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
Spa Shenanigans, Max’s Mystery Meetings & Horner’s Heir – It’s Belgian GP Time!
Spa Shenanigans, Max’s Mystery Meetings & Horner’s Heir – It’s Belgian GP Time!
This week on Two Soft Compounds, Rick and Jad Mallak gear up for the high-speed chaos of Spa-Francorchamps - where the forecast is part rainstorm, part rumour tornado. With Christian Horner officially out, Red Bull begins a bold new chapter under Laurent Mekies. Is he ready for the pressure cooker? Or will this weekend reveal just how much Horner held the house together?
Meanwhile, the Max-to-Mercedes saga has gone full soap opera. From Sardinian sightings to jet-tracking superfans, the internet’s convinced Max and Toto are cooking up a blockbuster move. Add in Mercedes' oddly delayed Russell contract renewal and the plot thickens faster than Spa’s fog.
Ferrari’s pinning their hopes on a rear suspension upgrade tested at Mugello - because nothing says “desperate times” like private track sessions in Tuscany. Will it be enough to stop McLaren’s steamroller? Maybe not, especially as Piastri and Norris continue their increasingly tense teammate tango. Let’s just say the Silverstone smiles are getting tighter.
Elsewhere, tyre drama brews as Pirelli drops the C2 compound from the weekend lineup, forcing teams to roll the dice on strategy. With Spa’s trademark weather roulette (sunshine in Sector 1, monsoon in Sector 3), anything could happen - again!
Plus: Sauber’s sneaky resurgence, Aston Martin’s upgrade blues, Williams’ recurring sauna problems, and the Cadillac whisper network linking Bottas and Perez to brand-new seats for 2026.
Strap in and subscribe to Two Soft Compounds - because at Spa, the only thing faster than the cars, is the gossip.
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, welcome to another two soft compounds podcast with me, rick and Jad Malik, the editor of gp247.com. Just the two of us for this edition, and we're looking forward to the Belgian Grand Prix. Of course, the first race, the first F1 race for Red Bull without Christian Horner as their team principal, and the backlash from that still continues, jad, but it's been fairly quiet on that front, hasn't it? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Honestly, we were discussing the other day, paul and I, and we were talking about it, and it seems that, as much as it was a shock, it died down a bit quickly, faster than we expected. But I think the fact remains that we haven't heard anything from Christian yet, because he's in hiding, probably licking his wounds somewhere. And yeah, I think that's what made things die a bit right now. What I've known that I think he's on gardening leave until the end of this year, so we won't see a move from him until early January, maybe 2026 or so. But yeah, now we have to see how the team picks up after in his absence, you know Lauren McKees takes over short notice. He's thrown into the deep end. You know, his first race weekend.
Speaker 1:Interesting to see how things pan out to Red Bull this weekend yeah, it's going to be very interesting from the very start from the the drivers press conference onwards, really, because it's going to be the first time that McKees and Max Verstappen have been faced by the media to talk about their reaction to the departure of Christian Horner. I would imagine that the press team will have briefed them thoroughly before they go to Spa this weekend. Max Verstappen in particular if you look back, he was quoted as saying that it was important that the team stayed together and obviously since that quote they've lost several key members of the team and now Christian Horner's gone. So it'll be interesting to see what the reaction from Max Verstappen is. Is it going to be one of, maybe, relief that he's no longer team principal, or is it going to be one of regret? I mean, it's going to be thoroughly interesting.
Speaker 2:Well, we've always seen that Max is giving us the poker face every time he talks about these things. He always shows that he doesn't care what's going on around. He boxes everything out and he just goes into the car and drives. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see his reaction. We all know that things weren't rosy between Max Verstappen and, let's say, tim Verstappen and Christian Horner. You know Jos Verstappen wasn't happy with Christian and neither was, let's say, dr Marco. So, yeah, we still need to know.
Speaker 2:There's a lot to know about how this thing unfolded. There's lots of stories I'm sure you and Paul covered it before you know talking about why that thing happened, the change in the shareholding in the Red Bull company. You know the 2% that the Thai family let go, and some are saying this is what caused christian horner to to be thrown out, and others are saying no, it's, it's a simple matter of administrative thing, like related to tax and stuff, and that's why they had to let this two percent go into that trust fund that bought it. So I think camp verstappen now may be a bit more relieved because you know there's there isn't this clash between yos and uh and christian, but as a team I think it's a big hit for the team whether horner has been the cause of poisoning of the team since the sexting scandal up to now. Having a team boss of his caliber removed mid-season is going to leave a void and I'm not sure how Lauren McKees is going to be able to fill it in such in such a short time yeah, very interesting.
