Sunday Musings, Australian GP

It was late night last night staying up to watch what turned out to be a fantastic Australian GP Formula One race.  But, more on that later.  No new coffee for me this week and Liverpool is off this weekend (sadly after a horrible loss to Manchester United last week in the FA Cup tournament) so we'll jump straight to some recommendations before I give my thoughts on the race.

Two recommendations this week. First up is another TV show. I'll fight anyone that says this is a kids show, but on Disney+ this week they released the animated X-Men '97 that takes off right after the excellent 90's cartoon ended.  This past week they released the first two episodes and they are outstanding.  Slightly updated the animation, but the stories are tremendous, timely, and absolutely in-line with historical X-men comics.  Through two episodes I couldn't be happier with what Disney has done with this release and hope that the series continues it impressive start with more amazing episodes.

My second recommendation is a podcast.  Not just any podcast but one from Top Gear/Grand Tour star Richard Hamilton.  Surprisingly though this podcast has absolutely nothing to do with cars.  Instead it is him, his daughter and a guest discussing men's mental health called Who We are Now.  I can't tell you how good this series is, and how imprortant it is to get blokes (as Hammond says) to talk about their mental health and not just go all blokey about it.  They are a few episodes into it, but I would encourage anyone to go back and listen to them all as they are excellent.

Australia GP ReCap and thoughts

As I stated before it was a late night watching the Australian GP with lights not occurring until about 11pm Central time, but it was definitely worth it. First a recap of what happened during qualifying.  There were only 19 cars on the starting grid because Williams was down a car due to Albon crashing out during a practice session. Williams made the tough decision to sit American driver Sargent and put Albon in his car instead hoping he could get the British team a point.

McLaren had the best starting positions of the season with McLaren with Norris P3 and Pastry P5 thanks to a 3 grid penalty for Perez.  Shocking no one Verstappen continued his streak of sitting on Pole position.  I think the biggest question at the start of the race was how the warm track temperatures would affect the tires and if there would be any crashing at the start of the race, something the Aussie GP is notorious for.  However once we hit lights out there were no shenanigans and Verstappen got a way with a clean start, or so we thought.  

Very quickly Sainz, two weeks after an appendectomy, passed the leading Red Bull and went into first place.  Verstappen initially complained of his back end being loose, but his car started smoking at the back thanks to what turned out to be a stuck brake, and shockingly the dutchman had to retire ending a 43 race streak of finishing.  So only a few laps in, we knew we would have a different winner for this race, but who would it be?  Could Ferrari hang on and would Sainz be able to complete an incredible comeback after his surgery?

By lap 10 McLaren was already pitting, with Piastri coming in and switching from Medium tires to Hard hoping to undercut LeClerc, and then Norris pitting shortly afterwards in lap 14 again going from Medium to Hard and coming out behind his teammate. Just when everyone though we were getting into a fairly standard race, more surprises came with Hamilton’s Mercedes experiencing engine failure and retiring at lap 17.  He pulled over to the side of the track which caused a virtual safety card, slowing the race down and allowing Alonso to pit his Aston Martin who was leading at the team and desperately needed to change his tires.  Due to the cars having to slow down he was able to get in and out without losing to many positions.

By lap 29 McLaren made the call to swap the drivers position moving Norris up to P3 and Piastri fell to P4.  The move was smart as Norris had the pace, but the Aussie crowd was surely disappointed that their hometown driver was asked to move back.

The next few laps had the Ferraris and McLarens pitting which shuffled the line up some but near the end of the race you had Ferrari in P1 and P2 and Norris and Piastri breathing down LeClerc’s neck in P3 and P4 respectively.  They wouldn’t have caught him, but it became a moot point because during the last lap Mercedes driver Russell crashed into the wall causing the race to end under a yellow.  So Ferrari finished in the top two slots with a well deserved and quite frankly unbelievable win by Carlos Sainz.  I am not a Ferrari fan (team papaya all the way!), but I have to admit that was fun to see him win with everything going on. His race continues to push my point that Ferrari will end up regretting dropping him and replacing him with Hamilton.  Hamilton was great, one of the best, but he is not the same driver, and Ferrari will be worse team next year.

