now, why I chose Piastro over Norris, is because I think the McLaren guys are just, you know, exchanging blows. So it was Norris' race last time. I think Piastro will respond this weekend. And yes, I have to agree with what you said about Norris. It wasn't only defending from Leclerc. He had to deal because Max driving slow in front of him was messing up his mind and he kept his cool. I really appreciated what Norris did in Monaco.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. And it was weird. Norris had a car that was really grippy and Piastri had a car which really wasn't. The back end was sliding all over the place. So obviously they went for two different setup approaches. I'm presuming both sides of the garage will approach Barcelona in a similar way. You know, piastri is obviously asking for a certain setup and Norris is asking for something different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, exactly Each driver will have his own setup. I think they have the same baseline setup and then, but I think sometimes they diverge, sometimes they converge, but I don't think it's more about the setup of the cars as much. I think Piastri wasn't really comfortable in dealing with Monaco. I think maybe it's a track-related thing. But, yeah, going back to a classic circuit this weekend, yeah, we can have a better idea how they stack up against each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brilliant. Okay. Well, jad, as always, thank you for joining me on the podcast. We'll be back a few days after Barcelona to give our review with our thoughts. I'm sure there'll be some sort of controversy, there'll be some sort of close call when it comes to stewards calls and all that sort of stuff that we know and love sometimes from Formula 1. But for now, jeb, thank you very much. Thank you, and join us again next time on Two Soft Compounds. Tell your friends, tell your family that we're here. You can get us wherever you normally get your podcasts. And don't forget, for the latest news in the world of Formula 1, check out GrandPrix247.com.
Speaker 1: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 Two Soft Compounds. 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.