ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

[The Dutch Bear]

Vautier did worse than Saavedra this year imo. He had a much better team but only scored 30 more points.

Vautier was great the first few races but then dropped off big time. I'm not really sure why.

[Salamander]

Vautier did worse than Saavedra this year imo. He had a much better team but only scored 30 more points.

At least he didn't stuff the car into the wall at every opportunity.

[Onxy Wrecked]

Vautier did worse than Saavedra this year imo. He had a much better team but only scored 30 more points.

At least he didn't stuff the car into the wall at every opportunity.

Vautier just silently disappeared and nobody knows why or what happened. All we know is he silently faded into the background and the back of the running order unlike the much more noisy Takuma Sato who was even leading the points and faded with a series of spins and mechanical failures or the crash prone Saavedra.

[eichy]

I would give 2013 IndyCar ROTY award to Graham Rahal. Saavedra may have had one of the worst seasons in recent American open wheel history, but it was almost expected of him. Meanwhile, Rahal was expected to contend driving for his dad's team that did well with Sato in 2012. Aside from a 2nd at Long Beach and a 5th at Iowa, Rahal was nowhere all season long and was beaten in the final standings by Ed Carpenter. Not to mention all the objects Graham hit and how much whining he did afterwards.....

[Alextrax52]

Even though I didn't watch any Indycar the Result sheets will help me out.

3rd Dario Franchitti: While i can understand a few struggles with the DW12 in 2012 the fact is he just hasn't adapted to the new car at all since it was introduced and an inability to finish higher than 3rd this season is testimony to that. Only 10th overall while team-mate Dixon won the title and that's 2 poor seasons in a row now and barring the Indy 500 last year he hasn't won a regular Indycar race since Toronto 2011. If he doesn't shape up in 2014 then it might well be his last season in Indycar

2nd Sebastian Saavedra: Got caught up in too many accidents as noted by others and always seemed to be hopelessly off the pace. Results wise only 2 top 10's all season really speak volumes about how bad his season was and as noted he was only 3 pts clear of Servia who missed 7 races and only 51 pts ahead of Mike Conway who only did 7 races all year. Disgraceful.

1st EJ Viso: As Salamander described he got absolutely humbled by his team-mates this season and while 20 drivers scored at least 1 podium (Even the crash happy duo of Sato and Rahal got podiums) Viso could only muster a 4th at Milwaukee as a best finish. No wonder he was jettisoned by the team before Fontana. Don't know why top teams bother to hire him considering he's had 1 podium in the last 4 seasons

[takagi_for_the_win]

Even though I didn't watch any Indycar the Result sheets will help me out.

And by that logic Ukyo Katayama had a truly dreadful 1994, Jordan were ROTY contenders in 2000 and Super Aguri were just plain pants.

You need to watch the races regularly in order to be able to give a balanced, well-thought opinion

[Salamander]

Even though I didn't watch any Indycar the Result sheets will help me out.

And by that logic Ukyo Katayama had a truly dreadful 1994, Jordan were ROTY contenders in 2000 and Super Aguri were just plain pants.

You need to watch the races regularly in order to be able to give a balanced, well-thought opinion

Indeed. Otherwise Dragon Racing would've been on the podium.

[Alextrax52]

Ok then for something better GP2 and GP3 for 2013

GP2
3rd Daniel Abt: Close between Rosenzweig and Abt but while everyone knew that Rosenzweig was going to be poor and at best around the back of the top 15 Abt came into 2013 as the GP3 runner up and was expected to challenge for podiums but apart from Abu Dhabi and to a lesser extent Bahrain Abt made no impression all season while Calado was dragging one of ART least finest cars to 2 Wins and 3rd Overall. Abt will have to step up big time and learn from these lows if he's going to get back to where he was at the end of 2012

2nd Sergio Canamasas: While he did have some decent pace at times this season his many incidents and accidents on and off the track such as a twitter spat with Cecotto after Hungary and with Palmer at Silverstone I believe not to mention some disgraceful moves on Ceccon in Bahrain have really tarnished his name this season and makes a decent 2011 FR3.5 season look a real fluke. Lost a 5th in Barcelona through no fault of his own but hopefully a clean points finish in Abu Dhabi will do him good

1st Johnny Cecotto Jr: What a way to make the 2012 versions of Maldonado and Grosjean and Andy Neate look like clean racers this season. A dangerous swipe on Bird in Malaysia Qualifying, An awful swipe on Canamasas in Spain, Causing the massive pile-up in Monaco, Getting involved in the fight for 2nd while being lapped in Hungary and colliding with Nasr in Abu Dhabi (Not his fault). As well as this destruction his pace from 2012 has vanished too with only Monaco Qualifying standing out and no podiums compared to 2 Wins and 4 Podiums last year is absolutely shocking. Shouldn't be in GP2 next year but might be because of his money.

Teams
3rd Rapax: Fantastic first half to the year and were 3rd in the championship after Germany but it speaks volumes about the 2nd half when number 2 driver Simon Trummer scored all of Rapax's points after that race. Must pick up their game next year

2nd Venezuela GP Lazarus: While 2013 was better than 2012 it still was only a step rather than a stride forward. Only scored points 4 times this season and were the only team over both GP2 and GP3 not to score a single podium finish all year. Chopping and Changing drivers in the 2nd car didn't help matters and they have to learn that stability is the best way to earn success

1st Barwa Addax: Just 2 years ago this team were winners of the 2011 championship now they are last but 1. Apart from Great Britain the Addax cars were not even remotely close to the podium and having an Inconsistent Haryanto and a slow Rosenzweig racing for them isn't a driving squad that screams "World Champion" at you and they really should have come last in the teams championship. Time for a complete overhaul in the management and driving perhaps?

