Sunday Musing not a lot going on, but still there's news.

 

My Sunday morning cup comes from another Texas Roaster, Zelie Beans out of Sugarland.  This particular batch is their Guatemala single origin.  It makes a fine cup, some milky chocolate notes along with some roasted nuttiness.  The flavors are a little muted, there is nothing vibrant going on, the cup likes a certain acidity that I tend to enjoy.  So a good cup, not a great cup in my mind.

While I don' have any recommendations this week, nor was there a Formula One race this weekend (have to wait one more week for the Miami GP) there is plenty to talk about in both EPL and F1.

Formula One

The biggest news this week by far has been the rumors that car designer extraordinaire and Red Bull Chief Technology Officer Adrian Newey may be leaving the team.  Newey is widely regarded as the greatest designer of F1 cars of the last 30 years.  He has won trophies with McLaren and Williams back in the 90's and has been with Red Bull since their inception in the 2000's, helping them win trophies under two different drivers.  So him leaving would be HUGE news, if and I'll throw my two cents in and say it's a big IF, he moves on.  The reason I think it is unlikely that he leaves for another team is two fold:

1) if he leaves he would have to sit out for 2 years due to his contract not being up for another year and there is a stipulation in his contract that adds another year. So if he left, the earliest you would see him at another team is 2026 when the new car designs are put into place under the differing F1 regulations.  This would mean he would have no input into a new designed car and I just can't see that happening.

2) Secondly Newey is 67, and has just purchased a massive new yacht that is being build (look up the YouTube video of him at Oyster Yachts).  He wants to sail, all over the place.  Additionally he has left England for a team before, and quit that team because he didn't want to be away from his family.  So those folks that think he is going to move to Italy and work for Ferrari are kidding themselves I think.  So while he may be frustrated with all that is going on at Redbull behind the scenes lately with the Horner situation, he mostly likely could just retire, or move into a consultant role for another team, or even for F1 or the FIA, vs going to a new team.  

If he did go to a new team, an interesting one would be Aston Martin.  That would allow him to stay in England, and Daddy Stroll has a ton of money to throw around.  I don' know how likely any of this is since no one has officially confirmed anything, but when the BBC picks up certain rumors they tend to have a bit more credibility than the random you tubers or bloggers (myself included) which I why I wanted to put down my thoughts. How likely will he leave RB?  I put it at 50/50.  How likely will he go to another team?  Less than that I think.

Liverpool

While the Reds continue their incredible slide into 3rd and even 4th place of the EPL Table there is some positive news.  The Reds have looked absolutely pathetic lately, and the last match yesterday against West Ham didn't help with Mo Salah and Klopp getting into a little sideline tiff.  But as I said before there is good news.  It looks like the Reds have found their new team leader to replace (if one can ever do that) the departing Jurgen Klopp.

It seems as if the Reds will be adding Dutchman Arne Slot, currently managing Feyenoord to a win in the Dutch Cup this season and an opportunity to seal a spot in the Champions League.  The 45 year old is incredibly well respected amongst the Football community and it seems like Liverpool has already sealed a deal with his current employers to make the transfer to Liverpool occur.  He is an aggressive manager, his team always playing on the front foot driving the ball forward in play.  He seems to get compared to Pep Guardiola a lot, to be clear I am not equating their coaching ability, just their strategy.  I like having a younger coach come in and not brining in an old retread.  I trust the Liverpool leadership to make the right decision here.  It will also help Slot transition is that he won't be depended to make as many of the transfer moves as Klopp has recently since Slot will report to the new Sporting Director which could allow him to focus on strategy and building team unity. There is a good chance next year will be rebuilding as I think Salah leaves in the offseason to the Saudi league (with Liverpool receiving a large transfer fee) and there could be others leaving as well (Nunez hopefully as he has looked positively dreadful this season).   We could be able to rebuild while maintaining a certain level of talent that allows us to compete in the EPL and Champions league next season, so while things currently look bad, I am hopeful that things will get better.

