Sunday Musings, Monaco Edition

 

It's Sunday, time for a great cup of coffee and a Formula One race.  Not just any race mind you but the iconic Monaco Grand Prix.  But before I get to the race, let's have some coffee and recommendations.  For the coffee today, I used Onyx's Tropical Weather, and my. Aeropress.  To make the aeropress, I use the inverted method, which means, I turn the Aeropress over, and make the coffee upside down before flipping it over to press in the cup.  I prefer this method to putting the coffee and water in with the Aeropress upright.  It ensures that the coffee and water can fully mix without any water seeping out early.  Additionally, I used the Fellow Prismo Attachment made specifically for the Aeropress that adds additional pressure.  Overall makes for a tremendous rich intense cup of coffee.  Not quite espresso, but not like a normal cup of coffee either.  Silk, oily mouthfeel.  

Quick Rec

A quick recommendation for today.  Disney+ has released a tremendous documentary on The Beach Boys.  Recently there have been a couple of great docs on the Beatles, so it is nice to see something diving into what was one of their biggest competitors in the 60's.  Competitor may be the wrong word, they were really each other's driving inspiration. They went back and forth creating albums that would try to one up eacother from Revolve, to Pet Sounds, to Seargent Peppers they went back and forth expanding what music really could be.  The doc is enjoyable and shows the fragile mental state of Brian Wilson throughout this time period.  Overall worth a view.

Formula 1 race

It's Monaco time!  One of the most iconic, but boring races on the calendar.  Track is too small for the wide cars of today which leads to hardly any passing, and actual racing.  It's more about qualifying, and then managing tires for the entire race hoping that you don't have to pit and can stay ahead of the drivers behind. 

During practice sessions, Norris didn’t look great, but once qualifying started, he turned it on and qualified P4 with his McLaren teammate at P2 and the two Ferrari cars at P1 and P3.  Interestingly there were no Aston Martins qualified in the top 10.  So with qualifying being critical for Monaco, this isn't a bad start to the weekend.

The start seemed clean with no one having issues through the first turn, however, Sainz got a tire puncture and seemed like he was going to be out of the race, but shortly thereafter a red flag started waving due to a bad crash between red bull and Haas, the side pods of Perez’s red bull almost disengrated as he ran into the wall and then the second Haas car was taken out. To the surprise of no one Kevin Magnussen was involved in the crash.  Was it his fault?  Probably not a hundred percent, but he should have backed out especially in Monaco.  So barely into lap 1, 3 cars are out and the race was stopped. 

Depending on how things go, this can end up going well for McLaren as they should be able to gain on Red Bull in the constructors championship.

Additionally during the down time we learned there was contact between the two Alpine cars with one driving the other into the air.  It turns out that Esteban Ocon damaged his car so much he too was out.  So now 4 cars were out of the race.  

Once the Red Flag clears it will be standing restart.  Sainz will be able to start back at third, so the red flag ended up saving him and keeping him in the race as I don’t think he would have been able to return back to the pit if the cars were at full race speed.

For the restart, the top 4 drivers put on Hard Tires that could allow them to make ti through the end of the race.

Everyone made it through the first few turns unscathed this time.

Once the race started going, and the drivers got into their comfort zone it really began being more about tire management than racing, as expected.  

About a third of the way through the race, the top four drivers, Leclerc, Piastri and Sainz and Norris had made a fairly large gap to the rest of the pack, with a 13 second lead between Norris at P4 and Russell at P5.

Lots of tire chat on the team radios, talk of abrasion and graining.  Real riveting stuff.

As is typical, other than the craziness at the start there wasn’t much action. Very little passing, and a lot of tire management.  But overall happy with the results, McLaren won P2 and P4 which will help them in both the drivers and constructors champsionship.  It was very nice to see Monaco native Charles LeClerc to win the race after being 0-16 from the Pole recently.  Well deserved win for the Ferrari Driver.

