Your Reject of the Race - Germany

[Londoner]

Yeah, I don't think there's enough characters in a post to do justice for this award today. Knock yourselves out.

[Aislabie]

What has even just occurred. I'm inclined to say Mercedes AMG Petronas for turning up to this race weekend in fancy dress and proceeding to score zero points and dropping the ball on the pit wall two or three times and their cars into the wall two or three times.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

I reckon I can narrow it down to a standout candidate: The first and last corners. Most - certainly not all - but most of the more rejectful moments of the race happened in the general vicinity of these locations.

[Meatwad]

In spite of all the rejectfulness, my nomination is Mercedes (and especially their drivers). Hamilton had one of the worst drives of his entire career (and the worst in several seasons), while Bottas threw away a good points finish, possibly a podium, with a silly error. Another celebratory race gone wrong...

[Miguel98]

Mercedes - Well, that was terrible by everyone involved.

The last corner at Hockenheim - The new Curva do Lel certainyl. Can we have dragstip tarmac as run-off in all tracks please?

Nico Hulkenberg - EVERY.SINGLE.TIME.

Charles Leclerc - Binned it with a chance to win the race after getting two free pitstops at the right time.

[Londoner]

Honourable mentions first:

Renault. This was one of those days where you really have to maximise your opportunities, and to be the only team with a double-DNF sticks out like the 2014 Caterham nose.

Haas. Another mindless collision between the liabilities they have as drivers, thankfully they were still able to score points.

Williams. I fear this was their best opportunity for points.

Sergio Perez. Dropped it all on his own within the first few laps, all while his team mate drives an excellent race to P4. Again, I do believe Stroll's been the stronger driver out of the Racing Point stable.

Curva do lel, aka Turn 16. That was getting towards Brazil 2003 levels of dangerous.

Liberty Media. If they still go ahead with removing Hockenheim from the calendar, then they're bigger morons than we previously thought.

But there were two entities head and shoulders above the pack;

2. Pierre Gasly. Yeah, he's out of excuses after this one. Not once did he look comfortable out there, and often when he tried to overtake he'd run wide and lose the place back. Kvyat and Albon absolutely stomped a mudhole in him today, and that ridiculous move on Albon could've resulted in a seriously nasty accident. Chances of receiving his P45 during the summer break looking more and more likely.

1. Mercedes. An absolute clown show on the track and off it. Rocked up with a livery which from the front resembled the 1999 BAR...and eventually turned in a result worthy of that sorry car. Hamilton's pitstop rivals Eddie Irvine's catastrophic Nurburgring 1999 stop for sheer comedic value, while the team seemed almost petrified to make any calls on track (which allowed Verstappen and the midfield teams to undercut them). Bottas throws away a golden opportunity to make points up on Hamilton by struggling to pass a Racing Point and then dropping it on the turn 1 curb, while the greatest F1 driver ever (sarcasm) finishes 11th. They've also lost their 100% finishing record. I think that's more or less a slam dunk.

[Bleu]

Valtteri Bottas.

A big chance to get huge amount of points back on Hamilton, then he bins it and it ends up worse than Hamilton with his own mistakes.

[You-Gee-Eee-Day]

Oh boy.

1. Toto Wolff for blaming everything on "living in the past".
2. Mercedes for possibly the worst drive they've ever had?
3. Hulkenberg for choking.
4. Leclerc for having the potential and not living up to it.
5. Perez for throwing it all away.
6. Whatever idiot wants to get rid of this track.
7. Williams what in the name of the almighty was their strategy?

Perhaps most impostantly: Gasly for being unable to overtake a slower car despite being on fresher tires for near enough 10 laps and then going off in the same race where his teammate won. He would have finished MAYBE in 8th if he hadn't gone off, which he did, so he didn't.

[Waris]

Has to be MercHUEdes, surely.

[mario]

You know, looking through this thread, it almost looks like it could be more difficult to pick drivers or teams that didn't do something to earn a nomination.

To the above list, I'd be tempted to add Haas and their two drivers, even if they scraped into the lower part of the points - mistakes in strategy earlier in the race, and having already warned both Magnussen and Grosjean about racing each other, we promptly saw both drivers banging wheels with each other yet again (though thankfully with less damage this time).