Speaker 1:And, of course, even though the British Grand Prix was nearly three weeks ago, the speculation about Max and Mercedes hasn't gone away. George Russell, you would have thought would have been offered a new contract if he was going to stay in Mercedes at his home race. That didn't happen. It led to George having to face some tricky questions after Silverstone. And then you've got fans that are tracking various private jets and yachts associated with Toto Wolff and Max Verstappen, and according to their movements, the fans are really into this. There's a high chance that the pair were both in the same town in Sardinia at the same time. Now that could be a complete coincidence. It's a nice place to go on holiday for the break between races, but I'm pretty sure they were having a coffee or having a beer and talking about something. So the speculation is still really up there. So again, more questions for the press conferences.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. Look, everything is a coincidence in F1, right, we have to believe it. We have these 20 drivers, these 10 teams and the people that work for them, and, if you notice, they are all within the circle. So everyone that leaves a team, he's going to pop up at another team at some time later on after doing his gardening leave or whatever. Yeah, everyone knows Max is talking to Mercedes and there's speculation about him talking to Aston Martin and maybe, I think, wolf is writing up a bigger check. For me, the only thing that gives credibility to these rumors is the fact that they haven't renewed Russell's contract yet and, like you just said, said it would have been convenient for them to announce a renewal at silverstone at his home race, which they didn't do. That means total was still thinking about something.
Speaker 2:I don't know what max is thinking, but the smart thing to do I I would believe, is stay put for 2026, even though red Red Bull are in trouble, just to make sure that he doesn't go to the wrong team. We know Max right now knows he's in the wrong place, he doesn't want to be here, but he needs to make sure the next step is the right one and if he takes a step right now, unless I don't know, mercedes show him something some numbers on their dyno, some numbers from their air tunnel and some data. Based on that, he decides that they're going to have a rocket ship of a car next year. Yeah, I don't think it's smart to take a decision like this. It's going to be a knee-jerk reaction. If you tell me, uh, if you ask me and uh, yeah, these questions are going to chase him until the end of the season or until he makes a certain announcement and, yeah, he has to live with it and the media are going to be just pushing it.
Speaker 1:every weekend had a private test and apparently the word is cautious optimism from this new rear suspension which basically has been troubling that Ferrari car all season. Do we think they may have turned a corner with their performance levels now?
Speaker 2:Well, we'll have to wait and see that suspension was. There were talks that that suspension would have been introduced in Silverstone, but they didn't introduced in Silverstone but they didn't. And it turns out that I think last week they tested that at a commercial filming session in Mugello and, yeah, that was the first time they tested that suspension. Reports say that all the figures coming from the wind tunnel and from the CFD simulations, they all show that, yeah, that suspension is a good improvement for them and basically what they'll be targeting with is the ride height issues, because this is the problem with their car.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you noticed, but when you watch that Ferrari out on track, you notice that it's the most car that bottoms out among all the other cars. You can always see sparks coming out of it in certain corners. That other cars don't don't have that same problem and I think they're trying to fix that problem with this new suspension. End of the day, I think, yeah, it's going to be a decent test for them at spa if they introduce, if they go ahead and introduce it. This is what we know they're going to introduce it at spa. It's going to be a decent test for that suspension and, yeah, a decent test also for the car overall because you know Spa has the fast corners. It has a bit of a slow to medium. So it's going to be a decent test for them. Let's see what they come up with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. I mean that rear suspension will be thoroughly tested going up the hill, won't it? I mean it's going to be interesting to see Exactly. Let's talk about Sauber. I want to talk about Sauber's form. Since the Spanish Grand Prix they brought an upgrade and since then have scored 35 points. It was their first podium at Silverstone for 13 years, with the Hulk who got his first ever podium in Formula 1. Do you think we can see this improved run continuing at Spa-Francorchamps, or will the gap in the events allow rivals to bring more performance to their cars? We just mentioned Ferrari, for instance a significant upgrade for them, but Sauber and the way Sauber and their team has been managed at the moment seems to be all guns blazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, look, operationally, that team has improved so much Okay since Jonathan Wheat joined them. He just put them into shape and they're doing a decent job now and they're not making mistakes proper strategies and everything. Now, as much as we were excited about Hulkenberg getting his first podium at Silverstone, we have to admit that that happened in certain conditions, in certain circumstances weather, you know, the rain, the track, everything it all came together. It was like created the perfect storm for them and they just grabbed that opportunity and ran with it, which is admirable. But we have to see how the conditions are at Spa. Spa is a very tricky track, you know, to master. The weather is going to be tricky as well, because sometimes it drains at some parts of the circuit. It doesn't drain at the other. So it's a very tricky situation for them and I think look, let me put it this way I think if they get an opportunity, they're going to take it because they're operating at a decent level now, to make sure that they can make use of these chances that come by them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's talk a little bit about the circuit. It's one of the drivers' favourite circuits. It's probably one of our favourite circuits of the year. It's the longest track on the Formula One calendar. You've got famous and iconic corners like Eau Rouge and Radelon and Pouchon and Blanchimont and the corner with no name which still remains on the track.