After Monaco, the 8th race of the season we are a third of the way through the season.  Some takes on the season:

• We all thought Aston Martin was going to push McLaren and Ferrari and there would be 3 teams and then Red Bull.  Sadly that is not the case, between issues with the car, and Lance Stroll not being a very good driver, the Aston team just isn’t a competitive.
• We don’t have to fear this season being a repeat of the last two.  Yes Verstappen may and probably will win the drivers championship, but he isn’t going to run away with it.  Out of 8 races he has lost 3.  Additionally, I think there is a decent chance that Red Bull doesn’t win the constructors cup.  After a good start to the season Perez seems to be reverting back to last years form.  If he does that, the way Ferrari and McLaren are driving, either one of them could win the constructors championship.
• Speaking of Perez, if he doesn’t come through in one of the next two races and finish second, I think his time at RB is done.  The question will be is if they can sign Sainz, or if Sainz will have already signed with another team.  IF thats the case, who teams with Verstappen?  Tsunoda?
• For the Drivers Championship the top 5 look like this: Vestappen 169; LeClerc 138; Norris 113; Sainz 108; Perez 107.
• For the Constructors Champion the top 4 look like this: Red Bull 276; Ferrari 252, McLaren 184; Mercedes 96

Tag, Cognac and Cigar

 This Wednesday its not about Whiskey and Cigar pairings, but Cognac and Cigars, oh, and a Tag too.  But first the dram.  

Cognac is a liquor distilled from grapes and made in one region of France.  This specific Cognac comes from Famille Vallein Tercineier, a producer for over 150 years.  This particular expression the Napoleon Vieille Reserve is fantastic.  I actually won this in an auction a couple years ago at the Houston based Southern Smoke Festival, a wonderful and amazing charity for folks in the restaurant business.  So I don't break this out very often, but it is worth it when I do.  This is a blend of older and younger spirits with notes of citrus and vanilla on the nose.  The mouthfeel is smooth, unctuous, sweet, floral, orange marmalade.  It's nice, if not overtly complex, but as someone that doesn't know a ton about Cognac I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Cigar

For whatever reason I was feeling in a special mood, not only breaking out the Cognac, but smoking one of my favorite special occasion cigars.  This cigar was one of the first that I had that really blew me away with its complexities, robustness and flavor.  It comes from my favorite cigar brand Oliva and is their Serie V Melanio.  This won Cigar Aficionado Cigar of the year back in 2014 few years back, and unfortunately the prices went up and they can sometimes be hard to find, but when I was introduced to them about a decade and a half ago I felt like they were a steal.  Now that's not necessarily the case but I still consider it a well priced smoke.  This is their Toro sized cigar and is one of my favorites.  Ecuador wrapper with fillers and binders from Nicaragua.  This is a full bodied cigar full of black pepper, bitter chocolate, leather, creamy coffee notes.  While it's robust and full flavored it's not harsh, I find this an exceptionally smooth smoke.  One of my most highly recommended cigars for those interested in something that is full bodied.  

Tag

My newest edition to my watch collection comes from Tag Hauer one of the brands that falls under LVLH brand.  Originally called just Hauer they are the maker of one of the most iconic watches in the world, The Monaco thanks to Steve McQueen.  The brand was purchased by TAG back in the 80's and sometimes gets a bad rap for the quality of watches they produced after TAG bought them.  However, in the last couple of years they are producing some amazing watches.  Last year they introduced a glass box Carrera their round dialed chronograph to the delight of many.  This year they took it a step further and introduced this vintage inspired panda dial with brushed silver steel and black sub dials.  This watch is absolutely stunning hands on.  It shines with radiance.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it so I called up my local watch store (Houston's own Zadok Jewelers) to see if could put my name down for one.  Not only did they do that, they got me the first one.  Amazing customer service!  I've had the watch for a couple of weeks now and I have really enjoyed it.  I've worn it on several different straps including the steel bracelet it comes on, some NATOs and some nice leather rally straps.  My favorite is the rally strap as that is the iconic look for these Carreras.  

