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