GP3
3rd Josh Webster: Looking at his 2012 BARC results more was probably expected of him but the fact is he was so anonymous all season that I don't think even Will Buxton mentioned him in the Sky commentary all season because he was that quiet. Also when Adderly Fong scores points in the same team as you then something is wrong

2nd David Fumanelli: Having had a year of experience behind him we were expecting Fumanelli to improve but apart from a 7th in Barcelona he hardly did anything of note indeed the event he is most famous for this season was flipping Kujala into a barrel roll at Silverstone. Also the fact that 8 drivers in their rookie season beat him in the championship just says it all about Fumanelli's 2013

1st Carmen Jorda: Too slow for GP3 and finished bog last many times. Cregan comes back for 2 races and immediately betters Jorda's best result in one weekend, Powell comes back with no time to set up or get used to the car and beats her by 1.7 seconds in her first session back. Might be a nice girl but unfortunately just isn't cut out for GP3. The only positive is at least she qualified for every race this year

Teams
3rd Marussia Manor: Tough one but once again they had to rely mostly on Elinas to score their major results and points finishes. Zamparelli to be fair scored 13 pts in 16th overall but lacked that last bit to score top 4 finishes while Cullen could usually be found dawdling around at the back of the field. If Marussia want to fight for the Teams Championship then they need a strong 3 car team because they have only scored points with all their cars in 2010 only

2nd Jenzer Motorsport: Yes they scored 3 podiums finishes but of their 51 points 38 of them came in these results. Niederhauser failed to build on his 2012 season and they were rapidly overtaken by other teams and they seemingly had no answers to respond. Not a good season for the team who took Nico Muller to 3rd in 2010

1st Status Grand Prix: What the hell has happended to the team which came home 2nd in the 2010 championship. Ever since losing Robert Wickens after that season their pace has been falling like a stone and only a one off appearance for Alexander Sims rescued any dignity for them this season. Just 18 points all year and they could usually be found in the back 10 spots of the race. Must do better to arrest this slide.

[Cynon]

IndyCar:

These really were hard choices, because there were so many candidates that missed the mark (Tagliani, Viso).

3rd: Tristan Vautier
Holy crap were my predictions for this guy wide of the mark. I don't think I've seen a weaker Rookie of the Year award handed out to anyone since the early IRL days or even Jeff Andretti. To say he's not ready for IndyCar is an understatement of massive proportions. The fact that he never had stable sponsorship didn't help, but this was easily the worst rookie campaign I've seen since Alex Figge.

2nd: Sebastian Saavedra
This really was a bit harder than you think it was. Sebastian Saavedra not taking gold required some ineptitude on a massive scale. I'll get to that in a bit. Saavedra usually propped up the timesheets and crashed with no rhyme or reason, seemingly. I don't think any team out there will be willing to take his cash after this season, that's for sure...

1st: Graham Rahal
This is the son of Bobby Rahal? This guy was good enough for Chip Ganassi and Newman/Haas to sign him? Seriously? The longer time goes on, the more it becomes clear he's only around because of his surname. Yes, Marco Andretti is too, but Marco can actually put in decent performances week in and week out. Other than Long Beach, Graham Rahal was either getting beat by the very lowly-rated James Jakes or finding ways to use his car as a battering ram. The fact that he is an arrogant, whiny little bathplugger makes it even easier to nominate him as Reject of the Year. There are no more excuses for him in 2014 -- he has Bill Pappas, daddy's money, and a whole team built around preserving his pointless career. If he does not win multiple races next season, he will likely be nominated again! There's only reason he isn't given more crap than he is -- Robin Miller is his publicist.

Teams:

First and second were easy. Third I had to think about.

3rd: Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing
I really shouldn't have been surprised, because, bar Indy, this team was crap in 2012. Their 2013 wasn't much better, but they make this list largely for their horrible use of resources ... obviously Graham Rahal is their #1 driver, when it was pretty obvious that James Jakes was the better driver in the team. 2014 looks better though with Bill Pappas on board, and if they don't win multiple races, then the excuses will really run out.

2nd: A.J. Foyt Enterprises
If you saw only the second half of the season, you would probably be shocked that A.J. Foyt Enterprises snapped their winless streak and led the championship at one point. They snapped their winless streak with Taku, nearly won again at Sao Paolo, but after May they kept finding their way to the bottom of the result sheets with early retirements. The advantages that they and Dale Coyne Racing found early evaporated, and they predictably failed to keep up with the bigger teams. Unlike Dale Coyne's team, though, Foyt's team seemed to be the DNF kings.

1st: Dragon Racing
There's a reason Dragon Racing was the only team in the field to have never won an IndyCar race. This is the team that had a killer pairing at the end of last year with Bourdais at the wheel, but they broke up that pairing to favor Saavedra. Granted, Bourdais should have won Baltimore, and was a contender at Fontana and Toronto, but the season was half-over before the team realized that something needed to change. Given the way they treated Katherine Legge, it's only just desserts that Saavedra proves to be the worst IndyCar driver since Milka Duno and Francesco Dracone, and that the team has such a terrible season that they're out of the sport.

[watka]

As the resident bike nut, I suppose I'd better do MotoGP!