It's well proportioned and the sapphire glass box allows you to read the dial from almost any angle and adds some depth that I think would be missing with a standard flat crystal.  The legibility is perfect and spot on.  The chronograph buttons have a nice give to it, and let you know they are engaged with a noticeable click sound.  My one complaint on the watch is the bracelet it comes with.  It looks great, but I am not a big fan of its comfort nor of the lack of micro-adjustment.  If you are buying a luxury watch it should come with the ability to do easy micro adjustments, so I do think Tag missed the boat. But for the watch itself?  It think they absolutely nailed it.  My full thoughts are at the video below.  Check it out.

Sunday Musings, F1 and the final day of Premiere League

 A fun sports Sunday with a F1 Race and the final day of the Premiere League season.  But coffee and recommendations first.  The coffee today comes from local Houston roaster Fusion Beans.  I've been enjoying Fusion Beans since they were selling them direct to customers at the Seabrook farmers market years ago, even before they opened up the fantastic Southside Espresso that has now sadly closed.  A great team that I always wish good things for.  This particular coffee is a single origin Guatemala coffee.  Used a Chemex to make this cup and got some really wonderful notes of chocolate, cream, and tropical fruits.  Lacked a little clarity, but that could have been my fault as I haven't dialed in the grinder for the Chemex filter.  Still a great cup, but will try this in my normal pour over to get the clarity and acidity I typically enjoy.

My recommendation this week is the newest season of Dr. Who which is now streaming on Disney+ here in the US.  I think that Jodie Whitaker gets a lot of undo flack for her time as the Doctor.  In mind the blame lies at the feet of the writer, so I was extremely happy to see Russell T. Davies back at the helm, along with the newest Doctor Ncuti Gatwa.  A couple of episodes in and I am thoroughly enjoying myself.  It's a mix of pushing the current boundaries while also being a bit of a throwback, a bit silly, but fun as Dr. Who should always be.  Can't wait for the rest of the season.

Formula 1

Today was the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, the first of two GPs in Italy.

Overall McLaren had a good start to the weekend.  Both drivers were in the top 5 in qualifying.  Oscar was actually P2 after Q3, but got penalized 3 positions due to a run in with Magnussen in Q1, which put Lando at P2 and Oscar fell back to P5.  Surprising no one Max Verstappen was once again a top the Pole.

The start of the race was fairly pedestrian with most drivers starting on Medium tires.  Not a lot of crazy passing or anything at all really.  Imola can be a tough track to pass, with only one DRS zone, as well as being fairly narrow compared to other tracks not named Monaco.

The top of the leaderboard started pitting around lap 22 with Mercedes Driver Russell the first in the pit.  Followed by Lando pitting in lap 23 switching from Medium tires to Hard.  Lando tried to come out in front of Red Bulls Perez but the team just didn't time it right, however within in a lap he had passed the driver from Mexico.

Piastri also came in and pitted in lap 24 also switching to hard tires.

Norris eventually got up to P2 as others pitted, but he still felt like he wasn’t getting pace of the drivers behind him.  The McLaren crew fell that the other drivers were burning through their tires at a much higher rate than Norris was and that in the end it would work out.

Norris was solidly in P2 but it was obvious that this was yet another race where Verstappen and the Red Bull car were on another level.  At least for a little while, as the laps progressed Norris  started to nibble at Verstappen’s heals, as Max started to complain that his tires were shot.  LeClerc who had been attempting to get within striking distance of the McLaren driver began to fall back a little bit.  With11 laps to go at this point, the question was if there was enough left in the race for Norris to pull closer.

Norris showing once again that he is truly a tire whisperer, doing an outstanding job of nursing his tires allowing him to have some left for a fight at the end of the race to battle Max.

The last 5 laps Norris was pushing incredibly hard.  Some of the best driving I have seen all season.  Not just nibbling, but gulping down the space between him and the leading Red Bull. Getting it down to 1.5 seconds with 4 laps left.  Getting within DRS zone striking distance.

This was a rare race that actually had some excitement at the end of the race.

