2 Soft Compounds

Spanish GP: Piastri's Perfect Weekend & Verstappen's Red Mist

• W4 Podcast Studio & GrandPrix247 • Season 1 • Episode 19

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Spanish GP: Piastri's Perfect Weekend & Verstappen's Red Mist.

🎙️ In this week’s 2 Soft Compounds, Rick and Paul unpack a dramatic Spanish Grand Prix that may have just redrawn the 2025 championship map.

🔥 No surprise that the guys kick off this weeks episode disussing the clash between Max Verstappen and George Russell - one that's left fans and pundits split! Ditto for our hosts - one of them has his 'I ❤️ Max' T-shirt on - listen to figure out who! 

🟠  Elsewhere the guys reflect on McLaren's dominance and how it wasn’t just a flexi-wing illusion plus the psychological tension with Lando Norris and Rick's favorite topic, Ferrari’s communication gremlins! Plus there's some pretty heated opinion re Lance Stroll and his future in F1!

🌍  As the paddock heads to Canada, McLaren now looks like the team to beat, Red Bull faces pressure from all angles, and the psychological games of Formula One are just beginning to heat up.

Production Credits:

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

Paul Velasco:

I d

Rick Houghton:

Hey, welcome to another Two Soft Compounds podcast with myself, Rick, and Paul Velasco, the founder and editor-in-chief of GrandPrix247.com. Now, normally. Welcome, Paul, first of all.

Paul Velasco:

Hi, thanks a lot, rick.

Rick Houghton:

Normally I find the Barcelona Grand Prix to be the most mundane and boring of all the European races, even though it's a classical circuit that we drive on. I just never really liked it. But the race we've just witnessed, I think, had something a little different in the drama stakes. And you know where do we want to start, paul? We're going to start right at the top, with the controversy that occurred towards the end of the race.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, let's get that out of the way. I think the big talking point was obviously Max ramming, george. So, yeah, why don't you lead with that and I'll share what I've been thinking about it.

Rick Houghton:

OK. So we had a fairly late safety car after Antonelli went off with an engine failure. The safety car came out for a number of laps and during that period most of the front runners came in for a pit stop. The only tyre available to Max Verstappen, who at that time was running in third place, was the hard tyre. He'd used all the other options up, so the only tyre they could fit was a brand new set of hard tyres, which Max questioned because he didn't understand that the option for anything else had disappeared. Other teams came in and put soft tyres on, so this meant at the restart, max Verstappen found himself trying to restart surrounded by drivers on soft tyres. On the hard tyre. He almost lost it on the restart.

Rick Houghton:

Coming out of the final turn Managed to hold it together A genius save, I would suggest, paul. It really was at that sort of high speed, indeed, indeed, wow, incredible. Yeah, he held it together. Then, coming down the start-finish straight bumped wheels with Charles Leclerc, he held it together. Then coming down the start-finish, straight bumped wheels with Charles Leclerc. I look back at the replays and it really wasn't Max driving into Charles, it was a bit of both actually. And then he gets into a tangle with George Russell, into turn one, and then later the Red Bull team tell him to give the position to George Russell back. Now, what did you think of that, paul? I didn't think he needed to. I thought he got through. Fair and square on George Russell, would you agree?

Paul Velasco:

Look, I think the first move I thought was okay, it was the way he reacted. The reaction move to me was you know, they were racing, they were racing hard. The Leclerc move, like you say, was 50-50. But yeah, yeah, I mean, you know he, I think he was frustrated and I've always said this is an angry Max, is a dangerous Max, but it comes with the double-edged sword. There's a dangerous Max in that he he'll just win because he's such a genius or an angry Max and he's dangerous like he was on Sunday. He was, he was, but look credit to the guy and that's why I think it's almost like a non-story now, but it's. It's worth checking it out and seeing the psychology about it because he's come out, which is very rare, especially for him and especially for any guy Schumacher, Senna, any of those guys, Lewis Alonso they never admit they're wrong.

