Reject of the Race - Baku 2024

[Londoner]

1. Whoever left the fan on Albon's car during qualifying. This is the sort of mistake which Jenoch would immediately brand ROTR back in the day.

2. Alpine. What is the point of this team in the year of our Lord 2024?

Honourable mention to Max Verstappen for probably one of his worst performances of his Red Bull career. Obliterated by Perez, absolutely no pace.

[You-Gee-Eee-Day]

1. Sainz - What was that? Looked almost intentional.
2. Stroll - What was that? Even worse than usual.

[RAK]

1) Carlos Sainz: A sloppy mistake which ended his race and Ferrari's chance of a very good haul of points.

2) Max Verstappen: Looked very unimpressive compared to his teammate today.

[Enforcer]

Sainz: Lets Perez get alongside by being greedy and trying to attack Charl. And then isn't careful about where he puts his car, taking out Perez and landing himself with a big fat DNF.

Williams: Despite a very handy double points finish, I can't let that airbox mistake pass.

HM: Hamilton: Just wtf was he doing out there today?

[golic_2004]

1. Verstappen: Soundly defeated by Perez all weekend until the latter’s crash at the end. He didn’t seem like his usual self at all.

2. Hamilton: nowhere near the points until that lucky moment at the end.

[Ciaran]

1. Carlos Sainz.
2. The FIA, for answering the question "What would happen to mid-90s F1 calendars if Milosevic & co had oil money?"

[rachel1990]

1. Sainz. Did not look good. A bad and desperate move that just benefited his former team Mclaren and his future team Williams.

Ooh maybe that was the plan

2. F1 Coverage of Lewis Hamilton. Not only did we have to hear him whinging the whole bloody time, but we had a great fight for the lead and kept cutting to him in 13th. Fighting a Haas. Can't we hear Like Zhou's radio where he has much worse issues...

Hm Lance Stroll. Again. Ruined his and Yuki's races.

[mario]

HM: Hamilton: Just wtf was he doing out there today?

To some extent, I think Mercedes compounded those problems by going into the race with a rather confused plan for Hamilton.

By changing the engine after qualifying and also changing the set up, they therefore earned themselves the maximum possible penalty by ensuring that he'd start from the pit lane. Following that, they then ran the strategy of starting on the mediums, before switching onto the hards - a strategy that, in retrospect, looks like it was the wrong choice.

Did he have a poor race? Yes - but, given most teams, if they know they're taking an engine penalty, try to plan their race weekend around offsetting the penalty, Mercedes seem to have instead gone about the race in a way that ended up worsening the negative effects of that change.

[TomPryce]

VCarb$$$$ and Stakeber and Stallpine: just woeful. With Haas and Williams on the up the poor performance is laid bare.

[Meatwad]

Carlos Sainz Jr.: Threw away a good result and also ruined Pérez's best race in ages. Thanks for helping McLaren, Colapinto and Bearman, though!

[dr-baker]

.

Williams: Despite a very handy double points finish, I can't let that airbox mistake pass.

More ROTQ than ROTR material, if there were such a thing.

Even though I nominated the drivers either side of him for IIDOTR, Hamilton deserves a nomination for ROTR as you would have expected him to fight through into the top 10 much quicker.

[tommykl]

Williams - I'll also nominate them for IIDOTR, but leaving the fan in the car in Q3 is absolutely deserving of this award, at least in spirit
Max Verstappen - roundly beaten by Checo and never looked likely to capitalise on Norris' poor qualifying luck

[dj_vicious]

1. Max Verstappen: Not rejectful in itself but rejectful for a Verstappen drive. He was beaten on merit by Perez and was generally off the pace. In his defense he's been outdriving the car all season and I just think he resigned to maximize points today.

2. The Perez/Sainz Incident: Need for Speed lobby level crash. They drifted into each other. Perez would have been up for IIDOTR had this not happened.

[Jarvis]

It has to be Carlos Sainz. Everyone expects better from him. BTW gutted for Checo who once again looked very good at this Baku Circuit and deserved a podium finish.

[James1978]

Both the 2021 title protagonists were terrible!

Sainz/Perez incident was unfortunate but it seemed Checo drifted right a bit too.

[mario]

Williams - I'll also nominate them for IIDOTR, but leaving the fan in the car in Q3 is absolutely deserving of this award, at least in spirit
Max Verstappen - roundly beaten by Checo and never looked likely to capitalise on Norris' poor qualifying luck.

I'd agree that it does feel like the sort of thing that is in the spirit of the award, but it does also feel a little contradictory when they also did so well in the race.

In the case of Verstappen, it's an interesting sign of perhaps how numb we have come to the success he's had that a race where he was a bit off the pace, but otherwise did not make any particularly noticeable mistakes, is one that is seen as being a ROTR event. It's also a sign of perhaps how low Perez's stock has dropped that, in a race weekend where he was putting in what might have been one of his best performances of the season at a track he's traditionally excelled at that it's seen as Verstappen doing badly rather than Perez doing well.

To some extent, might there be an argument for Norris perhaps being worthy of a nomination? Yes, Norris managed to still take a few points out of Verstappen's lead in the WDC - but, equally, the fact he was that far down was in part because he was confused over whether there was a yellow flag or not and backed off on his final Q1 run that left him so far down the grid. It was a decent recovery drive, but also one where you have to question whether he needed to put himself in that position to begin with and what he could have done if he'd qualified nearer the front of the grid instead.

[Row Man Gross-Gene]

Sainz/Perez incident was unfortunate but it seemed Checo drifted right a bit too.

Agreed, I think they both drifted toward each other. Both at fault.

[Batty]

Late but Airbox is classic F1 Rejects type of ROTR