Hungarian GP: Aston Martins Big Fix, Norris' Podium & Ferrari Shenanigans

Aston Martin's 16-part reset shaved two seconds off their pace, giving Rick and Damien plenty else to dig into from a chaotic Hungary weekend.

This week on 2 Soft Compounds, hosts Rick Houghton and Damien Reid cover all the action from the Hungarian Grand Prix, including George Russell's mystifying anti-stall off the grid, McLaren's team-order tension between Norris and Piastri, Ferrari's self-inflicted strategy mess, Carlos Sainz's nine ignored blue flags, and a quietly brilliant, more humble Max Verstappen carving his way past Hamilton.

Plus there's Cadillac's endless brake dramas, an Audi–Racing Bulls midfield scrap worth watching, and news that Bahrain's Grand Prix will relocate to Malaysia amid Middle East disruption to the F1 calendar.

Production Credits:

Presented by: Rick Houghton & Damien Reid
Studio Engineer & Editor: Ben Dover
Executive Producer: Ian Carless 
Produced by: Poddworx Dubai

Transcript

Cold Open And Welcome

Damien Reid 0:02

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.

Rick Houghton 0:14

Hey, welcome to another episode of Two Soft Compounds, the Formula One podcast with me, Rick and Him, Damien. Damien's in Australia. I'm in the UK, so putting this together was a logistical nightmare. But anyway, here we are. Damo, enjoy the hungry Grand Prix. Well, how do you put that?

Damien Reid 0:30

Well, okay. I like the fact that, as we said before after Spa, that this these new rules make uh good circuits look bad and bad circuits look good. And that kind of proved itself. So it was good racing. But uh I'm a bit concerned about these McLaren tactics are starting to creep through again, to be honest with you. So that was a little disconcerting. But anyway, it was good to see a different winner up there for a change.

Rick Houghton 0:53

Okay, we'll talk about McLaren in just a bit.

Aston Martin’s Massive Upgrade Package

Rick Houghton 0:55

I think the big talking point from the Hungaro ring was the upgrades for Aston Martin. Now I'm I'm assuming that if you're listening to this podcast, you're listening because you're a Formula One fan, and therefore I'm assuming that you saw the race. Um maybe you didn't, but most people I think will have watched the race. We don't need to go through it sort of word for word. But Aston Martin brought their big upgrade package, 16 individual upgrades, which is basically an entire new car apart from the power unit. That upgrade comes after the summer break. Uh but they did shave two seconds off their lap time. I mean they were four and a half seconds off the pace, but now just two seconds. So that puts them in the mix with the likes of Cadillac, and they proved that this weekend in Hungary. Um Alonso thought that the upgrades were making um steady progress. What was your view on all that?

Damien Reid 1:41

I thought it was great. The fact that um both cars managed to finish the race, I think that's the first time. You know, that that that's encouraging. But if if that's considered a success, that's still concerning, isn't it? I mean, as you say, they changed literally everything on the car except I think the uh the the transmission. There was beam wings, rear wings, brake ducts, cooling looters, floors, suspension, diffusers, front wings, fences, uh side pods, engine covers, the nose had to go through a new scratch uh crash testing. Everything was changed on that car. Interesting because you go through a crash test, that indicates it's a new tub, it's a new chassis with a new nose. And yet Adrian Newey said that it wasn't actually a new chassis. So there's a bit of there's there's some conflicting reports as to whether it is a new chassis or not, but it is a wholesale change to that car, and the power unit change will come after the summer break um in Zanvoort. So, you know, still holding out. Um and and and as we indicated last time, it's not the complete one-off one and done that they kind of indicated because Adrian News said on a weekend that um that there are still some more refinements to come after Zanvoort. So, but certainly it's a massive improvement to at least get them into uh Q2 and both cars finished. Yeah, so you know, Fernando Alonso gets out of Q3 into Q2. I haven't a real clue of how Stroll beat him in the race because it was, well, let's face it, Stroll. Uh but anyway, yeah, those upgrades, uh upgrades are encouraging for the Aston Martin team.

Cadillac’s Brake Failures And Recruitment

Damien Reid 3:14

Uh, we can also talk about the poor Cadillac team. When the hell are they gonna sort their brakes issue out? Every time they go on circuit, they burn through a brake disc.