[Vassago]

1. Valtteri Bottas - this might be the race (or crash) that cost him the 2020 Mercedes seat. This guy is no title material whatsoever and Mercedes might as well roll with Ocon now. Not to mention he was stuck behind Stroll of all people... with both on slicks! Even overtaking looney Vettel made short work of Stroll few laps later.

2. Pierre Gasly - completely blew it with that botched pass on Albon. Every single Red Bull family driver excelled here at Hockenheim but for this sucker. Hungary is a week away but come Spa I wouldn't be surprised if Kvyat goes back to RBR again.

3. Haas - more argy-bargy between the drivers. No way they are retained next season. Even with all the drama they only finished ahead of Williams and Hamilton who pitted like 7 times. Pathetic.

[IceG]

Going a different way here:

(1) The steward's decision over Leclerc's release. That was dangerous and was designed to avoid losing places. A fine is NOT the correct response. That should have been a 10 second penalty or drive-through. The precedent is now set.

(2) Commentators thinking that the chaos and rain mean that Hockenheim should be retained as a venue. It should but not for reasons that can occur anywhere.

[mario]

Going a different way here:

(1) The steward's decision over Leclerc's release. That was dangerous and was designed to avoid losing places. A fine is NOT the correct response. That should have been a 10 second penalty or drive-through. The precedent is now set.

Now that I think about this, this is definitely something that I have to agree the stewards got badly wrong here, and I agree that it has set a dangerous precedent here.

We had an extremely busy pit lane with mechanics working right next to the fast lane, and in fact it appears that Leclerc actually made minor contact with Grosjean as he pulled out of his pit box. The FIA, in issuing this penalty, are effectively giving teams an incentive to just take a punt on a dangerous release because the penalty for doing so has been so heavily weakened - why would a major team like Ferrari care about a €5,000 fine?

The worst part is that you just have the gut feeling that, if we'd had the reverse case - i.e. if it had been Grosjean released into the path of Leclerc in that way - the stewards would have been far more likely to issue a harsher penalty against Grosjean.

I felt the penalty that was issued to Max in the Monaco Grand Prix was wrong and should have been harsher, and again I have to agree that the penalty here should have been harsher - the stewards have set the wrong precedent here, and you suspect that it's only a matter of time before somebody pushes it too far and something goes badly wrong.

[rachel1990]

1- Mercedes. the joy of actually giving them this award. Having a B.A.R livery was bad enough but then the race turned into a BAR 1999 race for them. Bad mistakes in the Pits, wrong strategy calls and both drivers messing up badly. And F1 was better for it.

2- Pierre Gasley. Again. Can't overtake and did a bad and Clumsy move on Albon that took him out of the race. Oh to top it all off A Toro Rosso got a podium that quite frankly he could have had. I will be stunned if he keeps the seat in Belgium. Oh well. Might be a spare seat at Haas...

HM- The stewards. An unsafe release is an Unsafe release. It now needs tougher penalties. Maybe constructor points taken away? Tough enough?

HM- Haas. The drivers aren't getting the message. Do not collide. Thankfully they didn't take each other out but on any other day...

HM- Perez, Hulkenberg, Leclerc.- Well they didn't keep it on the road did they (OKay Bottas didn't either but he is part of Mercedes to be fair)

HM- Alfa Romeo- Daft from the team which cost Rakkionen and Giovinazzi all there points this afternoon

[Samster]

Going with the Mercedes pit crew that was even more comical than the infamous Irvine stop.

[TomPryce]

Got to go to Alfa Romeo now for their unbeliveable stupidity.

What the hell is on their cars!?

[CaptainGetz12]

1) Mercedes. Everything seemed to go wrong for them today, but the 50-second pitstop for Hamilton in particular was quite the blunder.

2) Everyone who spun off (Even Verstappen). No one managed to keep control of their car for long, many going off in the same spots. A rare race where it didn't seem like anyone was in control the whole time, not even the race winner.

(Dis)Honourable Mentions
Nico Hulkenberg (Probably the best chance he had for getting that elusive podium. Many other drivers went off where he went off, but his had the sharpest sting. He didn't put up much of a fight for 3rd, though Renault may have told him to avoid pushing the car and suffering an engine failure like his teammate.)