Speaker 1:Like you said, it could be raining at one end of the circuit and not at the other, so that plays into strategy. Also, this weekend is going to host a sprint race for only the second time, and the first occasion that they had the sprint took place in wet conditions before a Grand Prix which was completely dry, if you remember back to that. So you know that's going to mix things up a little bit as well. And we've got, you know, a larger number of rookies this year attacking that circuit which, as you say, you know you've got to be pinpoint accurate when you're coming up, especially Eau Rouge, to get that corner right. We've seen some nasty crashes there in the past. It could be a real challenge for some of these rookies, but I would imagine they'll have spent the last three weeks in the break time between Silverstone hammering the simulator.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everyone is going to arrive at the track having done their homework. The teams would have done their basic setup to start with and the drivers would have been, like you said, spending time in the simulator just getting to know the track, especially the rookies. And yeah, it's a tricky situation for them because usually I think they go for a low downforce setup. At Spa, you have these corners, you have Eau Rouge and Radillon, but it's usually they go with a low downforce setup at this track. So it's going to be a challenge If the weather is going to play a factor. If the weather is going to play a factor, will the weather is going to be a factor? Sorry, yeah, this weekend as well, and the fact that they just have only one practice session is going to just mix things up more. So, yeah, I think it's going to be a chance for some teams maybe to make a breakthrough, but I think it's going to be like further confirmation to who the best cars are.
Speaker 2:You know You're going to see McLaren fast out of the box. I don't know if Red Bull can get their setup properly from day one, because usually they mess things up on Friday and then they just improve on Saturday. We have to see Mercedes. Mercedes went very well last year at Spa. You know they won the race and Ferrari what they're doing with their new upgrade, all interesting stuff and, yeah, it's the best thing that's happening at Spa. It's my personal favorite track, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think mine too, especially when you get those weather interventions. As long as it's not a complete washout. But if we get a little bit of it, then that's fantastic. Yeah, not two laps behind a safety car and let's go home. Yeah, exactly, we don't want that again. Let's talk. We mentioned Mercedes, but Antonelli needs a recovery. Drive in Spa, doesn't he? He needs to start proving some of his recent critics wrong. Not everything has been his fault, but he's had a woeful couple of outings in that Mercedes car. George Russell, I think you know, still is proving himself to be an adequate leader of that team. Seems very mature when he's interviewed. Seems to come across as sort of cool head most of the time. But Antonelli needs a good weekend, doesn't he?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. Yeah, he's been having a rough patch recently. Like you said, not all of it was his fault, but but yeah, you see that although he had car trouble I think on two occasions, he hasn't been at the best level which we have seen from him previously. So, yeah, he needs to bounce back. Now he had a break. I think he would have been doing some work with the team and getting ready. Now he had a break. I think he would have been doing some work with the team and getting ready. Yeah, russell, like you said, he's a known entity for the team. He's doing a decent job. I think he's going to keep pushing to present his case properly for the team. Yeah, I deserve a contract. Let's see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. I want to touch on Aston Martin, obviously, the quote from Lance Stroll which I thought was amazing when he said this is the biggest piece of shit I've ever driven. I thought, with his dad being the big old head honcho at Aston Martin, surely they were going to have some quiet family time together when his dad was going to point out his position to him. You know Alonso Paul always says Alonso can only be bothered if he's in a race winning car. He clearly isn't at the moment. They have made some improvements to the design of the car midway through the season, which we didn't think was going to happen, but they've come with a new side pod package. That was at Silverstone, so you know, at one point Lance Stroll was running in a podium position at the British Grand Prix. They've definitely made improvements since that upgrade and it might continue in Spa.