Paul Velasco:

And he came out and he actually said it and I'd wanted to just put it on record. His words were we had an exciting strategy and a good race in Barcelona until the safety car came out. Our tyre choice to the end and some moves after the safety car restart fuelled my frustration, leading to a move that was not right and shouldn't have happened and the case closed. Okay, he was super angry, red mist, everything that every champion has. And really, if Max didn't do that kind of move on that kind of afternoon where it was frustrating for him, it wouldn't be Max. So there's no surprise that Max did something extraordinary. It wasn't nice, it wasn't pretty, but 24 hours later he's come out and he said guys, I'm wrong. And I admire that. I think there's a maturity there. I don't know how you feel about it, Rick.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I mean I've got some audio that we can play which was recorded directly after the race, so it doesn't take into context Max's sort of admission that he was wrong. So I'm going to play that. Actually, this is George Russell, and here's what he had to say.

Insert:

I thought he remained really quite calm. I don't really know why or what the the thinking was was behind it. Look that's how Max goes racing. There you go. As I said, he was in p4, I was in p5, I ended up p4, he ended ended up P10. So from my side, glad that I managed to finish the race, not really sure what he was thinking, because he cost himself and his team a lot of points. So no conversation really required.

Rick Houghton:

And this is what Max had to say directly after the chequered flag. So he's a little bit flustered here, but actually I think, underlying the nature of Max this season, he's quite resigned to the fact that there are issues with the car and he's maybe not in contention for the driver's championship you talk us through the restart, first of all from your perspective, the contact with charles, and then what happened with george after that, yeah, the big moment there in the last corner.

Insert:

Um, unfortunately the the hard tires had a very low grip so yeah, that was quite painful, but yeah, basically we just ran out of tires. I mean, in hindsight, was it better to stay out? Maybe, I don't know, so it's easy to say afterwards. And because of those hard tires you get into those situations. George has given his take on the incident. What's your take on that?

Rick Houghton:

And also the 10 seconds. I don't need to say anything about it because, um, it doesn't matter anyway. And then, obviously, as you said, paul, he came out, uh, afterwards and said actually, yeah, it shouldn't have happened and it was. It was his fault, which I think I will agree with you is it's fairly amazing for a driver of his caliber to admit you know, michael Schumacher, for instance, still hasn't admitted he did anything wrong with either the Damon Hill incident in Australia or the Jacques Villeneuve incident. You know, even though he was, it was banned for an entire season. If you remember Max's 10 second penalty, do you think that was justified? Do you think it was too little?

Paul Velasco:

look, a lot of people were calling for a black flag, including including Nicko Rosberg. I don't know. I mean, it's racing. And I think George sums it up that's how Max goes racing. You know, that's how Max goes racing. And the reality is now he's matured that he comes back and he says look, I'm sorry, one, two, three years ago he wouldn't have done that, was angry, he barged a guy and really that's why we switch on. We switch on to see Max do some crazy stuff. Sometimes he gets away with it and he wins. Most of the time he gets away with it and does amazing stuff, and every now and then he falters. But he's human. He's like the greatest driver I've ever seen. What can I say In terms of the championship? Yeah, he knows he's not going to win this championship. This championship's got Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri on it and he knows that and that's very hard for him to take. He thought he might be in with a shot, but he realizes this thing.

Paul Velasco:

If McLaren is so good at Barcelona, despite all the trials and tribulations and the money spent to curb this flexi-wing bullshit, honestly, there was absolutely no difference in the pecking order. I don't care what anybody says there. Honestly, there was absolutely no difference in the pecking order. I don't care what anybody says. There was absolutely no difference. In fact, mclaren might have even taken a step forward. So all I'm saying is you've got to take it. Where Max's headspace is, he sees Red Bull crumbling I mean the team's really crumbling. A strategy call that could have kept him out. If anyone could have tyre whispered that car, it would have been Max. Leave him out Track position and see what happens. And then you know track position guys. And anyway, to cut a long story short, I think it was a talking point until Max apologized yeah, and he's got 11 points on his license. One more he's going to sit out a race. So he's got until June to clear another two.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I would agree. And that one point on his super licence, which means there could be a ban coming up. There's been a bit of discussion I've noticed in the last 24 hours of who might replace Max Verstappen if he gets banned with. Che can't make that car work at all. He just cannot. I mean, it's a dreadful weekend for him, practice qualifying and the race just didn't perform. Then Checo Perez's name being bandied around might be pricked some interest in Red Bull.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, I don't know so much. You know these days, checo won this battle. If he comes back and he's putrid again, he didn't win it. He can sit it out. He's going to get a drive, either with Cadillac or some team's going to sign him up. They got him because he's so experienced A year off with these cars that are increasingly difficult to drive.