Rick Houghton 3:22

Yeah, it's a crazy one, isn't it? I mean, I guess it is in some way, but um, but we've got to keep reminding ourselves that it's their first season in in Formula One and they're still working their way through it. I know you can say, okay, well then fair enough, it's also Audi's first season and they're doing great. But I think you know, it's a it's a slightly different case for Audi. They're they're you know, they've they've they've dealt with hybrid technology before. And from what I'm hearing too is that there's a massive recruitment drive on at Cadillac as well, because at the moment they're based in the UK and they want to relocate everything back to the United States. And they've they put the word out to the to the staff saying, you want to move to the US? Great. If not, well then thanks thanks for coming. So there's there's a lot of things going on internally at Cadillac to try and get this one sorted. But but yeah, I mean it it goes back to the fact that last year they they spent a massive amount of money on simulations and sim runs. They literally went through every single Grand Prix and ran it as if it was an actual race they're competing, and they did it all on the sim with the whole network back at the factory in the UK and America. But it proves that nothing beats the real world, and and they clearly got some cooling issues with the brakes. It's their Achilles' heel, isn't it? It's as it's the brakes that it is always seems to be the thing that brings that cut down. It's it's rarely the power unit or or anything else. So I think maybe, you know, if you want to look at it positively, it is that if they get their head around around this brake cooling issue, then they might be um they might be looking half okay. Yeah, I mean you'd say a good sturdy first half of the season for them if it wasn't for these braking failures, which I can't believe they haven't been able to nail in on and you know, focus in on and sort out 11 races in. It just seems bizarre. Anyway, a bit of controversy at the Hungaro ring. Um

Russell’s Anti Stall Start Mystery

Rick Houghton 5:03

you mentioned McLaren, I'm gonna come to that in a minute. First of all, I want to talk about George Russell. Um, George Russell went into anti-stall when he left the grids as the lights went out. He and Toto Wolf have said it's the continuing gremlins with his car. But again, we mentioned this after Spa when he had gremlins in Spa and ultimately crashed on the first lap. What's going wrong there? Why is his side of the garage just not focused like Antonelli's is?

Damien Reid 5:29

You know what? I think it's actually to do with maybe with the with the driver, I hate to say it, but um because I just picked up on something really interesting. Kimmy Antonelli said in the cooldown room afterwards, and when they're watching the replay of the start, and uh and it showed George uh you know going into Andy Store, and uh and he said, Ah, he's watching it and he and he's pointed to it with the other two guys and he goes, Ah, I know what happened. He goes, he's reached the top of his battery pack coming around on the on the warm-up lap and uh and lost his boost. So it it might be something that George is trying to get his head around, the and you can't blame him because these rules are so incredibly complex of how to condition the car to get the optimum start away off the line. There's so many procedures that these guys have to go through now um on that outlap when they come around to grid up. Not not only that, but they're getting a mountain of information over the radio as well. It just might be a case of information overload, you know, and trying to get your head around the whole lot as you come around to form up. And he he zigged when he should have zag off the you know, when he got everything in order, and when the lights went green, he simply had no power. He was he was my understanding anyway, was he was on the um the ice unit only, therefore he's only what 400 horsepower. So that's that's my my takeaway from from what Kimmy was saying after the race.

Rick Houghton 6:47

Yeah, I heard uh Russell talking and he said that he only had 10% throttle input, but it was revving at the max. That's what he said afterwards. He said he was having to feather the throttle but couldn't work out why the revs were at maximum when he was only having uh very small throttle input. Um so whether his small throttle input meant that he bogged down at the start or whether the high revs caused him to go into anti-stall is uh is a bit of a mystery. Uh but they've still got to get the head round this problem.

Damien Reid 7:14

Yeah, so that kind of sounds to me like maybe he had no battery and the uh the the uh you know the the computer having on the car was going, okay, we need to top the battery up ASAP, so a lot of revs, small, small amount of throttle, a lot of revs, in order to charge the the battery up as quickly as possible, which meant the the computer was diverting the power to the battery and not to the rear wheels.

Rick Houghton 7:34

Okay,

McLaren Tactics And Team Orders Debate

Rick Houghton 7:35

we thought this was going to be a battle in Hungary between Ferrari and Mercedes. Mercedes fell a little bit short, and Ferrari, well, they did a Ferrari thing in the race, and we'll come to that in just a bit. But uh, of course, it was dominated the weekend by McLaren Lando Norris took poll by 0.012 seconds, um, and then of course uh kind of got it wrong into turn two, which let his teammate pass him because he went a bit wide. And then Piastri was kind of controlling things, but Norris was still within that magic one second for the majority of the race. Then we had the pit stops, and obviously Oscar Piastri was caught out by a wayward Carlos Sainz, which we'll talk about a little bit later on as well. And then, of course, had his gearbox failure, which meant that he didn't finish the race. Uh, but you say, I mean, McLaren brought some upgrades to Hungary, but you say they're down to their old tricks again. What do you mean by that?