Some other thoughts from the race: 

Mercedes continues to struggle.  I have to think at some point some significant changes are going to have to occur at the team.  They are already losing Hamilton, and they are wasting some of the best years of Russells career as they struggle trying to find the right design of their car.  When will enough be enough and they have to admit they need to make some changes to their engineering team.

Best race McLaren has looked honestly.  Even though they didn’t get P1 they had a very fast car.  Is this a sign of things to come?  I am hopeful that even when Verstappen finishes, that team papaya can keep up and continue to finish in the top 5.  If they do that they will have a season where they compete for 2nd place in Constructors and that would be HUGE.

Perez just didn’t have the pace and couldn’t help RB after Verstappen dropped out.  Does that continue to paint a picture that Perez could be out at the end of the season>

Haas continues to run well surprisingly with another race getting some points.

After three races the top four positions in the drivers championship table are Red Bull and Ferrari drivers, followed by the two McLaren drivers.

Verstappen	51
LeClerc	47
Perez	46
Sainz	40
Piastri	28
Norris	27
Russell	18
Alonso	16
Stroll	9
Hamilton	8

The Constructors Championship is looking pretty nice for McLaren as well, especially as I am hopeful they will continue to show improvements throughout this season.  

Red Bull	97
Ferrari	93
McLaren	26
Mercedes	26
Aston Martin	25
RB	6
Haas	4

Watch! A Negroni

 

Anyone that knows me knows that my favorite cocktail has always been, and will always be a Negroni.  Ahhhh just saying the word Negroni makes me smile.  This isn't a complicated cocktail that needs a ton of ingredients and special equipment to make.  It's simple, and often times I make it directly in the drinking glass.  A simple mix of 3 ingredients and a twist to orange is all it takes to make this beautiful and wonderful drink.  Gin, Campari, Sweet Vermouth, an ounce of each, mix, and you to can enjoy this lovely sweet, bitter, boozy drink.  

Typically, when I make a Negroni, I keep my ingredients as simple as the drink itself and use a nice dry London Gin like Beefeaters, however from time to time I like to mix it up and try an unusual gin which is what I did here.  I grabbed James Gin, made by petrolhead James May of Top Gear and Grand Tour fame, specifically his London Drizzle expression (although they are all wonderful, pro tip, try the American Ramstud in a dirty martini, pure bliss).  The London Drizzle is an incredibly unique gin made with beetroot, lovage, bay, orange, and ginger.  This is a much earthier gin that a traditional one is, but it comes together with the Campari for a unique take on a Negroni.

As an unabashed lover of all things Campari and Negroni you can imagine my joy at finding a watched that expressed it better than I could.  A couple of years ago Japanese watchmaker released a series of watches under their Presage Line called 'Cocktail' watches.  Each watch had a different colored dial that represented a cocktail, they had a champagne cocktail, and a green mojito dial, and of course a red Negroni inspired dial, which I of course picked up recently from online shop Teddy Baldassare.  It's a gorgeous watch, with a steel case housing the gorgeous dial on a calfskin strap.  It shimmers in the light and has a texture to it that keeps you staring at it to see the different shades of red.  A perfect watch to wear out on a date, or for a cocktail hour.  It also doesn't break the bank as it comes in well under $500.  Its a good size, not to big, nor too small at around 39MM in diameter.  While the crystal isn't sapphire it is Seiko's proprietary Hardlex which feels nice and strong.  Also has an open case back, although the movement isn't anything special to look at.  If you love to switch straps, you can do so easily as the lug to lug on this is 20mm which allows for any number of straps to be used. More stats below along with a more indepth video review of the watch if you are so inclined.