Speaker 2:Well, to my knowledge, this is the final upgrade Aston Martin are bringing this year. It's done. Now their focus is fully on 2026, with the new car and everything. All their resources are shifted to next year's car. So whatever they have now, this is what they have to deal with till the end of the season. Basically, I don't know if they do some tweaks here and there, but in terms of major upgrade package, that's it. It's done. And yeah, like you said, it improved the car and although Paul says Alonso couldn't be bothered unless he has a decent car, but I think his inner self would just wouldn't stop him from driving the wheels off anything that's given to him.
Speaker 2:And that's why we're seeing this gap between him and Lance Stroll. Yeah, I know Lance Stroll was running the podium positions at some point at Silverstone, but yeah, that was also down to so many factors strategy, the timing they gave him, the pit stop, let's forget. You know, don't forget. Alonso has been on the receiving end of so many of Aston Martin's stupid strategy calls and that's why he's not ahead in the championship. Yeah, alonso's going to keep driving the wheels off that car until the end of the season. Lance Stroll well, honestly, I don't really like to talk much about Lance Stroll. No, I totally agree.
Speaker 1:Listen. Williams, again another team which need to bounce back after some horrendous results for them. Recently they suffered an engine failure and they've had their fair share of crashes. Carlos Sainz seems to crash into most people these days. It's a strange one. I saw someone from the Williams camp talking earlier in the week and they said Carlos Sainz's work rate has just been superb. He's actually galvanized the team and he's brought so many people together and he's opened up the communication channels and he's approached it really professionally. But really, when you look at Carlos Sainz and his performances so far this season, they've been off the mark and Carlos Sainz basically said a couple of weeks ago after Britain that everything that could have gone wrong for him this year has gone wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, williams, currently they're having an issue with their car overheating. I think that's the problem. These are the failures. So they're having an issue with the cooling on their car, which is sometimes causing them to open up the bodywork a bit more, hence losing performance and what have you. So they have this problem with the car and it's appeared, I think, in the past two or three races.
Speaker 2:A great team player, okay, and he comes from huge teams. Before he drove for mclaren, he drove for for a ferrari and he knows how a huge professional team operates. Okay, and I won't be surprised if he takes that culture to williams, and I think this is something that williams need, because having a fast car isn't enough. You need a fast car and you need a team that a slick team that operates properly with them. Now, in terms of his performance, yeah, it's very strange because we've seen before, like when he went from McLaren to Ferrari, he just he was plug and play. You know, he was pushing Leclerc from day one, and it's strange how he's struggling at Williams For me. Look, I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt that that car is so bad to drive and it's maybe too different to what he's used to. You know, I would like to do that, but it's a bit of a surprise. Look, end of the day, if Lewis Hamilton is struggling at Ferrari, maybe we should cut science and slack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we haven't really Well. We talked about Ferrari's upgrade this weekend. I'd like to talk about tyres now, because we're going to talk about McLaren and the inter-team battle between Piastri and Norris in just a bit. But Pirelli are doing something different with the tyres this weekend, and I mention it because you know McLaren so far this season have made their tyres work the best out of all the teams. So what are Pirelli doing this weekend, jad?
Speaker 2:Well, pirelli this weekend are delivering a curveball for the teams.
Speaker 2:I think they're sick and tired of the fact that every time they go with some set of tyres and the team and they hope for a multiple-stop strategy and then the teams go and do one stop strategy, and I think that pissed Pirelli off. So this weekend the plan was originally to go with the C2, c3 and C4 tires, but they're going to do one thing. They're going to instead of going with the C2, so they're going to go with the C1 and they're going to skip the C2 and then they're going to go for C3 and C4. So skip the C2, and then they're going to go for C3 and C4. So this way there's going to be a big performance gap between these compounds. There's a compound missing in between and, yeah, it's an experiment they're trying this weekend at Spa. Hopefully it doesn't train, because if it trains their experiment is useless, because then the teams are gone with the intermediates. So this is what Pirelli are doing trying to push the teams to scratch their heads a bit more on strategy.