Best riders:

3rd: Aleix Espargaro
His performances on the CRT bike were consistently amazing. Yes, the ART machine was the most developed of the CRT machines, but he wiped the floor with teammate De Puniet and he beat prototype bikes home in 8 races by my count. Had the Pramacs and Bradley Smith in his back pocket at the start of the season. Always the favourite to qualify from Q2, even against the Pramac machines. On several occasions he ran with the hounds in the early laps of a race, I seem to remember him running 3rd on lap 1 of a race this season. Astonishing that he's not got a prototype ride next season. Also, would have been good to see how he would have fared in a wet race this season where the power deficit would have been irrelevant.

2nd Jorge Lorenzo
Jorge is an absolute battler and will get everything out of the machine. Against the odds (and with the aid of the Phillip Island farce), he took the championship to the last race by quite simply winning every race within his capability. He won 5 of the last 7 GPs (OK, so Marquez was playing the safe game but Lorenzo was able to fend him off) and was on the podium in all the last 9 races. Only at Le Mans did Jorge ride poorly without having injury as an excuse. The Yahama was once again not as strong as the Honda this year (as evidenced by Rossi's performances) but Lorenzo was always fighting with them. It was also interesting to see him learning from Marquez and adapting his own riding style to suit the purpose. He is the most complete rider on the grid and if Yahama give him the right bike next season, I expect him to take back the championship.

1st Marc Marquez
For me, it wasn't a surprise to see him win races. He was amazing in Moto2, winning races in his first season and dominating the second season, including winning races from the back of the grid in a class where the bikes are meant to be quite even. By joining the Honda factory team, there were shades of Lewis Hamilton from the start. However, it was surprising that he could go one better than Lewis and actually win the title, making the fewest mistakes out of any of title contenders in the process. His riding style is astonishing, so aggressive. Which makes it all the more impressive that from Mugello, he didn't have any crashfest weekends. He blew his teammate Pedrosa, a very competent racer, into the weeds. He's smashed all of the rookie records it is possible to smash. This guy will only get better but it will be interesting how he copes with a target on his back next season. Kenny Roberts Snr won the title in his rookie season and also the next 2 seasons, so that is the (very high) benchmark he'll be judged against.



Rejects:

3rd: Bradley Smith
Harsh? Maybe so, this was Bradley's first season in MotoGP. His teammate being Cal Crutchlow, he was always going to find it tough competing with him. However, Smith was meant to be so good that it warranted pushing Crutchlow or, as happened, Dovizioso out of the team (also, Crutchlow leaving the team at the end of this season is partly because of Smith's 2 year contract). Instead of having 2 riders fighting for top 6 finishes, Smith was struggling to get top 8 finishes or even qualified on the front 3 rows. He was being well beaten by the Ducatis and sometimes even Espargaro and Pirro. Granted, that changed by the end of the season but partly because Ducati have no idea how to develop a bike and have rock bottom morale. And even with those performances he still finished behind the two works Ducatis in the championship. I wouldn't mind it if he was on a CRT machine, but he doesn't warrant a prototype ride based on this season or any his junior class results (he's won 3 races in 5 years in 125s, in which 2 of those years he had the best bike on the grid, and was good without ever looking like winning a race in Moto2).

2nd Ducati (inc. Pramac)
Ok, so their poor performance isn't surprising any more. Since 2008, no one except Stoner has been able to do anything with the bike. But surely, SURELY, they should have worked something out by now. They're are in as strong a position as ever since the Audi takeover but they are further off the pace than ever before. They seem so inept; they are forever bringing new parts to GPs but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING makes them go faster. They got 4 top six finishes between the two works riders all season, coming at 2 races (Le Mans and Mugello), which in a field of 12 full prototype bikes is woeful. It makes McLaren look like Red Bull. As for Pramac, they've got their loyalties but what's stopping them switching to a different bike, even a reworked Kawasaki, Suzuki or CRT? What's the point of running around at the back of the pack for multiple times the cost of running a CRT machine?

1st Lukas Pesek
The CRT bikes get next to zero airtime on TV, but the majority of time they do get is devoted either to Espargaro mixing it with the big boys or Pesek throwing it off the road. He is an utter joke who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near MotoGP, even on a CRT bike. He retired 11 times in 18 races, mostly from crashes. Compare that to the next closest riders who competed in all of the rounds, Yonny Hernandez and Randy de Puniet (both noted crash-masters) who retired 6 times each. To cap it all off, every time he did finish the race, he was dead last, aside from Phillip Island when Cudlin and Aoyama got drive through penalties. The only thing going for him was that he was that he wasn't always the slowest in qualifying, but this was only at the start of the season and by the end of the season, Cudlin, Staring and Laverty had got used to things and were beating him consistently. Honestly, he makes Karel Abraham look like Giacomo Agostini.

[Alextrax52]

2nd Ducati (inc. Pramac)
Ok, so their poor performance isn't surprising any more. Since 2008, no one except Stoner has been able to do anything with the bike. But surely, SURELY, they should have worked something out by now. They're are in as strong a position as ever since the Audi takeover but they are further off the pace than ever before. They seem so inept; they are forever bringing new parts to GPs but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING makes them go faster. They got 4 top six finishes between the two works riders all season, coming at 2 races (Le Mans and Mugello), which in a field of 12 full prototype bikes is woeful. It makes McLaren look like Red Bull. As for Pramac, they've got their loyalties but what's stopping them switching to a different bike, even a reworked Kawasaki, Suzuki or CRT? What's the point of running around at the back of the pack for multiple times the cost of running a CRT machine?

