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).