Reject of the Race - Belgium 2015

Post by **Miguel98** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:33

Post your nominations mateys.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:41

Ricciardo's car. I think he could've threatened Grosjean for 3rd on the option tyres had it not died on him.

Aguaman · Post by **Aguaman** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:43

Williams/Bottas - Going nowhere from the get go and then the whole 3 option and 1 prime tire together is kind of lolworthy since how does it even happen?

HM - F1 Fanatic - An independent motor sport website - Makes this comment - "Would rather have a race with no passes than a race with 100 unimpressive DRS slam-dunks" and RTs 'DRS is killing the sport' nonsense during the race.

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:45

There's a case to nominate everyone but Mercedes, and obviously Ferrari stand out for the failed gamble on Vettel's strategy and Kimi's qualifying issue, but I'm going to have to go Williams for putting multicoloured tires on Bottas' car.

In one way it could be seen as an easy mistake to make, but no other team's made it. Ever.

tBone · Post by **tBone** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:46

The weather - What went wrong? Where was the rain, not only today but all weekend?

Williams - Disappointing performances, being beaten by a Lotus and a Force India. Both drivers were quite anonymous, but at least the tyre confusion brought some entertainment.

Ferrari - Poor Kimi's weekend was wasted by the trouble yesterday, on the track where I expected a lot of him. And today, Vettel would have easily gotten 4th and maybe even challenged Romain in the end if he just would have gotten new tyres. I know, it was a gamble, it could have worked out, but honestly, gambling on fresh tyres would have made so much more sense.

EDIT: Sebastian Vettel deserves a mention of his own for exactly this.

Post by **Miguel98** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:47

Williams - While one can say that the rules are too tight, we can also say that Williams bathplug up big time there with the tyres. To make matters worse, they we're nowhere today, in a track that should've been their best in terms of outright pace.
Ricciardo's car - Seriously, though. Everytime Ricky's is into a top result, something happens. And everytime he's outperforming Kvyat, his car dies.
Honda - "We're going to be on Ferrari level". Sure, if they mean the 2014 spec engine. The worse thing is the contradictory opinions, with Honda claiming one thing, and McLaren claiming another. On the plus side, somehow, Alonso set the 5th Fastest Lap of the race. Somehow.
Maldonado's car - Everytime single time. He's going good, then his car dies. Shame people will look at him by his crashes, and not by bad luck. Hopefully in Monza we still have Lotus on the grid, and with this bomb so Pastor can finally shut up his haters.

WaffleCat · Post by **WaffleCat** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:48

Williams. They were abnormally slow, and the multi-coloured tyres kinda sealed the deal.

Post by **mario** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:52

Miguel98 wrote:Williams - While one can say that the rules are too tight, we can also say that Williams bathplug up big time there with the tyres. To make matters worse, they we're nowhere today, in a track that should've been their best in terms of outright pace.
Ricciardo's car - Seriously, though. Everytime Ricky's is into a top result, something happens. And everytime he's outperforming Kvyat, his car dies.
Honda - "We're going to be on Ferrari level". Sure, if they mean the 2014 spec engine. The worse thing is the contradictory opinions, with Honda claiming one thing, and McLaren claiming another. On the plus side, somehow, Alonso set the 5th Fastest Lap of the race. Somehow.
Maldonado's car - Everytime single time. He's going good, then his car dies. Shame people will look at him by his crashes, and not by bad luck. Hopefully in Monza we still have Lotus on the grid, and with this bomb so Pastor can finally shut up his haters.

I think that there is little to add to this - Williams really should have done better at a circuit which should have worked to their strengths, Red Bull lost out on a potential podium, Honda's just been dire and Maldonado could have picked up a pretty decent result if the car hadn't conked out so quickly.

rachel1990 · Post by **rachel1990** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:54

Quite a few contenders here especially Ferrari and what happened to Vettel but I will give it to Williams and a catalogue of errors especially the tyre farce on a day where a podium should had been the target.

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:57

Aguaman wrote:HM - F1 Fanatic - An independent motor sport website - Makes this comment - "Would rather have a race with no passes than a race with 100 unimpressive DRS slam-dunks" and RTs 'DRS is killing the sport' nonsense during the race.

I can sort of understand how someone could have this view, because I find DRS aided overtakes to be dull. It's not really a battle for position most of the time, it's driver A completely picking driver B's pocket and driver B usually can't do anything about it. It's actually not all that exciting.

That being said, it's preferable to Trulli trains. And unless TPTB can find away to significantly reduce the dirty air issue so drivers can reliably tail another car through several corners until they can set up an overtake without losing all their front end grip, and TPTB can do this without ruining the cars completely, it's probably the best that's going.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 23 Aug 2015, 13:58

Back in Enoch's day of appointing ROTR, there would be one candidate and one candidate only, for giving us the comedy of errors that they've told the world they're trying to eliminate. Clearly they're not trying hard enough.

