Sunday Musings and Hungarian GP

 

After a week off we are back to a Sunday Race Day, and all such days must start with a good cup of coffee.  This weeks coffee is from Corvus out of Denver, CO.  Called Dead Reckoning their seasonal blend, with beans from Ethiopia and Central America.  This is a dark chocolate bomb.  Lots of bitter dark chocolate, blueberries, mild sweetness.  Delicious pour over cup.  

Formula One

We are officially into the second half of the season with the Hungarian GP.  The weekend started off with a wild and somewhat wet Free Practice session and qualifying.  Team McLaren ended up locking out the front row with Norris and Piastri P1 and P2 respectfully.  Red Bull Driver Perez continues top force RB to question if he should be their driver next season by spinning off and not getting out of Q1 yet again. More shocking was that Mercedes driver George Russell didn’t get out of Q1 either.  Once again this is a great opportunity for the McLaren team to chew up some of the gap between them and RB at the top of the constructors cup.

Race Day didn’t start the way I wanted it too with the McLaren team feverishly working on Norris’s car while it was sitting on the grid before the formation lap as he complained of an issue with the throttle.  It looks like the McLaren engineers were able to make the fixes they needed to and get the car buttoned back up just in time for the race to start.  

For tires today, this is the softest range that can be used.  With the heat of the track will be interesting to see what impacts this has on strategy.  Most of the top cars were on Medium tires with a few in the second half of the top 10 chose soft tires to start the race.

Lights Out! Great start by mMcLaren three wide on first turn,  but Verstappen goes wide, Norris falls to third, with max going ahead.  Max should have to give up that spot due to Max going wide and taking a place while he was off track.  Piastri doing well in P1.  

Finally at lap 4 Max lets Lando pass him to take the spot back, but as Versappen is want to do as soon as he can he tries to use DRS to pass Norris but he is able to keep Max back.

By Lap 7 Norris had gotten enough space between him and Max that Verstappen could no longer use DRS.

The top 10 drivers started pitting around lap 8, meaning this race is probably going to be a 2 stop race. Most of there drivers switching to hard tires during this initial pit.

Lando in P2 pitted at Lap 18 switching form Medium tires to Hard.  Good 2.8s pit stop.  He comes out in P5, put into a good position.  McLaren called Piastri in to pit the next lap again switching to hard tires with a 2.5s stop.  Piastri came out ahead of Norris in P4.  This back to back pit put Verstappen in P1, who has yet to pit along with the two Ferrari drivers who are in P2 and P3.

Verstappen and Sainz pitted at lap 22.  Verstappen got a 3s pit stop.  Max goes out in P5, with LeClerc who stayed out in P1 followed by the two McLaren drivers.  LeClerc pitted at lap 23 and came out in P5.

Alpine driver Gasly got called into box at lap 34 to retire the car and is out of the Hungarian GP.

P3 driver Hamilton takes his second pit stop at Lap 41 as does LeClerc, both had pit stops under 3s.  Hamilton come out P5 and LeClerc in P6.  Hamilton on his second set of Hard tires and the Ferrari driver switched to medium tires.

Norris being called into the pits at Lap 45.  Goes in at P2, good pit stop at 2.3s and a switch to Medium tires.  He comes out at P4 ahead of Hamilton.  Great job by the McLaren team as everyone ahead of Norris hasn’t had their second pit stop.

Piastri called into pit at lap 47, as is Sainz.  Good pit stoppage by McLaren at 2.9S switching to   medium tires coming out at P3.  Norris in P2, Oscar in P3 both behind Max who hasn’t pitted.

Max pitted at Lap 50, good pit stop at 2.3s switching to Medium tires.  Max comes out at P5 behind Hamilton and LeClerc.  

20 Laps to go Norris in P1, Piastri in P2, Hamilton in P3, Leclere in P4 and then Max in p5, all on Medium tires except Hamilton who is on Hard tires.

After the last pit, McLaren gave orders for Norris to allow Oscar to pass him when he got close.  Piastri never really did, with Norris opening up an almost 6 second gap on his McLaren Team mate.  The Team radios got very awkward as the laps counted down to the end of the race with the team principal ordering Lando to slow down for Oscar to get back into 1st.  I don’t get why McLaren was this adamant about Oscar getting P1 when Lando is in a fight for the championship.  Eventually Lando let Oscar pass on the straightaway which allowed Oscar to get his first win, and McLaren getting P1 and P2 and Hamilton getting his 200th podium.  Earlier Verstappen who was battling Hamilton for P3, tried to pass the Mercedes driver, but locked up and almost crashed with Hamilton. He recovered, but will be facing a penalty after the race. 