As i said earlier Rossi scored more Wins and Podiums this year than the last 2 seasons combined which rather says it all about Ducati's current woes. Ducati are making the 2006-2008 version of Subaru's WRC team look like World Champions: At least Subaru had a decent 2008 with 6 podiums

I think Randy de Puniet should be a lock for a ROTY podium place because i can't remember a single moment from Free Practice in Qatar to the race in Valencia where he looked like challenging Espargaro. While Aleix battled the Tech 3's and Ducati's for most of the year Randy was fighting with the Pramac's and occasionally struggling to keep in front of Petrucci and Edwards and I hardly knew he was racing this year because he was that quiet. As a wise man once said it's better to be having a go and crashing than to be anonymous and not get noticed

[watka]

Which is funny because de Puniet usually makes a habit of riding too fast and falling off.

[Alextrax52]

I've changed the topic name. You can now make ROTY for Football and Athletics and other sports

[Dj_bereta]

Reject of Fifa Club World Cup 2012: Chelsea FC
Lose for Corinthians, a team like Chelsea, who never had won the main title of your continent (Libertadores is the South America version of UEFA Champions League) and a team without exceptional players (only one player of this team played for Brazil in that year). Had a lot of opportunities to score goals and just blew it.

Funny that Chelsea had a massive support from Brazilians, because Corinthians is the most hated team of his country.

Reject of Fifa Club World Cup 2013: Atlético-MG
Played really bad and deserved to lose to Raja Casa Blanca. Had a lot of difficult with Guangzhou, who was dominated by Bayern.

[Alextrax52]

I suppose as the Biathlon Nut I might as well do a top 3 for 2012/2013

3rd Darya Domracheva: On paper 3 wins 10 podiums a Gold medal at the WCH's and 2nd in the total cup is something that our Rejects could only dream of achieving. However this season was in fact a major letdown for Dasha. With the previous number 1 Magdalena Neuner retiring (after only 7 seasons and at 25 because she won everything in the sport) everyone though that Domracheva would run away with the season having been a clear number 2 in 11/12. How wrong everyone was. Norway's Tora Berger did the creaming of the field with 11 wins and 19 podiums while Dasha had some absolute shocking races. Some days the Belorussian coaches got the choice of skis wrong while on others Dasha had shooting meltdowns like the 20k Individual in Nove Mesto with 6 errors which in that format gets a 1 minute penalty for each miss. A real letdown of a year against expectations.

2nd Arnd Peiffer: In the last 2 seasons Arnd had finished 4th in the total cup but in neither season had he got off to a quick start and usually was at the back of the top 30 at Christmas before waking up to take 2 wins and 5 2nd's in 11/12. So when he started in Ostersund with 3 top 11's it looked like he could finally make a challenge for the total cup. Instead the next events in Hochfilzen set his season in stone with 40th and 25th in those races. It got worse in Pokljuka where a poor Sprint meant he didn't even qualify for the following Pursuit event and then in the Mass Start he came home in LAST PLACE (30th in this race) with just 3 errors. To compound his misery team-mate Andreas Birnbacher overcome a duff ski pole change to hit 20/20 and won the race in the process. The Pursuit in Antholz was another nadir with another last place (usually 60th but 54th because some athletes including Birnbacher who would have started 4th chose not to race). His only highlights were 5 top 10's including 2 4th places and 3 Podiums in the Relay events helping Germany including a Bronze at the WCH's. Not a good season for a man of his talent

1st Tina Bachmann: Any other year and Peiffer would have taken ROTY outright but at least he showed his potential some of the time not like Bachmann oh no Tina Bachmann's season was just like Peiffer's only the lack of results and bad shooting being 110% amplified. Right from race 1 of the year it was clear that she had turned into a shadow of the athlete who did a solid dependable job in 11/12 finishing 14th with 6 top 10's. A quick run through her results let it show: 37th, 33th, 38th, 48th, 54th, 50th, 26th, 64th, 38th and then the German coaches decided to kick her out of the team for underperforming (Toro Rosso anyone?) and that was that for her year. She also hurt the team's Relay results too especially in Ruhpolding where they were 4th as she was the slowest on the tracks. After her exit from the team Germany won 2 Relay's which kind of speaks volumes doesn't it?. Hasn't been seen since and doesn't look like returning anytime soon

[Dj_bereta]

Reject of UEFA Champions League 2014:

Club Atlético de Madrid: Did exactly the same thing that J.R Hildebrand did in 2011 Indianapolis 500. Nuff said.

[Alextrax52]

Some for WRC

2001
3 Freddy Loix
2 Peugeot unreliability
1 The Mitsubishi WRC car

2002
3 Richard Burns
2 The fallout between McRae and Grist
1 Mitsubishi

2003
3 Marcus Gronholm
2 Tommi Makinen
1 Hyundai

2004
3 Mistubishi
2 Mikko Hirvonen
1 The Peugeot 307

2005
3 Francois Duval
2 Pirelli
1 Ford

[Dj_bereta]

Reject of Fifa World Cup Brazil 2014 - Spain: South Africa 2010 heroes to Brazil 2014 zeroes. Elimination in Group stages, suffered 7 goals in only 2 matches. No need to wait the end of tournament to elect the ROFWC 2014.