Paul Velasco:

If I was him, I'd say, okay, look, if I was Sergio's manager, I would say this the car is a heap of shit. It hasn't changed. Only Max can drive it because he's Max. So I'm going to come there and drive it like I did last year. So let's see where we go with it. But I want $10 million a race. Yeah, why not? Why not? Because otherwise, why, you know? And if Sergio can get like a hundred million dollars to do 10 races for them, good on him. But to come, he's got to come back on his terms and I think, look, I'm sure he's got a good management team around him. In fact I know he does. I'm sure they're batting for the best. Red Bull must eat some pie. They must apologize. They got it wrong here. Sergio. 10 million in rest, do?

Insert:

you know what?

Paul Velasco:

I mean.

Rick Houghton:

Other than that, they're going to struggle to fill their seat, as you said. You touched on it a few minutes ago, paul, the flexi wing this outrageous thing, and it looks as though when I did the podcast last time out with Jazz, he was talking about being very subtle but saying that Christian Horner was the one that was lobbying for the FlexiWings to be ruled out because he thought that McLaren were getting a big advantage with that. And Jad subtly mentioned that Christian Horner had been on holiday in Dubai and we all know where the president of the FIA lives. And you put two and two together and get four. So the FlexiWing ban came in in spain.

Rick Houghton:

We've been talking about it all year. We said that it could be a turning point for the championship. We said mclaren could lose their edge, and you were absolutely right, paul. You said it looks as though they've got even faster, and I was watching the onboard footage from barcelona and the wings. Ironically, that seemed to be flexing the most on the front of the car was the red bull. Mclaren's don't seem to flex very much at all. Now. Red bulls do a little bit more, but no clear advantage.

Paul Velasco:

So the whole thing has been a complete waste of time yeah, I think that story of horner flying to dubai or whatever maybe you want to do some shopping, not sure. The truth be told, I always believed it was a smokescreen. Yeah, engineers and engineers, they hate to lose, and they were. Oh, you're cheating. It's always like that. Oh, they're cheating. It's like every time I've been in racing, whether it be the lowest form of Formula Ford, formula 3, formula whatever karting is cheating, it's always cheating. You know what I mean.

Paul Velasco:

So McLaren, the engineers just did a fantastic job, the whole team, and they made everyone else look really, really bad. They came from nowhere. Two, three years ago, they were nowhere. Zac Brown kept at it With Andre Stella. They've got this amazing piece of kit. It's the best car there is.

Paul Velasco:

There's obviously tricks that no one knows about in there. That's making it slightly quicker and making it use its tires more effectively, and it goes well at Barcelona. It went well at Monaco. It's going to win everywhere. It's a car that's good everywhere where the rivals have a car that's occasionally good. So, yeah, it's like I've said. It's going to be between Piastri and Norris. There's no doubt about it, because the the FIA clampdown was just limp, limp wristed. It was just pandering to the last gasp engineers who now have to sit down, and this is how I look at it. Red bull have their meeting on a monday, I guess, or tuesday, whatever, after race. And then hornus is cc guys, I batted for you, I went in there, I got the flexi wings and unflexi and they're still quicker than us, which means you guys did a shit job.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah well, that takes some thinking back. Talking of McLaren, oscar Piastri had a perfect weekend from start to finish. Really, lando Norris looked fast. There was a couple of practice sessions where he wasn't as fast as Oscar, but in qualifying and this is a big talking point, I know that Rosberg was talking about this on Sunday but in qualifying it was like the head demons have got to Lando once again. So he put a lap in, he beat Piastri and then when it came to the crunch, final qualifying in Q3, piastri put it on pole by the widest margin we've had all season and Lando Norris had a really messy lap.

Rick Houghton:

It looked as though he was overdriving the car, and I thought Nico Rosberg made a really good point. He said that when he won his world championship in 2016, he employed the services of a psychologist and he said I think Lando needs to do the same. He said I had a guy that I would spend four hours a week with, who was telling me how to get my head into the game, how to get my head into the mentality of beating my teammate, lewis Hamilton, multiple world champion, and we saw during that particular season that Nico Rosberg's mentality did, in fact, change. You remember the incident where he threw the cap at Lewis in the cool down room. That was all based on the psychology work he'd been doing with a professional, and I think Lando Norris needs to get his head in the game. We know he's a quick driver Okay, his race craft at times maybe not the best, but psychologically he needs to get his head sorted.