On the team radio, Oscar sounded very subdued on the radio for his first win.  

Exciting race and the 7th different winner of the season.

Does Zak brown get another tattoo?  He has gotten tattoos each time one his drivers gets a win (first with Ricciardo, then with Norris).

Current Constructors Standings:  Red Bull 389; McLaren 338; Ferrari 322; Mercedes 241

Current Drivers Standings: Verstappen 265; Norris 189; LeClerc 162; Sainz 154; Piastri 149

A quick note that these numbers could change if Verstappen gets penalized for his contact with Hamilton at the end of the race.  Perez falls to 7th behind Hamilton, and my guess is that he will be behind Russell after Spa.  How does RB stay with Perez when he will be in P8 at the summer break?

Post Hurricane Smoke and Pour

It's been a crazy couple of days at the Barleyvine house.  Our fair area got slammed by Beryl, a purported Category 1 storm that caused way more damage than any Cat 1 storm I have ever seen.  We were lucky.  We lost some limbs from our oak, and a small tree got blown over in our back yard, but otherwise, no damage.  Our fence is fine while many in our neighborhood were blown completely down.  Our house sustained no damage, not a single shingle missing. So we count our selves lucky.  Our power went out, but it is back while many remain without power around the city.   I am thankful things were not worse, our neighbors and friends are all OK and that is what counts.  It with that in my mind that I sat down for a pour and a smoke.  A time to sit and contemplate these last few days and be thankful for everything that we have.

The Whiskey

Michter is a distillery out of Kentucky, while they have recently returned to distilling, the name Michters has a long history of making American whiskey stretching back to the 1700s.  This particular expression is their Bourbon.  Sweet caramel corn up front, then comes some oaky toasty notes, cinnamon, stone fruits, peppery, maybe cherry notes.  A lovely bourbon, not overly complex, but smooth, satisfying, with just enough underneath to keep you sipping looking for more.

The Cigar

I have spoken about Ezra Zion out of the DFW area before.  Its a wonderful cigar company that does a great job of sourcing tobacco from around the world and then selling direct to consumer, which cuts down costs and allows folks to try cigars that are much cheaper than they would be otherwise.  This particular expression called Naughty Bits Vogue LTD is just such an example.  A cigar with a different wrapper name on it would be much more expensive.  This is a medium strength 6x52 classic toro.  Wrapper is a beautiful creamy 10 year aged Colorado leaf.  The first smoke is creamy silky milk chocolate, and brown sugar.  As you smoke notes of black pepper, vanilla bean and candied nuts comes out, mixing with the milk chocolate.  It burns even and smooth, not hot at all.  It's not an overly long smoke, around an hour.  This went well with the bourbon.  The bourbon was good, but simpler, this is more complex, so one doesn't overwhelm the other.  I appreciate the flavors and smoked it down to a numb.  Delicious.
 

Sunday Musings, Silverstone and Music inspired coffee

 

Anyone reading this here blog knows I drink coffee from Texas primarily.  There are a ton of good roasters in this state so I enjoy getting to try the different roasters out.  However, every once in a while I'll get introduced to something new and get excited about it.  This is one of those days.  Corvus Roasters is from Denver, CO a city I am very familiar with, but haven't had coffee from them.  This coffee is a very special single origin made in celebration of Nathaniel Hawthorne's newest album.  From El Salvador, this is a naturally processed coffee.  I brewed using my French Press.  Makes a wonderful floral cup, citrus, some tea like qualities as well. Beautiful vibrant cup that absolutely sparkles.  This is tremendous, will have to search out more from Corvus.

Speaking of Nathaniel Hawthorne, his newest album is my recommendation this week.  Another great album by a tremendously talented band and the soulful singing of Hawthorne.  Fantastic lyrics, great music that just makes you want to dance.  His last few albums have all been tremendous.  Go pick this up.

Formula 1

F1 hits the middle point of the season as they arrive at Silverstone for the British GP.  The 12th race of the season promises to be an exciting race.