[Onxy Wrecked]

ROTY of 2011 MLB Season: Adam Dunn for hitting the lowest batting average for a full season since 1968 at .159. His walk rate was almost as high as his batting average with 11 home runs. What makes matters worse is he hit .204 with 41 home runs the next season despite striking out 222 times, an MLB record for not hitting the ball well. When your slump ends and the power jumps by 30 HRs, the batting average by .045, and just about every other number also increased dramatically despite only playing in about 40 more games you know how terrible Dunn's season was in 2011.

[FMecha]

Reject of Fifa World Cup Brazil 2014 - Spain: South Africa 2010 heroes to Brazil 2014 zeroes. Elimination in Group stages, suffered 7 goals in only 2 matches. No need to wait the end of tournament to elect the ROFWC 2014.

France suffered the same fate too in Japan/Korea 2002.

[AustralianStig]

Reject of Fifa World Cup Brazil 2014 - Spain: South Africa 2010 heroes to Brazil 2014 zeroes. Elimination in Group stages, suffered 7 goals in only 2 matches. No need to wait the end of tournament to elect the ROFWC 2014.

France suffered the same fate too in Japan/Korea 2002.

As did Italy in 2010...that moment the final whistle went to mean they had drawn 1-1 with New Zealand was possibly my favourite moment ever in football, when I was still smarting from the defeat Australia suffered at their hands in 2006 thanks to a soft penalty in the 93rd minute.

[Dj_bereta]

Reject of Fifa World Cup Brazil 2014 - Spain: South Africa 2010 heroes to Brazil 2014 zeroes. Elimination in Group stages, suffered 7 goals in only 2 matches. No need to wait the end of tournament to elect the ROFWC 2014.

France suffered the same fate too in Japan/Korea 2002.

As did Italy in 2010...that moment the final whistle went to mean they had drawn 1-1 with New Zealand was possibly my favourite moment ever in football, when I was still smarting from the defeat Australia suffered at their hands in 2006 thanks to a soft penalty in the 93rd minute.

There no kind of rivalry between Australia and New Zealand? Its strange to me see an Australian cheering for New Zealand.

[Klon]

There no kind of rivalry between Australia and New Zealand? Its strange to me see an Australian cheering for New Zealand.

There is, but since the only difference between the Kiwis and the Convicts is how much they love sheep (eros and storge respectively), it's easy to band against outsiders.

[AustralianStig]

There no kind of rivalry between Australia and New Zealand? Its strange to me see an Australian cheering for New Zealand.

There is, but since the only difference between the Kiwis and the Convicts is how much they love sheep (eros and storge respectively), it's easy to band against outsiders.

I think because NZ are generally such a minor power in football we've never really had a huge rivalry with them. Sure, if we lost to them it would be unacceptable, but with most of their players playing in the Australian A-League anyway there's a certain amount of friendly camaraderie with them.

Plus, we always love an underdog getting one over a superpower.

[Londoner]

Now that the first major series has ended for the year, in the form of IndyCar, it's time to dish out some nominations for ROTY

3rd: Ryan Hunter-Reay
It may seem harsh to nominate RHR considering he won the Indy 500 this year, and had the joint highest number of wins this season. But I feel RHR choked this championship away, which takes some skill when you're up against the choke twins Helio Castroneves and Will "W**ker" Power. Firstly, there was Long Beach, where having dominated the first half of the race from pole, he was leapfrogged by Joesf Newgarden in the pits, and in his haste to reclaim the lead, made a wild move which ended up taking nearly a third of the field out of the race, including himself and his own team mate James Hinchcliffe. Then there was the Detroit double header after Indy, where he did nothing that weekend other than find different walls to crash into. And then there was that shambles of a race at Mid-Ohio, where with the fastest car on track, he managed to get himself a pitlane penalty, and then the most pathetic spin I've seen in years. All in all, he should've won it this year.

2nd: Takuma Sato
Yeah... It's been a horrible season for Taku and AJ Foyt's team. They've effectively carried on with the terrible post-Milwaukee form they suffered last year. Getting caught up in far too many incidents for my liking. Admittedly, they've been on for good results only for some disaster to happen (the first Houston race where Sato was dominating until Marco Andretti decided that adhering to blue flags didn't apply to him, which backed Sato into the pack, and then after a caution, he was taken out by Mikhail Aleshin on the restart). I honestly can't see him being back next season.

1st: Graham Rahal
Someone who I'm glad will probably not be back on the grid next season however, is this chap. Once again, it's been proven that he's living off his surname. Another terrible season, which considering the money his team had behind them this season, is unacceptable. At one point in the season, he had less points than Kurt Busch. Why is that interesting? Because Kurt Busch only did the Indy 500, and in that one race he scored more points than young Graham had done ALL SEASON to that point. Add to that the crap he pulled off at Houston, plus the usual whinging, and it's a clear cut ROTY for Graham Rahal. Good riddance.

Honourable mentions:

Carlos HUErtas - Aside from his shock win at Houston (thank you very much based Graham Rahal...), he's just too slow really. Not a crasher by any means, but he still doesn't seem terribly comfortable within the series. Whether Dale Coyne keep him on remains to be seen.

Target Chip Ganassi Racing - Until Mid-Ohio, this was a terrible season for Chip's boys. Like Andretti, they'd been caught with their pants down by Penske. The only reason why they didn't make it onto the ROTY podium is due to the turnaround they had, winning three of the last four races. Scott Dixon seemed out of sorts for most of the season, making uncharacteristic errors, TK took time to settle down, Charlie Kimball was anonymous, and Ryan Briscoe was barely justifying his seat, if at all.