Movement	4R35 Automatic
Case Diameter	38.5 mm
Lug to Lug	45 mm
Lug Width	20mm
Thickness	12.22 mm
Crystal	Hardlex
Water Resistance	50M
Strap	Calfskin with quick release

Sunday Musings Coffee and Donuts edition

Happy St. Patricks day, hope you're wearing some green today, just not drinking any green beer.  Leave that to the amateurs.  Started my day off by taking the kid for donuts at an amazing local shop called Blackline Donuts.  Really great shop with great donuts, kolaches (really klobasnik but it's Texas ya'll) and Scones.  Instead of grabbing coffee at this shop, I made my own at home using beans from local Houston roaster Tenfold.   I really enjoy this roaster. Their shop is amazing, great food and coffee options.  They also have a space set aside for having educational classes which I think is really cool and wish more places would do it.  As for this particular set of beans, I made my usual pour over.  This is their everyday blend (literally and figuratively), medium roasted silky smooth, low acidity, sweet fruits.  Delicious and great paired with the pick up from Blackline.  Good way to start the morning, powered by sugar and caffeine!  Onto my more typical Sunday musings, Liverpool and F1.

Formula 1

It's an off week with no racing as they take a week away to relocate from the Middle East to Australia for next Sunday's Grand Prix.  However that doesn't mean there isn't news.  The paddock may be a bigger source of excitement this season than the track as it look like another run away title from Red Bull and Verstappen.  But that doesn't mean there isn't any drama.  Red Bull, the predictable champions are the source of the greatest amount of drama.  The Christian Horner saga shows no sign of letting up.  For the uninitiated, team principal Horner was accused of misconduct right before the season started.  In about an opaque of an investigation as you can have Red Bull hired an independent investigator who cleared Horner of all charges.  However that hasn't stopped F1 pundits of all shapes and sizes from predicting gloom and doom for the Racing Bulls, insisting that Horner will soon be removed, or Verstappen will leave the Austrian race unit.  Personally, I just don't see this happening.  Horner is the longest running principal in F1, and is one of the most successful.  He has been there since the beginning of Red Bull and has brought them multiple constructor Cups and individual championships with Vettel and Verstappen.  If he is truly cleared why would they replace him?  Who would be able to come in and do what he has done?  Verstappen has been with RB and under Christian since the beginning of his career.  He has thrived under Horner, and that car.  There is no other place that he can go that give him a car like this.  It just doesn't make sense to me.  But it is F1 and strange things happen when ego's get involved (plus his father doesn't seem to be able to get out of his own way being the source of a lot of drama). I think the other thing driving a lot of drama is the amount of drivers that become free agents at the end of the season. 12 out of the 20 drivers have their contracts end in 2024.  That is crazy and I can't remember a season where that has happened.  So there could be a total remake of the grid for 2025.  We already know Sainz is out and Hamilton is in at Ferrari.  Perez's contract is over at RB next season and I can see him not being there in 2025.  I think all of those contracts ending is causing a lot of drama, as well as a ton of speculation from the pundits who are driving clicks to their sites.  I think there may be more drama on the track than others.  While P1 may be locked up, I think P2-5 is going to be great to watch both on the driver side and constructors side.  Should be a fun season if you can get over the predictability of the winner.

Liverpool

No Premiere league matches this week, but that doesn't mean Liverpool was resting.  They had a mid week Europa League match against Czech club Sparta Praha in their second leg to move on in the second tier European league.  As they did in the first leg, Liverpool absolutely dominated beating them 5-1.  And honestly it wasn't even that close.  In just a few minutes Liverpool kicks off an FA Cup match against their hated rivals the obnoxious Manchester United.  ManU continues to be in disarray so I have confidence that Liverpool pulls out an away win and continues on to the semifinals of the premiere British tournament.  That keeps them on the path to potentially capture 3 more titles in addition to the already captured Carabou Cup.  The are still on track for the EPL title, Europa League Title, and FA Cup championship.  What a season this could be to celebrate all that Klopp has done for the Reds.

Wednesday Whiskey and Cigar

 It always feels good to take a step back, slow down and relax with a nice smoke and a scotch.  Especially with all the things going on these days, getting a little bit of time to oneself is a critical part of taking care of your mental health.  It was with that in mind that I sat down to enjoy these two lovelies.  