Paul Velasco:

Look, it's hard to disagree with you. I think we've mentioned this in our previous podcast. We're on 19 already. Can you believe it I think it was a few months back that what Oscar Piastri has is Mark Webber in his corner. He doesn't need a shrink, he doesn't need a psychologist, he doesn't need it. You can watch all that on YouTube. What you've got is Mark Webber. You can't get Mark Webber on YouTube. They do exercises, catch balls, do elastics, it's all on YouTube, but you don't get what Mark Webber is giving Oscar. He's not taking any credit because you can't get a Mark Webber quote anywhere. He's just behind the scenes there. You know he's the guy that's the pillar of strength in the corner of Oscar Piastri.

Paul Velasco:

I've questioned who's Lando Norris got. I see his family, I see his dad, I see his girlfriends, but where's Nico Rosberg? Why doesn't he pick up the phone and say Nico, you won it in 2016. Come hang out with me, you be my bottle boy, you be my head shrink. Pick up the phone, guys Like Valtteri Bottas. When he got the drive in 2017, I think I wrote an outside line Valtteri phone Nico and Nico will tell you how to do it. Someone asked him the question. He said no, I can do it my own way. He became a wingman. Honestly, if I was Lando Norris, I would get a guy like Nico Rosberg in his corner. Say Nico, what are you getting for this thing? Okay, I'll pay you double. Come hang out, you be my mental coach, because you need someone in the corner. And that's where I think Piastri's got the edge. And he just gets better and better.

Paul Velasco:

The kid was two tenths quicker than Norris when it mattered. That was a big, big gap, I think one of the biggest gaps on a 70 second circuit. It was like proper, proper, big, big lap from Piastri. And then he didn't make a mistake the whole race. He was off the line, good bit clumsy off the restart. But again, the kid is totally unflusterable and while the other guy searches for his life and his conscience and his head, he actually just boom, boom, boom sticks it in. But having said that, norris has the ability to take it back to him, like he did in Monaco. He took the upper hand. Now it's back. It's like playing tennis. Now let's see what happens at the next one in Canada.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah for sure, ferrari had a very mixed weekend. Charles Leclerc finished on the podium in third place, seemed fairly happy, seemed a little bit surprised that he'd finished in third place. To be fair, he was helped out, I suppose, by the safety car and the restart which bunched the pack up again For Lewis restart which bunched the pack up again for lewis hamilton. It was a completely different story. He had a nightmare in the free practice sessions. He had problems with the, the floor, the balance of the car. He had problems with the upshift, he had problems with the downshift, oh, and once again, massive communication problems with his engineer and the pit wall. Let me play you this clip taken from Free Practice 2. He's had an issue with the downshift but now it's fixed. It's fixed itself and he's quite happy to carry on. Listen to the conversation between him and his engineer.

Insert:

I again put downshift now, please. She's working, otherwise we box, we don't take care of her. I just told you it's working.

Insert:

Can you try and take a staff?

Insert:

Yes.

Insert:

Box. We prefer to box and check it Carefully.

Insert:

Just don't shift it, okay. Okay, then Box it doesn't stop. Yes, bye.

Rick Houghton:

You know, just nuts. So he tells the engineer it's working, it's fine. The engineer says if it's working, then fine, if not, we box. So he says it's working and then he says box. And this is the sort of treatment that Lewis Hamilton is getting every time he steps in that Ferrari car. You know, when they do a close-up on the tv feed of the pit walls, every single team that I watched during the race, every single team there was feet tapping. There was people talking on radios. There was people intensely studying data. When they went to a close-up of Fred Vasseur on the Ferrari pit wall, he was sat there like he didn't know where he was. There was no energy on that pit wall. They were just sat as though they were waiting for a bus. I mean, something's got to change. I don't understand why this is continuing this many races into the season.

Paul Velasco:

Yes, the Ferrari saga is quite sorry to be honest with you, I don't understand it. The Ferrari saga is quite sorry to be honest with you, I don't understand it. I don't think they can ever quite get two cars to go fast at the same time. In qualifying, lewis was better than Charles and then in the race it was the other way around. Look, the reality is this you know, lewis is at Ferrari and this is what comes with it. I don't really feel sorry for him. I mean, I sense this sort of like your heart is breaking. I nearly started crying, like right at the beginning when you asked for poor little Lewis Mate. He's earning $50 million a year. I feel nothing. I feel, lewis, you knew it was going to happen.