[Samster]

I don't know what's happened to Graham Rahal in recent seasons, he seemed quite promising back in his Newman-Haas days. Isn't he still the youngest ever winner in CART/Indycar?

[Dj_bereta]

My IZOD Indycar Series 2014 ROTY:

3rd - Graham Rahal: Rahal team isn't the best of the world, but he wasted good results with mediocre races.

2nd - Carlos Huertas: Aside of the impressive victory in Houston, Huertas had a very poor debut year. He needs to improve in the next year or Dale Coyne will fire him for sure.

1st - Sebastian Saavedra: Only 29 points ahead of Ed Capenter, a driver who only competed in Oval races; More than 100 points behind of his team mate and the unique driver who competed in all races of this year to score less than 300 points. Another awful year for the Colombian. KV is wasting a race seat with this driver.

Mentions:

AJ Foyt/Takuma Sato: Got in too many incidents in this year and the car had too many mechanical failures too. No surprise if Sato leaves Indycar for racing in Formula E.

Chip Ganassi: Lackluster first half of the season and a horrible Indy 500 race. At least the team recovered well in the second half.

Marco Andretti and James Hinchfcliffe: Spent all the year fighting in the middle of the field rather in the front of it.

Helio Castroneves: Yes, its harsh to nominate the 2nd in the drivers standing, but to be frank, Helio threw another title in the garbage, most because mediocre races like in Milwaukee, when the Penske scored a 1-2 and he finished in a distant 10th. No wonder he saw his team mates winning the title four times and no wonder he lose the title for the biggest "guy who throw his title in the garbage" Will Power. He is a good driver and an excellent Indy 500 specialist, but he isn't a good driver for win a title.

[Salamander]

My personal ROTY podium:

3rd - Marco Andretti: After easily the worst year of his career, Marco significantly upped his game for 2013 and was a consistent challenger, if maybe lacking that last one or two tenths to make him a title contender in full. It looked like he was maybe finally living up to his name. But despite 2 podiums in the first 5 races to start the year, after the Indy 500 he failed to finish higher than 8th. The only other drivers who competed after Indy and failed to score a top 5? Sebastian Saavedra and Luca Filippi, and even then they managed to put themselves in contention for a decent result at least once. Not Marco, though.

2nd - Helio Castroneves: In the final 5 races, Castroneves had twice started from pole, set fastest lap twice, and once led the most laps. His best finish across these 5 races? Eleventh. At Milwaukee, where his teammates were 1-2 and he was struggling to crack the top 10 all day. And yet, had Helio been running up front and won at Fontana like everyone, including himself, knew he had to do, he still would've won the title when Power's crew choked on his final stop. Instead, he finished 14th and barely held off Dixon for 2nd in the standings. It was the most pathetic championship run-in I've ever seen and he should be incredibly ashamed of himself for such poor performances.

1st - Graham Rahal: Bill Pappas joined Rahal's team this year. Pappas spent 2013 making Justin Wilson a regular front-runner for Dale Coyne. What does Graham do with this ability? 1 2nd place finish in Detroit, one overly ambitious fuel run at Sonoma which was never going to pan out but the team had no alternative thanks to Rahal qualifying well back from where he should've been, and one case of going completely full retard at Houston. He had great cars fairly often and always failed to get the most out of them, save maybe that one 2nd place - he had only 3 other top 10 finishes. The only full-time drivers he beat were Huertas in the second Coyne paydriver-mobile, and Saavedra. He was behind Sato who had 9 consecutive races where he was 18th or worse. He came out of the Indy 500 with less points than Kurt Busch. To put it short - he sucked. I hear in his defense, that Rahal does a lot of things from charity - but being a nice guy is no substitute for having talent.

Honourable mentions:

Sebastian Saavedra: Horrendous year by and large, but he escapes the podium by the skin of his teeth because I had no expectations for him. And he came up with that pole at Indy, and then being the fastest car at Iowa, and looking like a contender for the win before he put it in the wall.

Luca Filippi: Every time he was putting his name in the mix for a full time drive in 2015, he wound up hitting the wall and reminding us all why he isn't in F1.

Takuma Sato: Awful, awful mid-season stretch, but he picked up a few very badly needed results at the end of the year.

[Alextrax52]

I'm going to give some nominations for GP2

Teams
Caterham Racing: So quick in pre-season testing but right from the start the season was doomed for them. They continued to eat up their tires like they did in 2012, They've achieved 1 solitary podium all season and Rio Haryanto hasn't scored since he got that Monaco podium. They split with Alex Rossi who's been with them for a few years and they lie 11th out of 13 teams. Rubbish

Hilmer Motorsport: Well I thought the link up with Force India would reap results but all they've shown this year is that the livery is better than the awful Blue and Orange one used last season. The cars got caught up in accidents and had the worst reliability in the opening few rounds. Daniel Abt's career continues to stutter and Jon Lancaster's not been anywhere near effective than he was last season. They haven't achieved a podium and are only ahead of Lazarus who usually prop up the table. Appalling

Arden: Speaking of mighty teams falling what has gone wrong at Arden in the last decade? After the challenge of Razia in 2012 and a decent 2013 where Evans got 4 podiums their only podium this season came courtesy of super sub Dillman and the car has been slow and uncompetitive. Their worst season since 2011