Speaker 1:So this means the C1 is the softest in the range. Right C1 is the hardest, oh, hardest in the range. I do apologize. Okay, so I understand now that they, while they've taken the decision on the gap because it is going to make strategy fairly interesting, isn't it Exactly?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:And talking, talking of we've mentioned it before many times on the podcast, but talking of wet weather conditions at spa, um, you know, no team seems to ever want to put on the full wet tire, it's always the intermediates. Now, is that something Pirelli need to look at and work on for next year perhaps?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think so. I think so. What's the use of having a wet, a full wet tire when you can't use it? Okay, and that means that means more time behind safety cars and under virtual safety car conditions and under red flag conditions, rather than driving okay. So it is a matter of safety, I think, and that's why everyone they just they're avoiding that tires like the plague for them. You know, yeah, those tires, they don't get heat properly, they can't get any grip with them, although they can remove lots of water from the track, but their temperature doesn't come up properly, and that's why all the teams are avoiding them.
Speaker 2:Next year, it should be a chance for them to deliver something better. I think, I don't know, it's beyond me, why. You know, pirelli have been delivering tires, customized tires, every year and they change sometimes between seasons, based on certain requirements or instructions from from the, from the teams and the drivers and the fia. What have you? You know, when you're able to build a tire that degrades, specifically to assert at a certain rate, you know, based on what the sport requires from you, if you can do that, why don't you fix your full wet tire?
Speaker 1:I don't know that, I don't know, honestly yeah, it is uh, very frustrating for our ardent formula one fans. Quick mention of hassan alpine and that was it, and let's go and talk about the uh, the mclaren uh battle between the mclaren drivers. I'm going to talk about the McLaren battle between the McLaren drivers. I'm going to talk about some paddock rumours as well before we finish the podcast today. But McLaren, so we see that you know Piastri cracks started to show at Silverstone a little bit in terms of his temperament and the fact that he got really upset and really wound up. Lando Norris was able to cement the victory last time out of the British Grand Prix. It's going to be, I imagine, between those two boys again this weekend. The McLaren is just so fast and it looks after its tyres so so well. Who do you think is going to come out on top with that inter-team battle?
Speaker 2:Well, if you ask me for the good of the championship, I think I hope Piastri bounces back this weekend and strikes back. Yeah, just to mix things up even more. It's always interesting to have these fights, you know. First of all, yeah, they have the best car on the grid and it'll be very stupid to bet against them. They're going to be the car to beat. And Norris is coming into the Belgian Grand Prix with a huge confidence boost. He won two races on a trot and now he can make it three. But I think Piastri needs to bounce back.
Speaker 2:It's very interesting to see how Piastri channels his anger now. It's the first time we saw that Piastri. Yeah, that guy can get angry, you know, and I'm not going to go back to the situation with the safety car, we talked about that enough on the previous podcast. But it's interesting to see what he's made of right now. Okay, because if you know this, with Max Verstappen, for example, he gets, he has a lousy qualifying on Saturday and then he bounces back massively on Sunday with a great drive.
Speaker 2:Remember we know what we, what he did in the Brazilian Grand Prix last year. You know disastrous qualifying and then he drove. He drove the race of his life. So let's see. Let's see if Oscar Piastri is cut from the same fabric. Let's see if he's that kind of driver as well. You know, and like I said, if they keep fighting each other and maybe taking points off each other and Max Verstappen can keep close as much as possible, let's hope we can keep this championship mathematically alive to the latest moment possible of the season. The constructors is out of the question, mclaren have it in the bag, but the drivers? Let's see if we can extend the championship for some more time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we know that. Norris. If Norris has weaknesses, there's two really. One of it is its qualifying pace and, and the main weakness we've seen from Norris so far this season is is struggling under pressure. He seems to have nailed the pressure element in the last two races. His qualifying performance all right. Silverstone he was, he was second on the grid, but it the confidence, as you said, will have transformed him for two straight victories. As he goes into Spa, he's just going to keep those demons in his head at bay and I think I get the impression he's worked on that. They haven't said he's been working with psychologists and things, but at the start of the season when he was running into trouble, it was suggested by many that he should be and, you know, maybe he's taking advice, maybe he's having someone giving him that sort of coaching which is leading to the more confident Norris we're seeing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look if he's getting help. Good on him. Okay, I don't care to know if he he doesn't need to announce it to the world, but good on him. That's what he needed to do. He realized he has some problems, he had some issues and he's working on sorting them out. There's one thing I'd like to note about his qualifying Look, in terms of qualifying pace one lap pace I think Norris has an advantage over Piastri. But Norris' problem is that it's only the pressure and the tension it gets to him, so he makes those mistakes. But when he delivers a clean qualifying lap, I don't think Piastri can match him. I think we all know that. Piastri yeah, he is the better race driver. On race day, he is the better driver. Yeah, but in terms of pure pace, yeah, I think Norris still has the advantage. Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, I think terms of pure pace, yeah, I think Norris still has the advantage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, I think when he made those, it's because he's been overdriving the car in qualifying. He's been overthinking it, you know.