Damien Reid 8:23

Well, I mean it's good to see them bring their upgrades, which is great. And I think we did say last week I predicted that that this could be could be Landau's weekend, it just all was coming together. But then when I saw the way the cars were grided up, and it's such a long run down into turn one, I thought Piasry's got a chance here. The guy in P3 usually has a better run into turn one at Hungary because you're on the clean side of the track, it's a very long run down into turn one, and you can get into the slit, which is pretty much what happened, and then and then got into it. And then it was it was a good tow that he got, and he made it made the pass stick in turn three, and then you know, he built up a two-second gap and it fluctuated between six tenths and two seconds for for a solid 34 laps. And I just would like to see one day when it comes to Norris overtaking Piastri to actually do it on track and not do it on the radio because you know it was only what four laps into it or five laps into it, where he's saying, I'm faster than him, I'm in his dirty air. And it's like the race hadn't even hadn't even settled down yet. So, you know, there was only one pass by a McLaren on a McLaren on the track, and that was Piastri on on uh Lando, and he was managing and and you know, he was holding that. I was talking to people afterwards, you know, there's Mark Weber, he's his manager, and a few other people, and they were saying that what he was doing with that six-tenths to one second gap was he was managing his tires, he was maintaining that gap to to just keep him in you know on that one-second window, so he was he was controlling the race, and so therefore, when that was happening, then you heard on the radio Oscar was um Lando was saying, Pit me first, you know, pit me first, and they said, Well, you can't do that. And I think what that did is then that that forced the other side to say, Oscar, you got a box now because if you don't, Lando will, and that threw him into the traffic, and there we go. That then that brought on the whole, you know, he was right in the middle of that fight for last place with Alonzo and Sainz, and then it unraveled, and it all came to naught anyway because of the gearbox thing. But it's just like you know, I was a bit disappointed to see the fact that where you got the guy in P2 on the radio saying let after what lap four to say get him to move over when he's maintaining a two-second gap on him. And don't forget, Piastri held the fastest lap right up to lap 34. So if he was faster, why didn't he just close up behind him as if and pretend he's a Ferrari or a or or a Mercedes and actually overtake him? I just don't understand why we're talking about team orders with with you know at this stage when they're not fighting for a c hampionship.

Ferrari Strategy Calls And Hamilton Penalties

Rick Houghton 10:46

  Yes, I read a uh quote on a website today uh about Ferrari. It said the scooter rear did its very best to throw away a good result in Hungary and achieved that goal admirably, uh-huh, which I love. I think that's a great quote. Um so you know, Hamilton again came a crupper of penalties, which we'll talk about in just a little bit. Uh, but you know, trap position's important at Hungary, and I don't understand why they brought him in for soft tyres towards the end of the race. He said himself afterwards, he said my tires were absolutely fine. He said there was no need to pit me. Um so I think they got that wrong because he could have actually got a third place, he could have been on the podium if they'd have kept him out. Um, and the silly penalties, of course, blocking Piastri and qualifying that was a three-place grid drop that was really unnecessary. And of course, it was going to be tight when he came out of the pits um during the race, and that meant that he let go of the pit lane speed limiter a fraction of a second before the line. Do you know what he was speeding by? It was the tiniest of margins, wasn't it? It was 0.01 kilometres an hour. That's how much he was speeding by. You know, if you if you speed in the UK, they give you a 10% leeway either side, which I always remember when I'm doing 77 miles an hour on the M6. Um but yeah, so he got caught out with that. I think it's five races so far this season, he's had penalties. So it hasn't been the luckiest of seasons for him, even though undeniably Hamilton has improved and his his race pace is much, much better than it was. In fact, he's the only driver to complete every single lap of every race so far this season, and he's the only driver to score points at every race this season.