But it was for not. Norris may have pushed his car and tires to the limit and started to complain that he had lost all grip on his tires.  He still valiantly fought on through the remaining 3 laps, still nibbling, still fighting.  While Norris was running out of tires, Verstappen's battery was running out.  A great finish to the race with two drivers leaving it all on the track.  Unfortunately, Lando just ran out of time, narrowing Max’s lead to almost a half a second by the end of the race, but ultimately finishing P2 with Oscar finishing P4 and LeClerc at P3.  Some great points for Team Papaya.  Lando gaining on LeClerc in the Drivers championship and McLaren gaining on Ferrari and RB on the constructors championship.

Ferrari finally got on the podium at Imola for the first time since Schumacher thanks to the hard driving of LeClerc.

7 races into the season and we see some shuffling in the drivers championship:

Verstappen at top with 161 points,

LeClerc passed Perez and has 113 points to Perez's 107 and Norris is at 4th with 101 and Sainz rounding out the top 5 with 93 points.  Very close 2-5.

In the constructors championship, Red Bull stays atop with 268 points, Ferrari with 212 and McLaren gaining a little ground with 154 points.

Premiere League

I love how the EPL finishes their season.  All teams playing on the same day at the exact same time.  It makes for a great time of flipping among channels to see how everyone is doing especially when your team is playing for the championship.  Alas that is not the case for the reds this season.  They unfortunately played extremely poorly down the stretch.  They seemed lackluster and played with very little heart which was the most disappointing thing to see especially considering that this is to be Jurgen Klopps last season with the Reds.  Klopp came into a team that was struggling and in a short time has lead  them to multiple championships winning multiple different types of titles.  I had hoped that they would win another premiere league for him this year, but it wasn't meant to be.  

One of the coolest scenes today was the crowds lining the Liverpool Streets as the team bus made its way to Anfielf, the fans singing and changing for Jurgen showing him a tremendous amount of love and appreciation for all that he has done for the city.  He will go down as one of the great managers that Liverpool has had and is incredibly beloved by every Reds fan.

While the Reds didn't have anything to play for today, I had high hopes that they would step and play their hearts out for Klopp, especially considering there were some players like Mo Salah who were probably playing their last match for LFC.

A rather frustratingly lack luster start to the match.  At the 28th minutes, a Wolves es player got sent off with a red card leaving them a man down for the rest of the match.  McAllister finally put one in the net for the Reds at the 34th minute.  Giving them the lead hopefully for the rest of the match.

Shortly after Quansah scored on an assist from Salah to make it 2-0 at the half.  The reds slowed down the second half, but still gave Klopp a win in his final match.  It was nice to see him give the fist pump one last time and the crowd was amazing in their outpouring of love to Jurgen.

They started chanting for him with 5 minutes left in regular play and kept it up throughout extra time and afterwards.  I can't imagine what it must have been like to be there live, how loud and loving it would ben.

Overall after having some high hopes for this season, I end on a disappointment.  Yes the Reds win, but Man City once again finish the season on top of the table.  Worse, I have to believe that the Reds are going to take a big step back next season.  While I think Slot will be a good manager he will need a season or two to put his stamp on the team.  Plus I believe there will be significant turnover with not only Salah leaving, but a few other players as well.  The team will look and feel completely different next season so not sure how far up the table they will finish.  Cheers to Jurgen and all the success he has had with this team.  He has done so much for the team and the city, I wish him all the happiness in what ever he does next.

Sunday Musings, F1 and What am I doing

 This week I am in Chicago attending the annual Aerospace Medicine Conference, this is the field of work I am in and my interests outside of what I typically talk about here.  So it will be a ton of space and medicine and human exploration in extreme environments this week.  But before I head off into that world, I wanted to write a little for the blog.

First up recommendations.  As a fan of Top Gear, Grand Tour and the lads behind it I of course have to recommend the latest season of Clarkson's Farm, the first part now out on Amazon Prime.  Yes Jeremy Clarkson acts the baffoon, but at its heart it highlights the stuggle of farmers in the UK, and I think those struggles apply to farmers everywhere.  It's this reason that I think the show is worth tuning into.  Plus its hilarious because Clarkson is of course a buffoon.