Paul Velasco:

We knew we all loved the fairy tale and there'll still be beauty in the story, but there's no way Lewis is going to walk into a shit box and pedal it faster than Charles on one raw lap pace. I don't believe a 40-year-old can give it to a 30-year-old. That's just my personal thinking, especially on a regular basis, and we've seen it with Alonso and that they can bring their A game if everything's A, but if you give them something B, then they struggle to bring their A game With a guy like Max. You give him a C car and he'll bring his A game and he'll make it an A car. You know, it's just Lewis would have done that 10 years or 15 years ago and Alonso would have then done it. But now they need to have their constant car going good. The guy in the other car is going to pulverize him. So yeah, it's a funny old story and it's more unbearable because they don't even have a car that can really really fight for podiums. They kind of get lucky on race day.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, we mentioned Mercedes already. George Russell had a decent return in Barcelona, finishing fourth. Antonelli had an engine failure which put him out and triggered the safety car. It was strange that there was also an engine failure in a Mercedes power unit the race last week in Monaco, which was Fernando Alonso. So for the first time in a long time, mercedes have got reliability issues. We're just not used to that from them.

Paul Velasco:

But listen just on the Antonelli thing in the triple header. I don't think he finished one race.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, you're right.

Paul Velasco:

I think he had three DNFs, if I'm not mistaken. So, yeah, look, it's a learning year for the kid. I would like to say that, yeah, he's good, he's there, but his benchmark is Isaac Hadja, who just keeps on hitting home runs. He was the best-placed Red Bull driver of all the four of them on Sunday. The kid just keeps on making a case for himself to be the next guy to replace. As you said, woeful, totally Woeful. Tsunoda was just nowhere. What can I? I say it's Isaac Hadja again. Absolutely.

Rick Houghton:

I don't know what you think of him, but really top-notch performance at Mars yeah, I think you know we feared the worst when we saw him bin it on the way to the grid in Australia, but since then, I mean he has been a startling breath of fresh air as, uh, rookie of the year, without doubt. I mean, antonelli is doing better than him in the in the points, but he he's in a Mercedes and Hadger's in a racing bull and I think he's pulled off some really decent moves, pulled off some great overtakes as well in Barcelona. He's the real deal and I think he's here to stay Staying with Mercedes for a sec. I've got George Russell talking about what the team needs to do to progress as we head towards the next event in Canada for race here in in Barcelona.

Insert:

Obviously a bit dicey there at the end, but you know we've got to focus on our stuff, which is trying to make the car go faster. I think P4 was where we were destined to finish um in that race. And ultimately we know our strengths, we know our weaknesses. One of the weakness is when is in hot conditions. Here this weekend it was super hot, so we just need to try and uh bring some performance to the car, try and improve those limitations sooner than later. But the team has done a great job. It's been three really busy weeks for everybody, for everyone in in formula one and um. Yeah, a well-earned week off next week, but looking forward to canada already see sim yeah, I think uh, he summed it up quite well there.

Rick Houghton:

I I think the only team that manages their tyres at every single circuit, hot or cold, slow or fast corners is, as you said, paul, the McLaren. Before we go on and talk about Williams, who had a woeful weekend, and the first points of the season for Fernando Alonso, I want to mention a standout drive in Spain for Nico Hülkenberg. After Max's penalty, he brought it home in fifth place and I just he said everything fell into the right position for him.

Paul Velasco:

He wasn't bragging about how great he was, but I thought it was a remarkable drive yeah, nico brings one or two big races a year, which is that was one of them. You know what I mean. End of the day, yeah, I mean good on him. I think the last time he was fifth was in 2019. I know that because I found it quite fascinating that he was so high up but again missing out on a podium. Yeah, I expect no less. Honestly, I do expect no less, but I expect it every race weekend.