Damien Reid 12:26

That's remarkable. That's actually a remarkable stat. But yeah, I mean, you know, I don't understand how starting the two guys on soft tires to start with and then not capitalise on that. You know, that they I thought they would have disappeared into the distance, made made a couple of brave moves early on, hence why you put the soft tires on them and and trust that you've got two amazing drivers who can capitalise on on that and then get away. But you know, they they blew that opportunity off the start, and then to to sort of finish fourth and fifth was just a wasted opportunity. But yeah, the penalties, I mean, I'm you know, you've got to feel a little bit sorry for Lewis Hamilton. Now he's getting hammered by the by the stewards for for race after race now, and yet his teammate seems to be getting the green light for uh for getting away with penalties. I mean, we saw what happened in the spa, and as we said, as we said last week, they the the drivers did have a chat on Thursday afternoon uh about that incident in spa. Then the the the they came the officials came out and said, Well, actually, no, we got that wrong. Um, we should have given Charles Leclerc the the penalty for for moving on uh on Piastri up into the Kemel Strait. And then he got called to the Stewards again after this race, Leclerc, for for ignoring yellows, and got away with it. So uh you've got to feel it a little bit for Lewis going, what am I doing wrong? And you know, my teammates just is is just dodging bullets left, right, and centre, and I'm and I'm copying them. It's uh yeah, frustration there in the Ferrari side. But the yeah, as you say, the Ferrari strategy is is coming back into play again, that's for sure.

Rick Houghton 13:54

Um so am I right in saying Damo? They still have different stewards at different races, don't they? Don't have the same set of stewards for the whole season, do they?

Damien Reid 14:00

Yeah, so they've got the same uh basic stewards, but then they've got a driving standards observer who's different for each one. And I think they're finished with the rotating clucker course that they had before, Eduardo Ferretos is uh after the whole Michael Massey incident. I think they've now settled down and they've settled into one person because you can't be a dictatorship by committee, and uh that's what the race control needs in in any sport. So yeah, so they've kind of finished that. But the driving standards of Zerber is uh I can't remember who it was for this situation for for this Grand Prix, but that does change for each Grand Prix. Well, you know,

Stewards, Blue Flags, And Sainz Contact

Damien Reid 14:33

the the the the stewarding this the first half of this season's been really inconsistent. You know, they've they've taken harsh penalties on the likes of Hamilton. They, like you say, didn't issue a penalty for the clerk who was moving on the braking at a very high speed part of the track, which could have been incredibly dangerous. Um it's just as though there's there's no consistency there. And talking of the stewards and talking of race control, uh, we had the uh the other big controversial talking point was backmarkers not moving out of the way. Mostly uh realised by Carlos Sainz hitting Oscar Piastri um as he was released into traffic, like you say, from his pit stop, and was basically squabbling with the guys who were racing basically for last place in the Grand Prix. Now there was a couple of instances where they said the light panels weren't working and the blue flag information wasn't getting getting to the Marshall Post in the correct way because of a computer glitch. I mean, at one stage I know the driver tracker went down for about half an hour during the race. So that's you know, GPS and things like that. So they did have some technical gremlins. But also on the other hand, I think when you've got these guys towards the back order, especially at Hungary, you don't really want to go offline too much because it messes your tires up. And if you're fighting with a car that you're trying to overtake just a second ahead of you, you're sort of reluctant. But really, uh there were lots of blue flags that were ignored, whether that was because of technical gremlins or because of driver stubbornness, it was wasn't good for the sport. No, I mean I thought Carlos Sainz had a lot more in him than that in terms of professionalism because you know he was fighting with Fernando Alonso for for you know for the last place effectively. He did get a five-second penalty at the end of it, but then you know, when you see it as you were just talking about, how some other penalties are handed out, you think, man, you know, because apparently I'm ho I heard that he did the same on Friday and Saturday, and there's a bit of footage that I checked back on and had a look at, and Carlos Sainz ignored nine blue flags on the digiboards, so the flags weren't out, but the digi boards were up. You can see it on the TV monitor. Plus, he also got a radio message where that the uh there is engineer mentioned Piastri by name saying Oscar is behind you. So I don't know how much clearer you need to be to have Oscar is behind you, and normally you you if you you've got two blue flags before you get a penalty, uh the third one you get a penalty. Nine blue flags is inexcusable in the in anyone's language, let alone a guy who's been around for such a long time and a Grand Prix winner and and uh and definitely knows the rules. And then what I found even more unexplainable was the fact that he refused to apologize and claimed, quote, it was racing, and he said he didn't think that he saw Oscar when he when he got all that information. And then there's this other little thing called a mirror that's on either side of your car. So yeah, I know they're dealing with a lot with buttons and and audio and everything else, and but that's what they're paid for. And uh and and you just go back to looking, you know, look in the mirrors. You said an orange car behind you, well, you know it's quicker because you're last, so ideally there should be nothing behind you. Anything's behind you, it's passing you. So uh I just found it amazing that he only got a five-second penalty for actually, you know, hitting the guy that was chasing down the race lead.