Formula One

Another week of the Formula One Season and there are as many fireworks off the track as there are on. The week started with the the shot heard round the F1 world with the news that Car designer savant Adrian Newey is indeed leaving Redbull after this season.  No news on where, or if he will go somewhere else, although rumors are hot and heavy that he will go to Ferrari. I shared my thoughts on the whole situation last week for reference.

As far as on the track news goes, the drivers, were back in the USA for the first of 3 races this season. Kicking it off at the Miami GP.  It was a weird week leading up to the race itself, with some drivers like Daniel Riccardo doing really well in Sprint Qualifying, and then doing horribly in actual qualifying.  

As for the start of the race itself, to the surprise of no on Verstappen won Pole, but the McLaren team started P5 and P6 with both drivers starting on Medium Tires.  The race got off clean with no real issues, and very quickly McLaren driver Oscar Piastri took hold of P2 and did an admirable job of holding off the two drivers from Ferrari.  Norris stayed in P6, but kept pressure on Red Bull driver Perez and then finally passing him when he went to pit during lap 19.

The race stayed clean up until a virtual safety car came out in lap 23 due to a cone that Verstappen had hit.  The virtual safety card initially allowed some drivers to pit, however the leaders had passed the pit stop so they couldn’t take advantage of the cars temporarily slowing down.  

Eventually the leaders started pitting with Verstappen coming in to change tires in Lap 24, which allowed Piastri to take over the lead, and then Russell pitted in Lap 25

Piastri pitted at lap 28 as did P2 driver Sainz which allowed the other McLaren driver Lando Norris to take the lead as he stayed out.  

I feel like it needs to be said that Norris is quickly becoming a tire whisperer.  He seems to be Alonso like, always eeking out more life from his tires than other drivers.  Then the gods shines their light on McLaren and Lando.

A yellow flag came out at Lap 28 due to an incident between the sole US driver Logan Sargent of Williams Racing and Kevin Magnussen of Haas, which allowed Lando to get an easy pit stop during lap 30.  He was able to stay out in the lead even after the pit stop because everyone was driving slower due to the yellow flag.  Once the safety Car came in at Lap 33, Lando was in P1

Verstappen in P2, Norris in P1, Leclerc in P3, Piastri in P4 and Sainz in P5 and then the race was ON!

Sainz and Piastri had a wonderful battle for 4th with Sainz finally coming out on the better end of the battle at lap 40 when the two briefly touched, with Piastri then quickly getting passed by Hamilton.  McLaren quickly made the determination that Oscar's car had been damaged during the collision with Sainz.  Specifically he sustained some damage on the right part of the front wing.  The team called him into the pits to make a quick change of the front end, however by the time he came out of the pits he was behind the rest of the drivers.

With 10 laps left, Norris had opened quite a gap leading the race with Verstappen actually struggling to make anything happen in the Red Bull car, it felt bizarre watching the huge verstappen like gap that Norris had, while Verstappen himself was struggling to make anything happen.

And that was it, Norris held the pack off and won his first race!  you could hear the joy in his voice, and see the teams reaction for how excited they were for Norris.  He just had a dominant race that lead him to his first win after so many races finishing P2.   The entire Papaya team did an outstanding job this weekend and deserve a lot of credit for putting together a great car together for the Englishman.  Great great race.

Other thoughts, Yuki Tsunoda continues to show he is the better VCARB driver over the popular Ricciardo gaining more points for the team.  

Unfortunately Piastri couldn’t get points this week due to the collision he and Sainz had earlier in the race.  Piastri was even told near the end of the race to not do anything to crazy to gain positions as McLaren didn’t want any safety cars to come out with Norris being up front.

It was also really nice to see Team Alpine gain their first points of the season with Icon finishing P10.

After the race there was some tightening up in both the racers championship and constructors cup.  For the top 5 in the drivers championship:

Verstappen - 136

Perez - 103

LeClerc - 98

Norris - 88

It really is very close between P2 and P5.