Sunday Musings, Texas Coffee Edition

Happy Sunday, another week, and I missed my midweek post, so apologies, but already have something lined up for this week so should be good to go and back on track.  I hope everyone is enjoying a nice weekend.  Kicking today off with some coffee, which got me to thinking about Texas Coffee roasters, something that I have mentioned in previous posts.  For today, I am enjoying another cup of beans from Dallas based Ascension Coffee.  This particular bag is a blend of central and South America beans.  Made my traditional pour over and it produced an outstanding cup of coffee, full of notes of milk chocolate covered almonds, some fruity notes, slightly sweet, medium bodied, but does a good job of coating the mouth.  A good cup to wake up with and love the new cup from Bark And Jack, the same place I pick up most of my watch straps (that icy blue on my Hamilton is amazing looking).  Love that type of cup, and it goes well with my other enamel cups that I have.  Getting quite a selection.  

I don't have any recommendations this week, but we did have a Formula 1 race this week, and as always we have Liverpool to chat about. But before we get to that let's talk Texas coffee.  While there are states that get more love for their home grown roasters.  States like California, Washington, Oregon, and Illinois (due to the coffee culture in Chicago), I think Texas Roasters are holding their own.  Yes there may not be a ton of small roasters here, but the quality of what that small group produces is as good as any in other states.  Here are my top 5 roasters in the state, in no particular order:

1. Greenway

2. Amaya

3. Greater Good

4. Tenfold

5. Ascension

What are some of your favorite Coffee Roasters in Texas?

EPL 

I can't explain how frustrated I am right now as a Liverpool fan.  The last couple of weeks they have completely fallen apart.  And I don't even understand why.  They are actually getting healthier with players like Salah and their star keeper Allison coming back and they still are playing like crap.  2 weeks ago they had an opportunity for 4 trophies, 3 to add to the earlier Carabou cup.  Now?  They may end up with only 1.  The have been knocked out of the FA Cup, and the Europa League, and are third in the EPL after being first since before the New Year.  It's been frustrating matches to watch because it's not like other teams are playing lights out.  The Reds have just looked lack luster and uninspired.  When they should be playing lights out for Klopp it seems they just don't have any more heart and Klopp has lost the ability to inspire them.  Maybe it's true, that Klopp realized he was losing the team and knew that it was time for him to leave.  It sure looks like this team has left Klopp behind.  Now we may see City once again win the League which is incredibly disappointing.  The reds could still step up as they have a relatively easy end of the season, but there are so few matches left, I don't think it matters if they win out or not.  I would love to see them end the season playing some inspired football, but the team outside of the always amazing Salah has been bad.  TAA is just not stepping up and Captain VVD isn't the same player he was a few years ago.  Our midfield is lifeless as well.  OK OK that's enough venting.  Let's see the reds step up and beat on Fulham today!

Formula 1

After a 5 year hiatus the teams were back in China.  Having had to skip the Shanghai GP due to Covid restrictions since 2019, the teams were able to go back, very differently than they were in 2019 when Hamilton and Mercedes were at the top of the grid.  They are no longer a top team instead being replaced by Red Bull.  Another early morning start that I honestly didn't stay up for, but I as always do have thoughts on the race.  

Firstly it seems that McLaren may have figured some things out. After a decent, but not great start to the season after the first two races, the last couple they are doing very well. Norris was at the top of the grid for the Sprint Race start, and finished P2 in the actual GP.  He continues to be the bridesmaid and not bride, having his 8th (I think) 2nd place finish with never a top finish.  

Time may be undefeated, but Aston Martins Alonso is doing one heck of a job of holding it off.  His racing today was absolutely lights out.  His passing in the turns had me holding my breath.  It was just tremendous.  Unfortunately for the team they don' have a great second driver, which will be what ends up hurting them in the constructors cup.  Lance Stroll finished a very dissapointing 15th.  While I know that Papa Stroll won't fire his son, part of me wonders if sponsors will start making noise now that it is evident that if they had a better second driver they could finish higher in the constructors championship.