Take a bow, Williams pit crew...

Post by **Londoner** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:01

Pastor Maldonado's luck - Did he like smash a mirror or two? This is tragic.

Williams - Ran far too much downforce, and as much as I feel the compound rule is unnecessary, that was a rather embarrassing mistake with Bottas's car

McLaren-Honda - Pathetic weekend yet again.

But ROTR has to go to:

FIA over-regulation. This is more of a general ROTR, but whilst watching the Bottas saga unfold it crossed my mind that really, there's nothing wrong with running different compounds of tyre on the car. If anything, if the teams were allowed to run different compounds at each side of the car, or even at each corner, that would spice up strategies and the race. Really, it seems the FIA are imposing rigid rules for no other reason other than to deter variety. Ditto for making non-stop strategies extinct.

good_Ralf · Post by **good_Ralf** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:02

Eddie Jordan for thinking Lotus are powered by Renault.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:06

This is going to have to be a slam dunk for Williams, with what is easily the most amateurish mistake of the entire season.

Post by **tommykl** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:13

We've had teams give a driver his teammate's tyres. I believe we've had team mount rear tyres at the front and vice versa. But we've never had a team mount two different compounds at the same time. Oh, and they were quite slow as well. This can only got to Williams.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:17

While we're on Williams for that amateurish error, let's not forget the baffling decision to play to their weaknesses rather than their strengths. They were sitting ducks for most of the race, and for a car which is renowned for its straight-line speed much more than anything else, that is embarrassing.

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:18

good_Ralf wrote:Eddie Jordan for thinking Lotus are powered by Renault.

Jordan's got increasingly more rambly and incoherent since he joined the BBC. I'm beginning to wonder how he ran an F1 team.

Fetzie · Post by **Fetzie** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:20

The Williams pit crew for mixing up the tyres.

I won't nominate Ferrari for gambling, because if it had paid off we'd be calling it one of the best and bravest decisions of the race. One lap more of the virtual safety car and he'd have been on the podium in third.

AxelP800 · Post by **AxelP800** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:22

Nothing

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:40

Obvious, Williams. Most hilarious mistake of the year.

Special mention for Vettel. He almost caused a crash by staying in the track with only three wheels. IMO, he deserves a punishment.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:42

Eddie Jordan - Continues to bitch about McLaren not being where they "should" be. We get it, the Honda PU is a bit shite, what else is new? He also thought Lotus were still powered by Renault and nobody bothered to correct him. What is he still doing there?

Williams - For putting 1986 Benetton tyres on Bottas' car, although I was curious to see the penalty for such an infringement. They were also not quite where they normally are this weekend.

Pastor Maldonado's luck - :facepalm:

Ferrari - Not a bad recovery from a poor qualifying, but that one-stop gamble proved very costly.

Honda - "On par with Ferrari". Yeah...

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 23 Aug 2015, 14:43

Cars fail. Teams overhype themselves. So like everyone else, I give it to Williams, for the "how?" factor.

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 23 Aug 2015, 15:04

Williams - Pretty easy decision.

Dan B · Post by **Dan B** » 23 Aug 2015, 15:04

I can't see anyone but Williams getting this. Quite slow during the race but the mistake of putting different compounds on the car is what really seals it.

About Sebastian Vettel; in defense I can see why he is angry. The guy suffered a catastrophic tire failure coming out one of the more hair raising parts of the circuit, and coupled with losing a position, I am not surprised he is angry. I do think Pirelli needs to investigate this further; there might've been undue wear from earlier, or maybe Vettel hit some debris that he didn't see (though all retirements were caused by car failure and I didn't see any collisions), so who knows what happened. I guess I'll give an honorable mention to Ferrari for putting too much faith into the tires then.

SeedStriker · Post by **SeedStriker** » 23 Aug 2015, 15:14

1)Williams: Poor pace, no anwsers, and the mixed tyre debacle makes them the lol of the weekend.

2)McLaren Honda's Publicocrap: This BS needs to stop, because we're tired of the same lies week, after week, after week, after week, after week...

Dishonorable mentions to Vettel's Strategy (close but no banana), Pastor Maldonado's Luck (he needs a shaman), Nico Hulkenberg's Hype (he fared better before Le Mans)

WeirdKerr · Post by **WeirdKerr** » 23 Aug 2015, 15:24

a slam dunk for the Williams pit crew....