The Cigar

This is a box pressed Rocky Patel Decades cigar, it has a Sumatran wrapper with a secret mix of fillers within. This is a mighty robust cigar.  One that definitely tells you are smoking a CIGAR!  It's spicy with notes of black pepper, tar, leather, and nutty.  It's oily and intense.  It coats the mouth with its intensity.  This was a gift from a friend, so I was eager to smoke it.  It's also a well regarded cigar if you pay attention to ratings (which with cigars, I typically do not).  For me though this was on the too intense side of things.  I tend to enjoy milder cigars that don't saturate your taste buds, and this definitely did that.  It is a good cigar to sit and smoke for a while, as it lasted quite a while.  If you like robust in your face cigars this may be worth seeking out.

The Scotch.

My last few drams of Scotch have been lovely unseated expressions.  That stops with this pour from the distillery that makes my favorite peated Whiskies.  Ardbeg is located on the southern part of Islay, the spiritual home for peat heads.  Ardbeg has been around for hundreds of years producing outstanding scotch.  While they make many different expressions, some labeled by their year, and others as Non Age Statements (NAS) with unusual names like An Oa or Uigedail they all share a bold note of peat.  This particular expression Ardcore was a special release in 2022.  A typical thing that Ardbeg does is release a special expression on Ardbeg day and in 2022 this was that release.  In something I haven't seen before Ardbeg used roasted black malt to make this which adds even more smokey and some would say bitter notes to the spirit. It's lightly colored as with most Ardbeg offerings.  I am always surprised by this. I don''t know why, but my mind always expects a darker liquid for a smokey scotch and that is never the case. On the nose this is peat, smoke, charcoal, a little burn of the nostrils.  The mouthfeel is slick and almost syrupy, with notes of dark bitter chocolate, licorice, leather.  I love it.  It's robust and in your face, and it holds up to the robust cigar, although taken together it is a lot of in your face smokey notes.  But I appreciate these smokey flavors more than I do in this particular cigar. The flavors of the scotch meld together more tightly, more cohesively.  For whatever reason, I hadn't reached for this bottle in a while.  Glad I did tonight, it was just what I needed.

Sunday Musings, Coffee, F1, and Watches

 

There is not much better than a quiet Sunday morning and a freshly made cup of coffee. Today I used my Fellow Stagg XF pour over.  Unlike a more traditional Vario this is a straight sided pour over cup.  I don't have a palette than can pick up huge differences between the two, but there some slight nuances.  There isn't a preference, but I'll go back and forth.  Today's beans come from a local roaster, Pearland Coffee Roasters.  Just down the road from where I live, I love the fact that there is a top notch coffee roasting company down in the suburbs of Houston.  It makes a bright cup, honeysuckle, pears, cinnamon.  Lovely cup.  It's a good cup to sit down with while I think about a few things that have occurred this week.

First up comes a recommendation, but not a TV show this week, instead a book.  The Formula written by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg documents the rise of Formula 1.  They do this not by going year by year, but highlighting the big changes that have occurred throughout F1's history, what or who drove those technological leaps to make F1 the powerhouse sports institution that it is today.  It's a fantastic book, an incredibly quick read.  I favorably compare it to the authors other book The Club which took a similar look at the Premiere League, documenting how the league came to be in the 90's and then its rise to be what we know as the EPL today.  Both are oustanding books if you enjoy F1 and English Football like I do.

Watches

Earlier this week, one of my favorite watch companies, kind of out of nowhere released an eagerly anticipated watch that has sent watch geeks into a ferver with anyone that owns a watch centric YouTube channel breathlessly posting their reactions.  It's the new Omega White dial speedmaster.

It's a stunning watch, the white has a depth to it that I didn't expect and you don't get from the traditional black dial.  The indices are raised which helps create that multi-dimensional feel and the splash of red text adds just a bit of color.  While I will always favor the historical moon watch, Omega did a great job with this new dial. I spoke to an AD on Friday and they already had 25 people on the waitlist, so Omega has a winner on its hands for sure.

Liverpool

While I am enjoying my coffee this morning, I am eagerly anticipating one of the most important matches that Liverpool plays.  In just a couple of hours they host Manchester City for what could be THE match that decides who wins the Premiere League (sorry Arsenal fans).  Liverpool sits on top of the table, but if they lose this match to City, City goes on top and it will be very hard to catch them over the last couple of months of the season.  On a positive note, Liverpool has a fantastic record against City at home, so I have high hopes that they will win and continue to collect trophies during the final season of Klopp's leadership.