Ferrari continues to be a strong second contender to Red Bull.  Both Ferrari drivers finished in the top 5 with LeClerc finally finished ahead of Sainz.   But both drives overall looked good.

Haas continues to surprise by gaining some points and being one of two (along with VISA Cash APP RB) other teams beyond the big 5 to score points this season.

Overall, while it is unfortunately evident that Max is going to run away with the top spot this season and Red Bull is going to win the Constrcutors cup, I don't think its a 100% garauntee that Perez finishes second and spots 2-5 in constructors is fairly wide open which does make for some exciting watching.

We have a week off before the Miami GP on 5 May.  Racing and Cinco De Mayo?  Sounds like a winning combination to me.

Sunday Musing, Recommendations and Japanese GP

Happy Sunday!  It's a great Sunday when there is Formula 1, Liverpool on the TV, and a great coffee to drink.  Today I decided to make a pot of French Press, using a classical Bodum press.  There is no crazy technique, just time.  Seems perfect for a semi lazy Sunday.  Today's coffee comes from Dallas roaster Ascension Coffee Roasters.  I've been going to their original spot in the Dallas Design District for close to 15 years, every time I go back home to visit family.  They are probably my favorite Dallas area roaster, and one of my favorite in Texas. Which makes me think that at some point I need to do my list of top Texas Coffee Roasters.  Maybe in a few weeks I'll put that together, whether it's a separate post or part of a Sunday musings will be TBD.  

Anyways back to this particular coffee.  Is a light roasted Ethiopian that went through a natural processing.  The cup is incredibly fruity. Honestly the first taste brought back Saturday morning memories of eating a bowl of Fruity Pebbles.  There is a juiciness to it as well, but it's the fruitiness that is the focal point here.  Well rounded, not a lot of acidity here, coats the tongue (that may be an effect of using a French Press).  Overall I really enjoy this, it has a tone of character here but nothing is overpowering or hitting you in the face.  

Before I get into sports talk, I do have another weekly recommendation.  This time from a show on Apple TV+.  A little over a week ago they released a two part documentary on the great comedian Steve Martin and I must say it is tremendous.  Part 1 really focuses on his early days growing up and doing stand up, discussing the struggles he went through as he was really ahead of his time with what he was doing on stage.  The second part focuses mostly on where he is now with being a dad late in life and doing stand up with Martin Short.  While it touches on his movie career and talks about some of the highs and lows over the course of his films, that is definitely not the focus.  It's very much about his life now.  Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the doc, and really love the insight it gives into his long friendship with Short.  I do wish they had talked about some of his films more, but I would still recommend this to anyone that is a Martin fan, or standup comedy.

F1

Before I get into Liverpool, I figured I'd discuss the latest GP race first.  Full disclosure, I did not stay up this time to catch the race live.  The start time for me was after midnight and I just couldn't make it that late this weekend.  But watched the replay this morning and I must say it was a great race.  To recap things that happened during qualifying and leading up to the race, Williams Driver and American Racer Sargent has been given Albon's old chassis for the rest of the year (or at least until Miami when Williams could get a 3rd chassis).  You may remember that Alton wrecked his chassis a few weeks back during a practice session.  McLaren did very well during qualifying with Landon starting in P3.  Unsurprisingly Red Bull finished P1 and P2 in qualifying to start the race at the front of the grid. 

The Race started with a bang, shortly after lights out, Albon and Ricciardo touched going through the turns and crashed out of the race.  Ricciardo's no good very bad season continues and it kicked off a Red Flag not even a lap into the race.  No shenanigans at the restart occurred and we were off to the races so to speak.  Overall the race was fun.  The track has a ton of turns and is quite narrow in certain places, but that didn't stop passing from occurring.  Some drivers like McLaren driver Land Norris, and the Ferrari drivers just went for it, making their move in the middle of turns and narrow tracks.  It was fun to watch.  Unfortunately the streak of Red Bull not winning only lasted one race as they were back on top in P1 and P2.  Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz continues to prove to everyone that Ferrari is making a HUGE mistake letting him go for the struggling Hamilton.  Sainz finished third, Hamilton finished 9th (for comparison his Mercedes team mate finished 7th).  McLaren drivers finished P5 (Norris) and P8 (Pastry) and Sainz teammate Charles LeClerc finished P4.  The finish of this race continues to provide some separation for Red Bull and Ferrari from the rest of the pack.  With McLaren increasing the gap between 3rd and 4th where Mercedes sits followed immediately by Aston Martin.