It was a good start to the weekend for the Papaya team.  McLaren looked strong through the practice session with at least one of their drivers in the top 3 for each of the 3 sessions.  For qualifying, Norris had a little skid during his out lap which kept him from getting pole, but it did lead to an all British top 3 with Russell, Hamilton, and Norris at P1-3.

Ferrari struggled, with LeClerc being out of the top 10. Perez was also out of the top 10 too not getting through Q2 and then due to penalties from the previous race starting at the back of the grid.

For the race the tires were the hardest three to choose from and most of the cars started on medium tires.  Start to the race was uneventful, although Lando got driven outside the track, and Verstappen passed him.  Gasly was our first retirement out by lap 3.

It being the British GP, rain was always a possibility and the team radios reported rain would be coming soon at areas of the track.

Norris drove past Versrtappen in lap 16, and got back into P3.  Just brilliant racing.

Norris's passing opened up the flood gates and lost of passing started occurring as rain started lightly falling at lap 17.

Also Piastri passes Verstappen up into P4.  The Red Bull car just doest have the pace.

The cars are starting to show the impact of the track getting wetter.

Norris passes Russell in lap 19 up into P2.

Norris passing Hamilton on lap 20 and up into the lead!

Piastri makes a brilliant pass of Russell into P3.

Some tremendous driving by both McLaren drivers.

Ferrari called LeClerc into pit at lap 20 to switch to intermediate’s.

Piastri drives past Hamilton into P2 so both drivers up at the top.

Around lap 24 the track was dry enough to enable DRS again.  The drivers may have weathered the wet and may not need to switch tires.  But that was short lived as DRS was once again disabled a couple of laps later as it started to get wet

Verstappen getting called into the pits at lap 27, along with Sainz.  Both the Mercedes and McLaren cars stayed out.

The track is starting to get a little wetter, the Papaya team should pit at the next lap.

Norris pitting lap 27.  Piastri stayed out, and both Mercedes drivers pitted

Norris came outing P2 so it was good decision, for when Piastri pits to change to inters Norris will be back in P1.

Piastri comes in at lap 29, unfortunately comes out in P6.  Tough decision, not sure what the right call was.  If both drivers came in at the same time, it may have slowed the pit down where Norris wouldn’t have come out in P1.

The track is causing the drivers some issues.  The track has wet areas, but not enough to cool down the intermediate tires, so when they are on the drier portions of the track they are wearing out much faster than anticipated with Hamilton and Verstappen both complaining that their tires are falling apart. However the track just isn’t dry enough to get slicks back on.

Suddenly and unexpectedly Mercedes has to retire Russell at lap 34.  

Report came from the pit reports that there was an issue with the water coolant system.

Sun really coming gout at lap 37, track should dry out quickly. When will they go into to get slicks and will they be able to switch to soft?

Hamilton coming into pit at lap 39. As is verstappen.  Hamilton on Soft and Verstappen on Hard.  Interesting strategy.

Piastri pitting too switching to new mediums.

Norris pitting on lap 40, switching to soft tires.  Comes out in P2 behind Hamilton.

Verstappen in P3 and Piastri in P4.

Norris was passed by Max in lap 48.  Dang it.  The soft tires just aren’t holding up.

What a tremendous race.  A ton of passing, great and not so great strategies that had true real impact on the race and the championship. I am not sure you could have asked for more.

Hamilton gets his first win since 2021, Norris gets P3, and with Norris and Piastri both doing well, McLaren will continue to climb closer to Red Bull in the constructors championship.

Half way through the season here is where we are in the standings:

Drivers Championship:  Verstappen 255; Norris 171; LeClerc 150; Sainz; Piastri 125

Constructors Championship:  Red Bull 373; Ferrari 302; McLaren 295; Mercedes 221

Some quick hit thoughts and predictions after making it halfway through the season.

1) Verstappen will win the championship.  It may be closer than anyone thought it would be, but Max will end the season on top.

2) Redbull will NOT win the constructors.  McLaren will.  After the next race, McLaren will be in second place and by the end of the season they will at the top.

3) Not only will Ferrari not finish in 2nd place in the constructors cup, I think there is a good chance Mercedes passes them.

4) Ferrari will continue to rue the day they have gotten rid of Sainz, as LeClerc will continue to struggle the second half of the season.

5) Speaking of struggling, RB will announce that Perez is being demoted next season to their second team, and either promote Ricciardo, or maybe, just maybe sign Sainz (although I think this is highly unlikely).