Drivers

Stephane Richelmi: In the best car all season he has only stood on the podium twice and one of them was in Monaco where Canamasas would have won on another day. Meanwhile team-mate Palmer has stormed to the championship in the same car. What tops it off is he's had the same amount of experience as Palmer's got (4 years) Time to let him go and bring a more talented driver in

Rene Binder: He started well in Bahrain but ever since then he's been completely obliterated by Negrao now that he's settled in. Not been anywhere near the pace he was in 2013 and he performed a very pathetic act in Monaco by causing a pile up which took out himself, Negrao and delayed half the field. He's 25th in the championship and should not be in GP2 next year

Sergio Canamasas: Despite a brilliant podium in Monaco I got the feeling it was only a matter of time before he caused an accident and after that he was completely overshadowed by Cecotto and then THAT awful piece of driving at Monza just sealed his fate. It was ludicrous and pathetic and the worst bit of driving i've seen in a long time

I won't be able to do BTCC nominations but i can wait to see who will

[Londoner]

My nominations for BTCC ROTY

Honourable mentions:

Matt Neal - Never looked comfortable in the Civic Tourer apart from Knockhill. Was absolutely demolished by Shedden this season. I wouldn't really be surprised if 2015 is his swansong.

United Autosports - There was so much hype surrounding this team at the start of the year, and sadly it didn't amount to anything, with a horribly underpowered Toyota engine ruining their debut season. A shame really, they seem a well-funded and respectable outfit.

The offical BTCC forum - More a personal gripe of mine than a real nomination, but I'd recommend you steer well clear of that place, some of the members on there are absolute cockwombles to the nth degree.

3rd: Welch Motorsport - It pains me to nominate one of my favourite teams, but they doomed themselves to a horrific season with their own-build engine project, which turned the solid midfield Proton (capable of fighting in the top 10 on its day), into a backmarker. I was watching at Snetterton, and the car seemed pretty handy around the twisty sections, but it was absolutely mullered on the straights. I really hope they can absorb the pain and come back better next season, Dan Welch is a great chap and deserves far more success than he gets.

2nd: Fabrizio Giovanardi - It was so frustrating watching Gio this season, as we'd often get flashes of the driver that cleaned up in the late 2000s, but there were so many unforced errors, and he was trounced by Mat Jackson, who wasn't even confirmed in the Focus until Media Day. Alan Menu got up to pace far quicker, and he'd been out of BTCC TEN years longer than Gio had. I really can't see Gio coming back next season, and it saddens me, but it appears he is past it, and he's sullied the memories of him driving the hell out of a Vauxhall to two BTCC titles.

1st: Martin Depper - Good word. Completely hapless all season long. What makes it far far worse, and therefore my choice for ROTY, is that he had a Honda Civic to drive. You know, the car that had taken the last three BTCC titles. What was he doing with such brilliant machinery? Using it to qualify below 20th position, and having a string of embarrassing races and incidents. Do I even have to mention who his team mate was? I'm sure Depper is a nice chap, but he's completely out of his depth. For all of Jeff Smith's faults, at least he could match Jordan on occasion and provide valuable help. Depper did not crack the top 10 in THIRTY attempts.

[1993DonningtonNo1]

BTCC Rejects:

1995

1st - Alfa Romeo - They were to the BTCC in 1995 what Ferrari was to F1 in 1980!
2nd - Simon Harrison - Scored just 9 points all season!
3rd - Paul Radisich - Scored 128 points in first 15 races, scored just 2 in last 10 races!

Dishonourable mentions:

Renault's luck and reliability
Rickard Rydell's luck and race starts
BMW
The Kentish weather, 3 visits to Brands Hatch, only one was sunny and didn't have any race stoppages

1996

1st - Ian Heward - His AGE-old Cavalier!
2nd - Steve Robertson - Only 2 points all season and marked his debut by colliding with his team-mate!
3rd - Rousesport Nissan - Not much better than Robertson

Dishonourable mentions:

Peugeot
Ford
John Cleland

[dr-baker]

Not quite sure where to stick this, so this seems the best place.

I tried searching for the story of the bloke who drove his girlfriend's car onto Brands Hatch in the middle of a VW Fun Race in the middle of June, but couldn't find any reference to it on this forum. Anyway, for the breach in safety etc., the guy is being locked up at Her Majesty's pleasure for 8 months. BBC story here.

A very rejectful incident in the history of Brands Hatch, who have subsequently reviewed their security. Personally, I think a minimum 1-year prison sentence would have been better.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Not quite sure where to stick this, so this seems the best place.

I tried searching for the story of the bloke who drove his girlfriend's car onto Brands Hatch in the middle of a VW Fun Race in the middle of June, but couldn't find any reference to it on this forum. Anyway, for the breach in safety etc., the guy is being locked up at Her Majesty's pleasure for 8 months. BBC story here.

A very rejectful incident in the history of Brands Hatch, who have subsequently reviewed their security. Personally, I think a minimum 1-year prison sentence would have been better.

I posted the video in the reject YouTube thread a month ago, but that was just plain idiotic. There's no excuse for that sort of behaviour.

[dr-baker]

Not quite sure where to stick this, so this seems the best place.

I tried searching for the story of the bloke who drove his girlfriend's car onto Brands Hatch in the middle of a VW Fun Race in the middle of June, but couldn't find any reference to it on this forum. Anyway, for the breach in safety etc., the guy is being locked up at Her Majesty's pleasure for 8 months. BBC story here.