For the constructors the top 5 look like:

Red Bull - 239

Ferrari - 187

McLaren - 124

Mercedes - 64

Aston Martin - 42

There seems to be some spacing occurring, although I still feel like McLaren can catch Ferrari if they keep making improvements to their car and Norris continues his season.

 

Whiskey, Cigars, and Shocks

 

A midweek step down, to sit, sip, smoke, and relax.  There isn't much better than that.  This week we've got a little Texas flare, an amazing smoke, and to finish something shocking.  First up let's talk Whiskey.

Milam and Greene is a Hill Country based distillery that has been around for a few years now and is incredibly well respected.  One of the really cool things they do is take pride in blending whiskey, something that is too often under appreciated in the US, and looked down upon.  It's not a bad word if you are doing it well, and are open and honest.  They are up there with one of my favorite Texas Distilleries.  In a state where many Texas 'craft' distilleries cut corners, or bring in out of state products and try to brand it as Texas Made, Milan and Greene are doing things differently.  They are also one of the few women owned and with a woman head distiller.  This particular expression, their Triple Cask is one of those aforementioned blends.  Taking whiskey distilled at their Blanco headquarters, along with whiskey distilled in Bardstown, KY, they blend the product and age it all in TX. The malt bill is the same for the both; 70% Corn, 22% malted Rye, and 8% barley and it comes in at 94 proof. It's got notes of vanilla and spice, and oak.  It's not too hot which is a common problem with younger Texas whiskies.  It's smooth, but has a some body.  Not overly big, or tannic, but enough of a bite that lets you know you're drinking.  Good mouthfeel, if just a little light bodied.  While its not my favorite M&G expression (I love their rye, and some of their reserve series more) this is seriously good, and for under $50, well priced and worth a pick up.

Avo cigars is a sister brand to Davidoff which I've spoken about before.  These are a little lower priced, but are still incredibly good cigars.  They make a handful of cigars, but this one was recommended to by my local smoke shop.  Comes in a beautiful orange capsule, the AVO XO is a beautiful smoke, and may become one of my go to's.  This XO is their Intermezzo 5x50 with an Ecuador wrapper and other tobaccos from Dominican.  This hits my preferred sweet spot of being medium bodied, big and bold enough to let you know that you are smoking a cigar without being overpowering and killing your palate.  It's incredibly smooth with oaky notes, vanilla, spice, and dried fruits, with just a hint of sweetness.  The flavor profile is incredibly similar to that of the whiskey. So a more complimentary pairing, vs a pairing that plays off of the notes in the whiskey.  It works for a nice midweek sit down.  I've smoked a couple of these recently, and will definitely be picking up some more in the future. 

Now our shocking finale. OK, OK, enough with the puns, it's time to talk about the Casio G-Shock.  The watch collectors GO-TO for a rugged every day, digital watch.  These are next to indestructible and have been designed that way since the 1980's.  This particular G-Shock is their GAB2100GC-3A and is a gorgeous monotone olive green with splashes of color around the octagonal bezel.  It's very light weight as well.  This is a solar powered model, which means while there is a battery it gets its power from the sun (or other light sources) helping it last for a very long time.  You won't need to replace the batter like you do in standard quartz watches.  Additionally it has what's called a Smartphone link that allows it to receive data like timezone, day and date making it very easy to set.  It has multiple function to track lap times, timer, count downtimer, world timer, full scale calendar year to 2099, and a slew of others.  My wife got me this watch for Christmas and it has become my GO-TO weekend watch.  I can go out and grab some coffee, or I can go do some yard work.  It's made for both.  It is a big watch with a case size of 41mm and a lug to lug of 48mm.  But it wears fairly well on my 6.75 inch wrist.  If I had one complaint it's that the screen that has date and seconds on it can be a little hard to read.  But the lume on the watch is amazing.  For under $200 I think this is a no-brainer watch to add to the collection, or start your collection.