Marshals, Light Panels, And Flag Control

Rick Houghton 17:51

And another thing I've noticed this season as well, when it comes to Marshalls, I mean Formula One at most tracks have some of the best, most knowledgeable Marshalls in the worlds of motorsport. Uh, one thing I've noticed a lot though this season is that they're they seem to be content with letting the light panels do the work and the marshals putting the flag out later. Now, normally, if you've gone back to last year, those light panels start flashing and the marshall's flag is out. This year, I've noticed, especially in in the Dutch Grand Prix, uh no, sorry, um, in the Rebel Ring, I noticed that when Max Verstappen crashed and they were talking about Russell not backing off for his pole position lap, the light boards were flashing for a whole lap before the marshal stuck his yellow flag up.

Damien Reid 18:35

Yeah. Yeah, there's a few things going on there. So there's it's a you basically got two two sets of decision making going on on flag points. You've got the actual flaggies holding the flags, and then you've got race control with the with the coloured buttons that they can press. And there's a there's there's some things where the flaggies have uh have priority over race control, so a yellow flag, a double yellow flag, uh the white flag, which indicates a slow car, um, all these things are are down to the sector, the guy on the ground with the with the thing. So he can instantly see if a car put goes off in the gravel, he waves the yellow and then race control follows on. But then when there's other things, other things such as a red flag and I think also blue flags and and issues to stop the race, that comes from race control first, and they push the button and then the the marshal follows on that because obviously it's not really up to a sector marshal on on you know turn seven to throw out the red flag when the guy on turn eight is still waving his yellow, going, no, that can get through. So it's it's it's a little bit confusing. It's sort of split it up as to who who's in control at various times.

Rick Houghton 19:40

I get that for the red flag, definitely. But I used to I was clerk of the course for uh for years for the Dubai 24-hour cart races, and I used to do all the marshall trading. And you put your trust in the marshals. If they see a car go off or hit the wall a little bit down the road from their post, then they get the flag out because they can see what's happened and they realise with their skill and experience that that is a hazard that needs dealing with there and then. So it just it it kind of worries me a little bit that that doesn't seem to be happening anymore. They're waiting for an instruction from race control, which takes the human aspects of those decent marshals kind of out of the race. And we've seen how often it's caused confusion. George Russell, for instance, prime example.

Damien Reid 20:18

Absolutely, absolutely.

Rick Houghton 20:20

And at that speed as well, uh, when they slowed the footage down at the uh at the Red Bull ring, those light boards, because they're LED, appear to flash between green and yellow sometim es in the right light conditions. So that whole thing it needs a manual flag, I think. Um anyway,

Audi Progress And Midfield Scrap

Rick Houghton 20:39

Let's move on. Let's talk about Audi and racing bulls because it's turning into a very intriguing fight in the midfield with these two teams. I'm in awe of Audi and just how well they're doing. Nicole Hulkenberg finished in ninth, ahead of him was Liam Lawson. And they're having a good old scrap. Lindblad finished in tenth, and they had a good old scrap for the entire race, and I was made up to see uh Hulkenberg get into the points.

Damien Reid 21:02

I loved it. I thought it was fantastic. It was first points of the year for the Hulk, and we're seeing steady progress race after race with the Audi squad in general, but I'm also equally loving the the the interteam battle of V carb, Lindblad, and Lawson. I mean, these guys are just going at it, you know, banging wheels and and carving each other up like like it is. It's like one of your cart races.

Rick Houghton 21:24

Yeah, exactly.

Damien Reid 21:25

You know, it's it's just sensational. These guys are going at it. So I think there's a yeah, as usual, there's amazing battles going on in the midfield. And those V-Carbs are are pretty much line ball in terms of power development and everything else with the Red Bulls. So they've got a good kid under them, and you've got a r a young rookie in in Lindblad who uh, as Barry Asheen used to say, is so young he doesn't know how much it hurts yet, and they just go for it. And then you've got Liam Lawson who's going, Wow, I've got this young guy, he's he he's showing me up because, you know, I might want I I need to keep my seat for next year. So I I I think that the the the the the rivalry's going on, V carbers great, Bordoletto is is also a a proper talent too. I mean he's he he is someone to keep an eye on for future years. And uh and he's being he's being tutored beautifully by, you know, the the veteran Hulk who can still bang points in when he needs to before the summer break. I'm sure he's having a fantastic summer break knowing he's

Verstappen’s Drive And Red Bull Choices

Damien Reid 22:20

got his first points.