Zergon · Post by **Zergon** » 23 Aug 2015, 16:45

Easy, Williams takes this one. Managing to lose your speed between qualify and race is one thing and while that would already make them a candidate it´s hardly new thing (Toro Rosso seem to do that almost every race). But that tyre mistake... yeah, other teams would need to do something quite rejectful to overcome that one and sadly for Williams, none got even close.

sw3ishida · Post by **sw3ishida** » 23 Aug 2015, 16:49

Can't see past Williams. They were disappointing anyway, then colour un-coordination happened.

Backmarker · Post by **Backmarker** » 23 Aug 2015, 16:58

Williams, easily. The tyres yet another indication of the team just getting things wrong this season.

roblo97 · Post by **roblo97** » 23 Aug 2015, 17:49

Williams gets my nomination for ROTR but an honorable mention to the British Broadcasting Corporation, firstly for what Simtek already pointed out in his post but also for what Suzi Perry did when she called the race the Hungarian GP, then calling it the German GP, before remembering it was at Spa.

James1978 · Post by **James1978** » 23 Aug 2015, 19:30

To nominate something new for a laugh - Sergio Perez's beard. God it ages him so badly he's now 25 going on 38. And as I follow him on Facebook, I've seen he says it's staying due to him getting a good result!!

Otherwise Williams for their tyre mess-up and Vettel for giving us a laugh in his post-race interview.

Spectoremg · Post by **Spectoremg** » 23 Aug 2015, 20:07

The powers that dish out penalties. Wasn't letting Bottas circulate on mismatched tyres just a little dangerous? How about making his penalty a stop go with a proper tyre change?
HM: The left hand curb at the top of Eau Rouge. Modified at the request of the drivers who then just took the micky by driving over it. Get rid of it altogether.

More_Blue_Flags · Post by **More_Blue_Flags** » 23 Aug 2015, 20:40

Williams were ordinary at best on a circuit which should have played to the FW37's strengths, but the tyre disaster was woeful.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 23 Aug 2015, 20:51

Spectoremg wrote:The powers that dish out penalties. Wasn't letting Bottas circulate on mismatched tyres just a little dangerous? How about making his penalty a stop go with a proper tyre change?

He wasn't drastically off the pace, and it's not like running mismatched compounds is such a terrible thing - as was mentioned on the BBC coverage, it has been done in the past.

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 23 Aug 2015, 21:02

Williams, anonymous if not for their error during Bottas' pit stop. Honourable mention to Saturday's usual grid penalty frenzy.

Peteroli34 · Post by **Peteroli34** » 23 Aug 2015, 22:15

Williams Obviously how can you put the wrong tyres on the car

SuperAguri · Post by **SuperAguri** » 23 Aug 2015, 22:41

Enforcer wrote:Jordan's got increasingly more rambly and incoherent since he joined the BBC. I'm beginning to wonder how he ran an F1 team.

He is getting old and senile.

My nomations are

Williams - Yep it was a comedy of errors, although the tyre rule is stupid, as long as he uses both sets then it should be fine.

The power that be - Either ban radio comminication or don't, don't have 30 points on what you can and cant say. Force the engineers to speak english or give all the press all the secret messages translated, i.e. Map 2, Engine is more torquey in the lower gears, etc...

Also dont give bizzare grid penalties out, either say back of the grid for the next two races and a 10 place drop at the next one rather then something that sounds like it should be in nascar or making it sound like they were going to start 3 laps down.

McLaren Honda - Oh dear, it was like Caterham had a new paint job and had better drivers driving for them, as for Ferrari levels, maybe their levels when McLarenHondwinslol was a thing.

but my winner is

Sebastian "Salty" Vettel, you gambled,a tyre blew and you go into a sulky rage.

Fetzie · Post by **Fetzie** » 23 Aug 2015, 22:50

I was willing to gloss over the tyre gamble as "that kind of thing happens if you run a risky strategy", but then Sebastian Vettel went and opened his trap after the race.

DOSBoot · Post by **DOSBoot** » 24 Aug 2015, 00:05

1. Williams: Made a lot of silly errors that cost them dearly. (Like some others, I think the tire rule is also stupid.)

2. McLaren Honda: Crap again.

LovelyFondmetal · Post by **LovelyFondmetal** » 24 Aug 2015, 01:07

This will come across as unorthodox to most forum users, but I myself choose to Nominate Romain Grosjean. Had Vettel's tyre not exploded when he did he would have finished 4th when a podium was for the taking. I love Romain, and all that was needed was a semi-suicidal lunge up the inside into Les Combes in the spirit of Ricciardo or Verstappen (another dude I HATE! but he can overtake

) and RMNGRSJN could have been on the podium on merit but instead mechanical failure causes the eventual eventuality. I am sorry if I am not making sense, but I am just so damn angry!

Adam