Formula One Thoughts

Race number 2 of the young Formula One season is in the books.  This week the teams visited Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.  This second race was full of seasonal firsts:

First substitute driver, as Carlos Sainz was hospitalized for appendicitis so Ferrari called on its reserve driver, British teenager Oliver Bearman to drive the spaniards car.  The youngster did an outstanding job in his first F1 weekend. He almost qualified in the top 10 narrowly being beaten out by the legend himself Lewis Hamilton.  Oliver had a tremendous race, finishing P7 ahead of McLarens Lando Norris.  The youngster did an absolutely tremendous job in his first F1 race.  Will this lead to him getting picked up somewhere later this season or next?  

We had the first car retired during a race this season when Gasley who was hardly getting started before the Alpine car had to retire due to a faulty gear box.  This continues early season woes for the French race care team.

First yellow flag and safety car of the season when Lance Stroll ended up in the wall becoming the second car to retire this season. 

First lead of the season for Team Papaya when Lando Norris lead the race for a few laps when he didn’t pit during the yellow flag.

First time penalty when Perez had an unsafe release during a pit stop and was penalized 5 seconds by the stewards.  However in a rare case of a Haas driver trying to do better than other drivers Kevin Magnusson won a larger penalty by receiving a 10s one for running Williams driver Alex Alton into the wall, and then receiving a second 10S penalty for gaining a spot by going off track.  Way to be an overachiever Kevin!

On the McLaren side off things their strategy for Norris seemed questionable. They kept him out during the safety car which as mentioned above allowed the British driver to lead a few laps.  But it meant that he spent a long time on old tires that had to be managed. Norris dutifully did an outstanding job of getting his tires far beyond their predicted life. This allowed McLaren to put him soft tires when he pitted at last 38.  He came out in place 8 ahead of fellow British driver Hamilton.  Even though the McLaren car continues to struggle with straight line speed, Lando did an outstanding job of staying ahead of the Mercedes legend, and tried to race down the young rookie Ferrari driver Bearman, but he just didn’t have enough time to make an attempt to pass him.  Hindsight is always 20/20, but I feel if McLaren had pitted Lando just a lap or two earlier Norris would have had enough time to track down Bearman and finish at least one place higher.

Lando’s teammate Piastri had an outstanding weekend.  He qualified ahead of his teammate and ended up in P4 which along with Lando finishing in P8 kept McLaren in the top 3 for the constructors cup through the first 2 races of the season.  The team continues to show they are starting off much better than last season, and I maintain hope that they will finish better than they did last season.

Red Bull continues to show they are far ahead of the pack in every aspect of Formula 1, from drivers to strategy, to racing technology the other teams are tragically lagging behind the racing bulls.

Let's Talk about Straps!

A new watch strap on a watch can completely change the look and feel of your watch.  Going from a metal bracelet to a leather strap, to a nylon strap can make your watch feel like new.  It's why I probably have more straps than I do watches, a small collection you can see above.  The metal bracelets belong to specific watches, but all the other straps are after market.  Things I got because I wanted a new feel, plus it's cheaper than buying a new watch. So if you are looking to change up the look, and think a new watch is the answer, put a different strap on it and see if that helps the urge.  You'll thank me later.

As you may be able to tell, my favorite style of strap is what is called the NATO style, or vinyl strap (these are the 4 straps on the left of the picture).  NATO straps have a fairly long history dating back to 1973 when the British Ministry of Defense wanted a lightweight, durable, waterproof strap that was easy to adjust, cost-effective, and could be multi-purpose.  What they came up with was a single pass through strap made of a durable nylon material (although leather is sometimes used in a NATO strap) that can be adjusted to fit over a military uniform, or a wet suit, or over the bare arm. It also protects the wearer for losing the watch.  Unlike a traditional strap, if a spring bar breaks, the way the NATO strap works, the watch won't fall off the arm.  Me personally?  I just like the way it looks, and feels.  Different types of Vinyl can be used.  Some feel shiny and slick like the material of a seat belt.  Others are ribbed, either horizontally or vertically giving some more rigidity to the strap.  They come in different colors and patterns and from a host of sellers.  