Rick Houghton:

I want to talk about Aston Martin now. We'll move on to Fernando Alonso and his first point scoring of the season in just a second. First, though, lance Stroll didn't race on sunday. Apparently it's a hand and wrist injury he's been carrying for around six weeks. My question to you is why didn't they have a reserve driver on standby so they could race both cars if the hand injury got bad? And I'm hearing from various sources that after free practice two Stroll got out of the car and trashed the garage. He was throwing things around, he was damaging equipment. The team spokesman said afterwards he was very upset, but didn't make any more comments than that this is a spoiled little boy who maybe has thrown his toys out of the pram and their daddy's toys, you know, is the hand thing genuine? What are your thoughts on that?

Paul Velasco:

Well, you know we all know that he's spent far you know the hand thing, genuine what. What are your thoughts on that? Well, you know, we all know that he's spent far you know nine years, nine seasons in formula one. That's how long we had to tolerate lance stroll. And I'm going to give him a pass and say for the first three or four years he was really, really, yeah, deserving to be there. But his form went, fell off a cliff and never came back. And it just gets worse and worse. And if his dad did not own the team, he would have long ago been forgotten. He would have been long ago.

Paul Velasco:

I mean, he's not better than Latifi, he's not better than Logan Sargent. In fact he's maybe even worse than them. Honestly, I don't like to kick a guy when he's down, especially when he's injured. But he should stay down because if he comes up again we're going to have to kick him because really there's no place in formula one for him anymore. He's not a nice guy, he's not a good driver, he brings nothing to formula one. He's tarnishing his dad's mega project. You've got to take whatever lawrence stroll has done in his life or whatever that project he's built is like the british ferrari and you've got adrian newey there and he's got this spoiled brat who just does not deserve to be in the car. And I'm actually going to say this I think Lance is now getting to an age where he's finally saying to dad fuck you, dad, I actually don't want to be a racing driver.

Paul Velasco:

That was your dream, my dream. I wanted to be a dressmaker, bro. I wanted to be a ballet dancer. You made me drive this car. I've had enough. Now Boom and he trashes the thing and off he goes. I hope it's the last we see of him, not in terms of racing, I think. If he, honestly, if Lance, is a real racing driver we take all the way that there's disparaging stuff that's being said about him Go to WEC, get involved with the Aston Martin WEC project, away from the limelight, and it won't look like someone stuck sour lemons up your ass, you know. So that's it. All I've got to say about Lance is Lance, stay away.

Rick Houghton:

Fernando Alonso scored his first points of the season in an underperforming Aston Martin. Strangely, in the race as well, he went wide and ended up in the gravel at one point, completely on his own, with no other cars anywhere near him, which is again very strange for Fernando. But here's what he had to say to sum up his weekend.

Insert:

Best points of the year in Spain, which obviously makes the Sunday very special. All the fans were really happy. I saw people standing up in the last two laps on the Grandstand and that was nice. But yeah, I think you know Saturday was a little bit better than Sunday. We still need to improve a little bit the race pace and get better for Canada. Canada should be a good track for us. We've been three times in Q3 already Imola, monaco and Barcelona and three times nearly in the points Imola, monaco and Barcelona and three times nearly in the points in Imola and Monaco, with a little bit of bad luck, but here in Barcelona in the points. So we need to keep this momentum into the next coming races and be happy for the team and good execution, also on the strategy.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I was happy that Alonso scored his first points. You know me and you have both said in the past I think he's just waiting this year out, really until Adrian knew he can design him a car that can challenge in 2026, hopefully. But I think that shows that he's still got some passion within him when the car is performing better than normal.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, and just to put a full stop to that little sentence is he hasn't won a Grand Prix since 2013.

Rick Houghton:

Go figure. Yeah, exactly Exactly. It was a weekend in Spain to forget for the Haas team Ocon in 16th, oli Berman in 17th. It didn't appear they did too much wrong. They just didn't have a car that was going to be competitive in the slightest. Bortoletto struggled in the Sauber and the Alpine of Colapinto finished in 15th. Gasly put it in 8th, which just shows that you know there is some strength to that car at certain times and at certain circuits. But it was a weekend to forget for Williams. I mean, it was a messy race. Albon damaged his car. In the end the team brought him in and retired because there was too much damage. Science said nothing went our way in Spain. It was the first time they failed to score since Bahrain. It just wasn't the weekend for them, paul, was it?