A very rejectful incident in the history of Brands Hatch, who have subsequently reviewed their security. Personally, I think a minimum 1-year prison sentence would have been better.

I posted the video in the reject YouTube thread a month ago, but that was just plain idiotic. There's no excuse for that sort of behaviour.

Do you think that 8 months is enough of a deterrent/punishment for what he did?

[roblo97]

Not quite sure where to stick this, so this seems the best place.

I tried searching for the story of the bloke who drove his girlfriend's car onto Brands Hatch in the middle of a VW Fun Race in the middle of June, but couldn't find any reference to it on this forum. Anyway, for the breach in safety etc., the guy is being locked up at Her Majesty's pleasure for 8 months. BBC story here.

A very rejectful incident in the history of Brands Hatch, who have subsequently reviewed their security. Personally, I think a minimum 1-year prison sentence would have been better.

I posted the video in the reject YouTube thread a month ago, but that was just plain idiotic. There's no excuse for that sort of behaviour.

Do you think that 8 months is enough of a deterrent/punishment for what he did?

No.

[andrew2209]

Not quite sure where to stick this, so this seems the best place.

I tried searching for the story of the bloke who drove his girlfriend's car onto Brands Hatch in the middle of a VW Fun Race in the middle of June, but couldn't find any reference to it on this forum. Anyway, for the breach in safety etc., the guy is being locked up at Her Majesty's pleasure for 8 months. BBC story here.

A very rejectful incident in the history of Brands Hatch, who have subsequently reviewed their security. Personally, I think a minimum 1-year prison sentence would have been better.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't think the sentence is excessively lenient, which is what I seem to hear browsing the internet. I think a bigger question is how Brands Hatch let this happen

[Salamander]

Not quite sure where to stick this, so this seems the best place.

I tried searching for the story of the bloke who drove his girlfriend's car onto Brands Hatch in the middle of a VW Fun Race in the middle of June, but couldn't find any reference to it on this forum. Anyway, for the breach in safety etc., the guy is being locked up at Her Majesty's pleasure for 8 months. BBC story here.

A very rejectful incident in the history of Brands Hatch, who have subsequently reviewed their security. Personally, I think a minimum 1-year prison sentence would have been better.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't think the sentence is excessively lenient, which is what I seem to hear browsing the internet. I think a bigger question is how Brands Hatch let this happen

Well, it was club racing and generally at those sort of meetings, it's all very friendly and there's never really a need for high security. That would be my guess.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Not quite sure where to stick this, so this seems the best place.

I tried searching for the story of the bloke who drove his girlfriend's car onto Brands Hatch in the middle of a VW Fun Race in the middle of June, but couldn't find any reference to it on this forum. Anyway, for the breach in safety etc., the guy is being locked up at Her Majesty's pleasure for 8 months. BBC story here.

A very rejectful incident in the history of Brands Hatch, who have subsequently reviewed their security. Personally, I think a minimum 1-year prison sentence would have been better.

I posted the video in the reject YouTube thread a month ago, but that was just plain idiotic. There's no excuse for that sort of behaviour.

Do you think that 8 months is enough of a deterrent/punishment for what he did?

I certainly hope so. Perhaps a year might have been better but we'll have to see (if we do see).

[Dj_bereta]

Well, it's time for another ROTY podium. Just like the indycar drivers say: lets keep doing this, for Justin.

3rd - Will Power: I was wondering to give the third place to Pagenaud, but in the last race changed my mind. Power was the driver with most pole positions in this year, but he failed to capitalize the advantage. Mistakes like in Detroit and Fontana, when he crashed by his own fault, costed him some precious points. Plus, he crashed with Montoya in the last race (his fault), costing him the championship. Power not only lost another title due his own errors, but helped Montoya to lose one too.

2nd - Sage Karam: Too many mistakes for a indy lights champion. No wonder Ganassi decided to put Saavedra in his place for some races in this year.

1st - Stefano Coletti: The fate of the bad rookie season strikes again. Coletti had an awful season, considering he was a GP2 championship runner up. He was crushed by Bourdais in every single way. He barely scored 200pts! He almost finished behind Sage Karam, who is a rookie too and shared his car with Saavedra. He managed to finish behind Briscoe!

With better drivers without a full season contract (like Servia, Fillippi and even Vautier and Saavedra), it's hard to imagine Coletti in KV for the next season or even in Indycar again.

Mentions:

Simon Pagenaud: Anonymous during all year. No one was expecting this after a stunning season with an underdog team like Schmidt.

James Jakes: Another completely anonymous season. Ryan Briscoe and Conor Daly did a better job in the Schmidt car.

Francesco Dracone: No wonder he was fired. One of the worst drivers since Milka Dunno to race in the indycar.

Rahal's attitude: I know it was frustrating to be taken out, especially when you are fighting for the championship, but always getting angry, wanting a fight... C'mon! This isn't Nascar (and ever for Nascar this is stupid).

Helio Castroneves: An average and winless season (while Power and Montoya won some races). Another season finishing behind a team mate. He still a good driver, especially at Indy 500, but looks like he will never wins a title.

Tony Kannan: His team mate wins the title and he finished in an average 8th place, with no wins and 125pts behind him. He lost precious points with crashes like in Indy and Pocono. TK still have the talent, but he needs to stop doing mistakes and losing points.

[Izzyeviel]

Cal Crutchlow in Motogp.

He's basically the bike version of Pastor. Got the talent and speed, but is a magnet for trouble!