Haas Drivers (While its fun to see their drivers bash, it will only bring further headaches for the team)

Alfa Romeo (Caught cheating. While their traction limiters are interesting way around the rules it doesn't matter if you get caught)

Renault (Going home with a double DNF is probably not what they hoped for. With them taking new parts for Hungary they better put this race behind them)

[Spectoremg]

As it's all been said I nominate David Coulthard for thinking Hamilton's 5 sec penalty was harsh for missing the pit entry.

[RAK]

Can't see past Mercedes for this one. Going from a position where it looked like all they had to do was show up to having one DNF and one minor points position only because of penalties is a bit of a pratfall.

[Pacific Edge]

1st: Mercedes Only thing I can think of was that they decided to have an entire year's worth of mishaps in one race.

2nd: Gasly Surely, time must be running out

3rd: Grosjean and Magnussen They came ever so close to going through an entire race (in difficult conditions) without hitting anything, and what do they do? They hit each other.... Again... Would be unfair to label Haas as a whole for that, because it really isn't the team's fault

[Alextrax52]

I have to agree with Mario that it's probably easier to name those who didn't do something monumentally daft. I'll give it a go though:

Mercedes: A utter car crash of an anniversary race. 2 errors from Hamilton, A great Eddie Irvine Nürburgring 1999 tribute act from the mechanics and the end result of scraping 2 points because both Alfa's got penalised

Valterri Bottas: I want to make a separate entry here because this race has finally convinced me that he will never win the world title. Your running 4th with a chance to finish at least 2nd on the table and cut the gap to Hamilton to 22 points. What do you do? You go and bin it with a rookie mistake and I'm going to say it now: That's his hopes of the world title and probably his Mercedes seat for 2020 gone. If that were Schumacher, Alonso, Senna and maybe even Hamilton himself that opportunity gets grabbed with both hands. Add this to Bahrain last year when he couldn't pass Vettel on knackered tires and we can safely include Bottas into the Coulthard/Barrichello/Webber realm of good but not great drivers.

Charles Leclerc: It was only a matter of time before he binned it at that section of track having had 2 near misses. Should have been celebrating a maiden win.

Pierre Gasly: All over the shop, I lost count how many times he ran wide and lost places. Embarrassed by the other 3 Red Bull entered cars. I'll be very surprised if he's still there after Hungary because he has nowhere to hide. Only 7 points ahead of Sainz and 65 behind Leclerc in a top 3 car.

Nico Hulkenberg/Renault: Oh Nico every time you get these golden opportunities you seem to morph into some mini-Will Power and choke. We'll never see him on the podium will we? As for Renault this was Azerbaijan 2017 all over again. A golden chance of big points and their in the minority of teams who don't score (Then they were the only team not to, Today only the penalised Alfa's join them)

Alfa Romeo: What a stupid way to lose 10 points that will be absolutely vital come Abu Dhabi

The penultimate corner: Great Brazil 2003 tribute act there

[UncreativeUsername37]

So many entities deserved it today, so I'll pick the two things that caused me the most personal frustration.

- The stewards, for that non-penalty. It was clear-cut and they even admitted it was an unsafe release, but all they gave was a small fine. To Ferrari.
- Bottas, because I want a championship battle.

[SuzukiSwift]

Mercedes. Hands down.

[Faustus]

Alfa Romeo.

[AdrianBelmonte_]

All i going to say is:

-Verstappen, in the same car, won the race
-Cyka Kvyat got P3 IN A TORO ROSSO
-Albon (the one he put his nose into) got P6 and fought for the podium for some time, again, IN A TORO ROSSO

His time is over, Hungary will surely be the last time we see Pierre Gasly on a Red Bull, and he won't be missed at all

[James1978]

Mercedes slam-dunk this one for me - they looked ridiculous how they were dressed too. They'll be back though.

Gasly on the other hand is RotY material!!

[Rob Dylan]

The German Grand Prix: Race Highlights: It's almost impossible for me to ever watch any F1 these days live on anything official or legitimate, and in this particular case there was no way for me to do so. So after desperately trying to find some way to watch an extended highlight of any kind, I relented and watched the YouTube highlights done by F1.