Speaker 2:Look, mclaren brought. Norris had an issue with the car. He had a problem with the feel he got from the front of the car and I think I know that the latest upgrade which McLaren brought, which is a new front suspension that was custom made for Norris, only Piastri didn't use it. So the team went so far trying to help him get over his issues with the car and I think since then he's shown some improvement. So, winning two races in a row, having a car which was customized for him, you know, I think, when, that, when, when you're a driver and you see that your team supports you in the way they did, building a new suspension just for you, I think this gives him an extra boost of confidence. So, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how these guys slug it out till the end of the year definitely.
Speaker 1:Uh, before we go and leave our race predictions, I want to quickly talk about Cadillac coming into the sport next year. Some very strong rumors over the last couple of weeks about their driver lineup. We've heard many, many names mentioned, but the strong rumor now seems to be Valtteri Bottas and Checo Perez. Are you hearing the same sort of thing, chad?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly. Look Checo. I think he's been in talks with them for a long time now. I know for a fact that he has been talking to them, I think since he got fired from Red Bull. But yeah, they're taking their time deciding their lineup. And for me, if you ask me, when you're a new team and you're starting fresh, you need to experience drivers, and I think Checo and Valtteri are a good option for them. First of all, they have loads of experience both of them. They're both proven race winners and I think their temperament is good. I think they would function well together when a team's starting fresh, you know, because lots of things may go wrong and they're going to have trouble and problems and challenges. So I think both of them they have a proper temperament to deal with this kind of situation.
Speaker 1:If.
Speaker 2:Cadillac ends up signing both of them.
Speaker 1:I think it's a decent lineup honestly, yeah, and you never know, they might have Christian Horner as team principal yeah, well, I know they have.
Speaker 2:They have graham now I think he's he's, he's leading that operation. But uh, honestly, when they announced him, I said like he doesn't have the history or the credentials. So I don't know if they're gonna remove them and get christian horner. Well, christian horner is linked withner is linked with several teams. Now I think they're talking about Alpine as an option. They're talking about Ferrari as an option if Vasseur gets fired. I don't know, but I don't know about Alpine because they're going to be working with Mercedes. So can Christian and Toto Wolff coexist? I don't know Ferrari. We need to see. Look, I think it's a mistake if Ferrari let Vasseur go. Honestly, at this point it's stupid. So maybe Cadillac is a decent option for Christian Horner, okay let's wrap things up.
Speaker 1:then, jad, I'm going to ask you for your top three prediction. The Belgian Grand Prix Top three predictions wow.
Speaker 2:So, like I said, because I want the championship to be more interesting, so I'm going to go Piastri for the win, lewis second and Norris in third.
Speaker 1:That's a good prediction, I was going to do something similar. I'm going to go Norris first. You know it's so tempting to say Lewis second. I'm going to go Norris, this is boring. Second Hamilton third. I just have a feeling the Ferrari upgrade is going to shine this weekend. I think Hamilton's finally going to break the demons that he's been struggling with so far this season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's going to be a nice story if he does that. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Certainly is. Hey, listen. Thanks for listening to another episode of Two Soft Compounds with me, rick, and Jad Malik, the editor of GP247.com. And, by the way, way, if you want to get your latest formula one, fix head over to the website gp247.com for the latest news and gossip and enjoy the belgian grand prix. We'll be here shortly after that to review everything that happened and let's hope we've got plenty to talk about. Thanks very much. 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, and if you haven't done so already, please do click that follow or subscribe button. See you next time.