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, I'm disappointed with Williams, but again, not surprising, because they have a car that works well at some circuits and works well. I don't know if they know which one and where it's going to go good, but I think they had a feeling that Barcelona wasn't going to be a very good track for them. But I'm kind of disappointed in Sainz. Honestly, he's getting blasted by Albon on all levels, including qualifying, and this is a guy who was giving Charles Leclerc a headache last year. So I don't know if science has gone the ricardo I forgot how to race formula one cars route or if he's just taking time to acclimatize.

Paul Velasco:

I'm disappointed, and I think he would be too, because he's a very kind of analytical guy. I mean, I don't know. I've expected more, not from williams per se, because they're a shit team, you know what I mean but more that science's energy doesn't only translate to the hype behind the scenes and the reports. You know science has brought in this new energy, blah, blah, blah. But I'd like to see that on track and I haven't seen it, to be honest with you.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, I got the impression that science is working really hard to acclimatize to the car. At the start of the season they said that he was the last to leave the garage at every race and at every session. Uh, they say. Well, james val said he was doing more simulator work than anyone he's ever worked with previously, so clearly he was trying to put the effort in. But you're right, he just hasn't shone really and and that's been disappointing for him and for the team you know what, before we go, we go?

Paul Velasco:

you mentioned Pio Gazzia, the Alpine, but also Colapinto has been a huge disappointment. Yeah, I'm surprised. He actually hasn't done much better than doing. He's got a lot more time, it seems, in the car. He was, like he's, often the slowest guy in every session practice, qualifying, you name it. He's just not living up to the expectations. It's kind of reminding me of a bit of a Nick De Vries, remember when he debuted and then boom, he got a great drive. Then bam, he was just rubbish. He just couldn't cut it. And this Colapinto, apart from being crash happy and I have a bee in my bonnet because I don't think Doohan got a fair chance, put it this way, he didn't get as fair a chance as this kid's getting yeah, chance, put it this way, he didn't get as fair a chance as this kid's getting yeah, I would agree, because Flavio said oh, we give him a pass for Monaco, we give him a pass for Imola. It really starts in Spain. Well, if it starts in Spain, he got hammered in qualifying by Pierre Gasly. Pierre Gasly, who's Pierre?

Insert:

Gasly.

Paul Velasco:

He's a journeyman. So Colapinto is basically being measured up against a journeyman and he's substantially slower than him and in the race he's just nowhere near. And very disappointing, very disappointing. And it's karma. Karma comes home to roost at Alpine. That would be the headline.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, good headline indeed. I thought it was quite interesting. Flavio was interviewed over the weekend in Spain. He said 2026, expect some podiums. In 2027, we'll be challenging for the World Championship.

Paul Velasco:

Yeah, I heard that. And then he said you're allowed to dream, you can dream. Okay, you can dream, let's see what he brings. Let's see what he brings Interesting times. Ahead with that team. I don't think the car and the chassis is so bad. I mean, honestly, ahead with their team. I don't think the car and the chassis is so bad. I mean, honestly, they've probably stopped developing that car and they've probably stopped developing the power unit. So I'm quite impressed every time Pierre does what he does with the car. But then at the same time, Colapinto hasn't been good at all.

Rick Houghton:

Okay, well, next time it's Canada. We've got a bit of a break between the three races we've just had at the start of the european campaign and canada, which is in a couple of weeks time. It's always a circuit. I love. The shield villeneuve circuit always throws up an interesting race. Strategies plays a big part, safety cars normally play a fairly big part, and the weather of course. We've seen amazing wet races in canada in the past, so we've got lots to look forward to for now.

Paul Velasco:

Thanks very much, paul, for joining us on the podcast once again yeah, no worries, it was really good not actually nice to have a break. A triple header is like. Eventually it's too fuzzy, but uh, yeah, I think we'll be. One weekend off is good for everybody, including us who follow the sport. Take a break and, uh, be fired up for the late nights. It'll be late nights, right, canada, yeah that's correct Late nights of Canada. So yeah, I look forward to that. I love Circuit Jill Villeneuve.

Rick Houghton:

Yeah, me too Looking forward to it, paul. Thanks very much. Don't forget, for your latest dose of Formula One news, reviews and thoughts. You can head over to GrandPrix247.com for the very, very latest. We'll see you next time on. The podcast 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 Prix247 and W4 Podcast Studio Dubai. Don't forget, if you want to join in the conversation, leave a comment on our Instagram page at twosoftcompounds. 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.