Other quick thoughts from the race:

• RB Driver Yuki Tsunoda finished in the points recieving the hometown cheers.  Which, as much as I love the honey badger Yuki is showing that Ricciardo just may not have it anymore.  Yuki has pretty much beat him in qualifying every race and finished ahead in all but one race.  
• Lance Stroll continues to show that the only reason he in the Aston Martin car is his daddy.  While Alonso continues to carry the British team on his back, Lance doesn't finish in the top 10.  Where would Aston Martin be without the spaniard? They would be Haas if they were depending on Stroll.  That's how bad it is.
• I truly feel bad for Williams.  They have made so many bad decisions in the past decade and now the whole team is paying the price.  They have had some back luck this season for sure with bad wrecks that could damage both the chassis of both their cars.  The fact that they don't have a spare is just absurd and shows how poorly they have been mismanaged.  I think team principal Vowles can bring them out of where they are, if they are given the time they need, but with where the money is at in F1, I am not sure they will given the time they need.
• The rest of the F1 drivers better hope that the Red Bull car has more mechanical issues like they did in Australia or this season is going to look a lot like last season did.  The only positive thing is that the next 5 spots are up for grabs and the racing from McLaren and Ferrari is outstanding.
• Prediction time:  In the next 3 weeks it will be announced that Sainz is going to Mercedes which will mean that if he races next season Alonso will do so for Aston Martin.  With all the open spots, we may not see as much shuffling as we anticipated, at least from the top clubs.  Assuming of course that Checo stays at Red Bull (anyone that thinks Verstappen is leaving is not being serious).

Liverpool

Liverpool had a mid week Premiere League match against Sheffield United that they won keeping them safely atop the table.  However today, as I am writing they are facing the hated Manchester United.  While ManU is not any good this season, at least not up to their standards, this isn't a gimme match.  ManU showed that a couple of weeks ago when they knocked the Reds out of the FA Cup competition.  So far as we hit half time the Reds look good.  It's a dreary rainy day in Manchester but Liverpool is up 1-0.  If that lead holds they win and stay atop the table ahead of Arsenal and Man City.  Liverpool hold the championship in their hands.  They are the masters of their destiny at this point with 6 more matches to play. Can they pull out another premiere league title for Klopp before he leaves?  I say yes!

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

Sunday Morning Musings and Formula 1 Predictions

 

I’m sitting in a hotel lobby Starbucks in Vancouver, drinking not so great coffee, staring at the rain coming down outside and figured now was a good time to do some musing.  We’re up in the PacNW celebrating my wife’s birthday, but while she’s sleeping, I’ve got some thoughts!  

 

As I write, Liverpool are about to kick It off against Chelsea for the Carabao Cup (the second tier English Football Trophy).  Fingers crossed they win and give Klopp the first of a few trophies in his final year as Manager of the mighty Reds.

 

Another TV recommendation, geared towards car lovers, but really anyone that loves a good sports docu-series should be watching Drive to Survive on Netflix.  For the uninitiated this show, now in its sixth season follows all of the different Formula One teams during the race season.  Each show focused on one particular team while also giving general ideas of the big storylines for different races.  It’s always a fantastic look at things that are going on behind the scenes and has been tremendous in educating a largely ignorant US public on this type of racing.  I’ve been following F1 for 15 or 16 years at this point, but the number of friends that have gotten into F1 because of this show is unbelievable.  It’s the prime reason we have 3 races in the US now. The videography is tremendous as are the sit-down interviews with the drivers and the team principals (the individuals that run each F1 team).  The latest season is now out, and I’ve already watched about half of the series.  So many things I had forgotten that happened at the beginning of the season, nice to be reminded of what happened during Formula Ones previous season.  A must watch before the first race of the newest F1 season next week.

