Brazilian Grand Prix, Car Market, New Watch
F1 race results, October Car Market Updates, NEW WATCH TO MY COLLECTION!?
Brazilian Grand Prix
As promised, after not covering the Mexican Grand Prix last week, I told you all I would cover the Brazilian Grand Prix this week.
A lot of drama lead up to race day. Hamilton was hit with a penalty saying his DRS (drag reduction system) was out of spec, causing him to start in last for saturday’s sprint - a 24 lap race that results in 3 points in the standings. Bottas, followed by Verstappen and Carlos Sainz took the top 3 spots of the sprint. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez took 4th, and Hamilton clawed his way up to 5th. After qualifying in 5th, Hamilton decided to take a new engine into race day - giving him a 5 starting position penality, leaving him starting sunday off in 10th place.
The start of an F1 race is one of the most exciting moments in all of sports. This race was no exception. Going into the first turn, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz collide, leaving Norris with a punctured tire - requiring a tire change. Verstappen into the second turn takes the inside position over bottas, taking over first. Into the 4th turn, Verstappen’s teammate Perez takes the outside over Bottas - giving us a redbull 1,2. Meanwhile, Hamilton has already made his way into 7th.
Hamilton’s new engine showed, he ran an incredibly fast straight - using both his DRS system to decrease drag and slip streams to perform the majority of his passes. Exciting things ensued in lap 18/19. Hamilton, who is up to 3rd and fighting for 2nd over Sergio Perez at this point, uses the slip stream and DRS tactic to get position over Perez. Perez quickly regains position into the next turn, but Hamtilon wasn’t done there. In lap 19, he pulls the same move and is able to hold position - leaving just Verstappen 3.6 seconds in front of him.
Come time for tire changing, Bottas was late to the party, but it worked out as there was debree on the track, allowing him to pit during a yellow flag - resulting in him passing Sergio Perez. We now have Verstappen in the lead and Mercedes holding 2nd and 3rd.
From Lap 48-59 it was an all out battle between Verstappen and Hamilton. Hamilton, doing what has worked for him all weekend, passing on the straights, was his game plan. Every lap, Hamilton would gain some on Verstappen, the first few times he tried to pass he didn’t quite get the edge, and another time got pushed way to the outside by Verstappen (no pentalities were given for this). Finally in Lap 59 Hamilton was able to pass Verstappen on the straight - Verstappen was given a white black flag warning for not keeping his lane during this maneuver. He holds on to win. Sergio Perez, who was in 4th with a healthy gap between 5th place Leclerc, went in for a pit in the final lap to use soft tires to get the fastest lap of the day.
The final results were Hamilton in first, followed by Verstappen, and Bottas. The standings now look like this:
Car Market Watch
As I mentioned at the end of the last newsletter, October’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) data came out on the 10th. As I suspected, we saw an uptick in the inflation rate! Overall we are now sitting at a 6.2% inflation rate, with the car market being much higher than that.
If you remember what I wrote in this post here: September Car Market Watch, you’ll remember I said I saw the Manheim price index shoot up 5.3%, I said dealers will have to pass that cost onto the customer, so expect to see an uptick in the inflation on used cars in October’s report. Well, unfortunately, I was right… In October we saw a 2.5% uptick in cost paid by consumers for used cars, which brings our 12 month rolling average to 26.4%. New cars, which have been staying pretty steady around the 1.5% increase a month, continued that trend, rising 1.4% in October.
I hate to say it, but expect to see this continue. Like I’ve said in the past, the Manheim Used Car Index usually supersedes the consumer price report. In October, we saw a whopping 9.2% increase - expect much of that extra cost to be passed onto the consumer in November/December. Another thing to note in this report was car sales are down 10% year over year, this might help keep us from seeing double-digit increases month over month.
Moral of the story - You’re not too late to the game when buying a new or used car, so long as production isn’t at full capacity, the ports are full, the money printer is printing, you are almost ensured to continue to pay more and more for the car of your dreams. (not financial advice)
New Watch In The Collection
Like I mentioned at the end of last week’s newsletter, there is a new watch in my collection! Black-PVD-treated 316L steel on the bezel, crown, case back, and clasp. Black ceramic case. Calibre MT5602-1U Movement - The U giving it the METAS Master Chronometer Certification. This certification makes the watch magnetic resistant up to 15,000 gauss, which means you could wear it in an MRI machine (13,000 gauss) without it affecting with the watches movement. This certification also requires the watch to be run between -2 and +4 seconds a day. Glass all around is sapphire crystal, the movement is also black with purple hairpins that can be seen through the case back.
Let me introduce you to the truly sinister Tuder Blackbay Ceramic
Having no intention to buy a watch that day, it was what I expected to be just the usual monthly visit to my AD. Heather had some different ideas. Knowing that I am after a Rolex Batman, and it might take a while, she brought me over to the Tudor section. Let me preface this with that I have never been the biggest fan of Tudor. I never really liked what they were doing with their style, but I appreciated the movements and the fact that they are made by Rolex (even in the same buildings). Heather had me try on the Black Bay 38 and we both agreed that it was much too small for my wrist. She gave me a smug look and said I just got something in you might like. Coming back with the Black Bay Ceramic, I instantly knew I was in trouble. The first word I had for it was “sinister”. I’ve never seen anything like it, especially not at this price point. Seeing it as a fantastic “daily” watch upgrade over my Tissot PRS 516, it was perfect while I wait for the day I get the call about my batman.