Utter rubbish. Look, I understand that the German Grand Prix was action-heavy and had lots of crashes, but your highlights of the race itself were under seven minutes, and I would honestly say that half of it were replays of the things you just saw with no information or context of any kind as to what was going on. For example:

A screen comes up LAP 17 someone crashes REPLAY they crash again LAP 23 someone else crashes no context Hamilton was in the lead but it's now someone else REPLAY yeah we just saw that crash but now there's no HUD and LAP 29 what a surprise someone else is crashing, oh wait Gasly seems to be doing ok REPLAY you get the idea.

After watching that race I had no idea who did well or who did badly. All I know is that some people crashed. With the pitiful amount of content actually on the race highlights, why would you bother. Even Formula E highlights are better paced and longer, and they go as far as to actually post up the full race a week or so later. I would have saved time reading the race's Wikipedia article.

My reject of the race is those highlights for the fact that, after watching them, I know absolutely nothing about what happened during the race, what the strategies were, what happened to any of the drivers who didn't crash. Watch it: it's a crash compilation and nothing more. And there are hundreds of channels already out there to show me crash compilations. Sounds like it was a fantastic race, and I can't watch it.


Dishonourable Mention to the fact that Hamilton has extended his championship lead by two points.


Rant over.

[You-Gee-Eee-Day]

I relented and watched the YouTube highlights done by F1.

Utter rubbish. Look, I understand that the German Grand Prix was action-heavy and had lots of crashes, but your highlights of the race itself were under seven minutes, and I would honestly say that half of it were replays of the things you just saw with no information or context of any kind as to what was going on.

Be fair Rob, its not like they're professionals or anything.

I think they're assuming anybody who watches the highlights on their channel saw the race. Which is obviously a huge mistake. A lot of people won't catch the race and will want to see what happened. In a tamer race I could see the hightlights being easier to convey, and to understand, but without context a race like the one we just had is utterly impenetrable.

It's quite worrying that they don't know what people want to see (missing out half of the important parts of the race), that they don't use the youtube channel as an opportunity to show footage they didn't show during the race (i.e. all the other camera angles available, or events taking place during the main action), and above all that they don't know how to convey any of that information in a way someone who didn't see the race can understand.

We got a bit of this last race when they cut to the bloody crowd in the middle of the action, one thing at the race track nobody at home wants to see is the gormless masses in the stands.

[Nuppiz]

I relented and watched the YouTube highlights done by F1.

Utter rubbish. Look, I understand that the German Grand Prix was action-heavy and had lots of crashes, but your highlights of the race itself were under seven minutes, and I would honestly say that half of it were replays of the things you just saw with no information or context of any kind as to what was going on.

Be fair Rob, its not like they're professionals or anything.

I think they're assuming anybody who watches the highlights on their channel saw the race. Which is obviously a huge mistake. A lot of people won't catch the race and will want to see what happened. In a tamer race I could see the hightlights being easier to convey, and to understand, but without context a race like the one we just had is utterly impenetrable.

It's quite worrying that they don't know what people want to see (missing out half of the important parts of the race), that they don't use the youtube channel as an opportunity to show footage they didn't show during the race (i.e. all the other camera angles available, or events taking place during the main action), and above all that they don't know how to convey any of that information in a way someone who didn't see the race can understand.

We got a bit of this last race when they cut to the bloody crowd in the middle of the action, one thing at the race track nobody at home wants to see is the gormless masses in the stands.

Yeah, while it's nice that they are having some sort of an official recap for free, they could still improve upon them a lot.

Also, if I want to watch this race through official means via my F1 TV Access account (which I paid good money for), I have to wait until next week's Sunday. Yep, two weeks after the actual race happened. And only because they don't have the full thing available in Finland.

[Nuppiz]

Poll is up. You have 72 hours to vote.

[Nuppiz]

And with an overwhelming 65% of all votes, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport™ takes the ROTR award for the German GP. What was supposed to be a celebration - complete with classy 1950s outfits - turned out to be their worst race since Austria last year, and only the sixth time during the entire hybrid era that neither Mercedes reached the podium. Notably, both drivers succumbed to unusual mistakes, and in hindsight this is probably where Bottas started to lose his grip on the 2020 Mercedes seat.