 

Speaking of the upcoming F1 season I figured I would put down my predictions for where the teams will finish in the constructor cup.  There are some obvious predictions, and maybe some not so obvious ones.  Without further ado:

 

1.     Red Bull Racing - Like it or not this is the obvious choice and one of two on this list that I am sure will end up where they are ranked.  Preseason testing shows they are starting where they left off last year as the dominant team in F1. The question is, will anyone step up and be close to them…

2.     McLaren – Full disclosure, this is my team, the one that I have been following since 2008 or so. They have been struggling the last few years and seemed to aways be 2 years away. However, the last half of last season they were the 2^nd best team in the paddock, and I think that continues into this season.  Norris will get his first race win as well as he leads team papaya back to near the top of the constructor’s cup.

3.     Ferrari – I’ll be honest here, as much as I think McLaren will be at number 2, I could see a flip flop here with Ferrari making it to number 2.  They have 2 great drivers that should be closer to the top than they should be.  However, even with a change in principal last year they were still plagued by unreliable cars and poor track strategy.  What will Ferrari do before Hamilton joins them next year?  Let’s see.

4.     Aston Martin Mercedes – I can’t ever quite put my finger on it, but I’ve never been a fan of the Stroll’s (father or son), but there is no denying what Daddy Stroll has done for Aston Martin.  He has turned around this team in spectacularly quick fashion and brought in one of my favorites all time drivers in Fernando Alonso to lead the team to victory.  Yes, Alonso is the lead driver of the team not Stroll the younger.  Near the end of this season expect chatter about Alonso leaving to maybe replace Hamilton. I think this unlikely, as I expect him to finish his career at Aston.

5.     Mercedes -I expect Hamilton’s last year for the team he made so dominant to be a frustrating one.  Mercedes is no longer top of the pack and many of the formerly also rans have made some huge strides where they have stayed stagnant.  Hamilton will go another year without a win, which will beg the question of why does Ferrari want someone at this stage of his career?  In the modern era drivers at his age don’t win many races let alone championships.

6.     Williams – Have this iconic British racing team turned the corner?  Formally one of the top teams in F1 they have been near or at the bottom for many years, including years of not scoring an entire point all season.  They made a huge leap last year finishing 7^th with new team principal James Vowles (formally of Mercedes under Toto Wolf).  He was able to make some significant midseason updates to the car last year they helped them score some much-needed points.  My bet is that with a full off season he can more strides and move up an additional slot.

7.     RB Racing – Red Bull racings younger less important sibling also features another one of my favorite drivers Daniel Ricciardo.  They also have one of the worst names in F1: Visa CashApp RB Racing.  Absolutely horrid.  But who doesn’t love Daniel and his giant genuine smile.  As much as it pains me, I am just not sure he has the ability to drive this team higher up the standings, especially considering how the other teams have improved over the off season.

8.     Alpine – Just not a whole lot to say here.  A team that I used to have high hopes would make a strong mid-tier run just can’t get it together, their drivers don’t seem to be in sync, competing and crashing into each other more than anything else.

9.     Kick Sauber – I was really hoping that Bottas would leave Mercedes and make an impact somewhere else.  Alas the only thing that is making an impact is his hair choices and his calendar.  The team is not good, and the drivers aren’t good enough to take a poor car and do anything with it.

10.  Haas – The other choice I am confident is that Haas will finish dead last.  The lone American team (as it will be in the future unfortunately thanks to F1 for not accepting Andrade’s bid) run by someone that has no desire to spend any money on his F1 team.  He can just pocket it and his company continues to make a profit.  And Mr. Haas fired one of the stars of Drive to Survive Guenter Steiner, now former team principalof Haas.  While Guenther may not have always done the best job, he was not the prime reason Haas has been in the doldrums and firing him will not improve where Haas finishes the season.

 

That’s it for the team predictions.  I’ll get my top 10 individual drivers’ predictions out before next Sunday’s race.  What are your predictions for the Formula 1 season?