Rick Houghton 22:20

Yeah definitely before we leave you we're gonna give a quick mention to the Red Bulls. We haven't spoken about them yet. Max Verstappen finished second of course he said it was the hardest drives of his season so far. He said he was managing the balance uh corner to corner so getting to the podium was an incredible result. Teammate Hadjar who's been impressive so far this season finished in sixth place. I thought Max did really well and he seems to be he seems to have calmed down and become a little bit more humble now. He's not moaning as much as he was he's just sort of going well yeah the car's not what I what I really want but I'll just get on with it.

Damien Reid 22:52

Yeah I thought it was a really really good race from from Max because he's deal he knows he's dealing with uh with a with a with a rough car at some circuits and that was one his dive onto Lewis Hamilton at turn one after Hamilton left Pit Lane was unbelievable. He came from from somewhere behind and you know just sent it down the inside used all of the road then to squeeze Hamilton out uh and take that position was absolute perfection. That's Lando Norris needs to look at that and learn how to overtake that was absolute perfection. But you know Max he changed to a one-stop strategy because they and this is the great thing you know this is the thing that that that a team like Red Bull has on their side and in such a great driver and Ferrari should be doing this with Lewis and uh as well is that they know they've got a good driver who can manage an ill-handling car. So they change Max to that one stop strategy put him on softs towards the end knowing that he could drive he could drive those tires down to the canvas and as you say the the car was was was rubbish on medium and hard so they said why not let's let's let's leave it on softs. I love the attitude of this like okay you've given me this let's just do what we can with it and and not get on the radio and whinge I know he whinges the GP but but not sort of you know just just get on with it and race with what you got and yeah you're right you see we're seeing it slightly different Max this year the uh the underdog Verstappen is coming back

Calendar Risks, Sepang Return, Freight Logistics

Damien Reid 24:13

which I like.

Rick Houghton 24:13

Okay uh we're gonna wrap things up here you broke the news about Qatar and Abu Dhabi possibly becoming casualties of the uh ongoing situation in the Middle East interesting they've cancelled some other motorsports series in those locations and Sepang is back for a one-off replacing the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Damien Reid 24:32

yeah good news good news that I like Sepang it's a good track but yeah I mean Bahrain is going to pay $50 million to race in Malaysia. It's going to be the Bahrain Grand Prix in in Malaysia so that'll be there. It's after Baku before Singapore. However there's still some issues to be sorted out because the the the problem is is getting the kit getting the Seafreat kit over to there is it's not on their their roster to uh to get down there. So if they fly it instead of Seafray it's going to cost about an extra million dollars per team Pirelli also needs to send 1800 tyres now by air when they when it usually goes by sea. So the Singapore kit the Seafreat normally comes from Bahrain but getting it out of the strait is going to be a problem the Strata Hormars is a problem. So the only option I can see is they can use the Australia kit which went to Japan and that's now back in the UK so they've got to get that down there and I think it's going to be by air so a lot of things to go on with with with that one but good to see but yeah as you say with the with the WEC cancelling the last rounds in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi just very very recently this week that'll be replaced by Barcelona and Monza. I would love to see it wrap up in in Abu Dhabi as per normal but um it's I'm waiting for the announcement unfortunately to see that it might be moved back to Europe. Now one of the other things too Rick be quickly I just got to mention that there an issue now because the UK is not part of the EU is that you've got to be careful the UK because the majority of people who work in Formula are are in the UK and they now need a Schengen visa which means you can only be out of the country for more than 180 days a year that's another issue that's that's putting pressure on the teams as well as to as to how they're going to complete this championship

Summer Break Sign Off And Where To Join

Damien Reid 26:12

this calendar.

Rick Houghton 26:12

Wow okay lots to think about over the summer break then Damo thanks so much for joining us

Damien Reid 26:16

cheers mate always a pleasure

Rick Houghton 26:18

we'll enjoy the summer break uh relax enjoy tell your friends tell your family that two soft compounds is your source of Formula One and we will be back in about four weeks' time where we'll be talking about the Dutch Grand Prix and probably more drama. Take care of yourself have a great summer TwoStoff Compounds was presented by myself Rick Gorton alongside Damien Reed the executive producer was Ian Carlos Don't forget if you want to join in the conversation leave a comment on our Instagram page at TwoStoff Compounds and if you haven't done so already please do click that follow or subscribe button. See you next time