They can however be a bit tricky to put on for the first time especially if you have never worn this type of strap, so I made a little video showing how the strap works (apologies for the audio, may want to have sound turned down).

I do have a few places that I like getting different straps whether they are NATO, or higher end leather straps.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Bark and Jack

Theo and Harris

Crown and Buckle

WatchGecko

Teddy Baldassarre

Sunday Musings and First F1 Race of the Season

 

It's Sunday morning and I am sitting down enjoying a wonderful cup of coffee from Dripping Springs based roaster Greater Goods.  Used my trusty Hario 60 Pour over, with a medium grind from the Sculptor Timemore grinder to make the cup.  It was full of flavors of a proper English Tea, stone fruits, and honey.  A delicious cup that inspires me to take a break, think about the last couple of days and write some. 

I've got some sports thoughts that I'll get to in a second, but first, a quick TV recommendation.  If you are not watching the outstanding HULU series Shogun you are really missing out.  Starring the always great and criminally under utilized Hiroyuki Sanada along with Cosmo Jarvis this adaptation of the classic James Clavell novel pulls you into the show from the very first scenes.  Tremendous cinematography, wonderful fight choreography and top notch acting makes this a show that you need to sit down and check out.  In total there will be 10 episodes, although only the first two are currently out.  It's been ages since I have watched the original Shogun adaptation that came out in the early 80's, but from what I remember this one just feels better.  While the acting in the original was good (you had Richard Chamberlain and Mifune in it after all), this just looks and feels more realistic.  Go check it out.

On to sports.  First some thoughts on my dear Liverpool football club.  A slow start to a midweek 5th round FA Cup match against Southampton ended strongly with a 3-0 victory and an advance to a match against the hated ManU.  I was a little worried that the very young squad Klopp threw out there wasn't going to pull it out, but a score before half let them into the locker room up by 1 before the Reds fully took over in the second half.  The Reds more traditional experienced squad hit the pitch yesterday morning against Nottingham Forrest.  Once again the cardiac Reds kept the fans in suspense as to whether or not they would win the match.  Back up keeper Kelleher continues to do a great job while Allison is out, but the Reds struggled to put the ball in the net.  Just when I thought the match was going to end in a 0-0 tie Darwin Nunez scored at the 98th minute to win the match with a beauty of a header.  Just a tremendous goal that got me out of my seat.  The Reds stay busy this coming week with a Europa League match against Sparta Praha before facing a must win Premiere League match up against Man City.  Fingers crossed that the Reds can put it to City and get the points to stay on top of the table.

Not only did yesterday morning have a great match from the Reds it was also the first race of the Formula 1 season, the Bahrain Gran Prix.  Unsurprisingly, Red Bull's Max Verstappen lead from lights out to checkered flag with no one making an attempt at challenging his dominance.  His teammate Checo came in second allowing Red Bull yet another 1-2 finish.  Somewhat surprising was a third place finish by a Ferrari Driver, just not the one you expected. It wasn't LeClerc, but Sainz leading Ferrari to a third place finish that was surprising.  My team, McLaren finished slightly lower than I had hoped at P6 and P8.  I really had hopes that Lando was going to track down Russell and finish ahead of the Mercedes driver.  Overall though, still MUCH better than last year's start, so hopeful that McLaren continues to improve and put pressure Ferrari and Mercedes.  

Which leads me to overreactions after one race:

1) A year from now Ferrari will have a worse driver line up than they do today.  Look Hamilton was a great driver, maybe the greatest of all time, but he isn't that driver anymore.  Sainz is better and will go somewhere next year making a big impact.

2) Maybe not an overreaction, but Red Bull will walk away with the top of the Constructors championship and driver champions with Max.  But the competition for P2-5 will be tremendous and one of the best in recent years.  Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin will all be fighting for those positions every race.

3) Those 4 teams along with Red Bull are so good that there may be a lot of teams with hardly any points as I expect most of the teams above to score double points each race.

Next week's race at Jeddah should be good as everyone finished the race and there weren't any crashes or damaged cars coming out of Bahrain.  Hopefully McLaren can crack a podium position, but so far I'm pleased with how team papaya are doing.

What are your overreactions after one race?