Reject of the Race - Australia 2025

[Londoner]

1. Liam Lawson. Ominously bad weekend from start to finish.

2. Fernando Alonso. Dipping a wheel in the gravel to restart the "retire, old man" discussions.

Honourable mention to Ferrari strategists, have they rehired Binotto or something?

[FalconCapelli]

1. Ferrari Strategists "You can change the drivers, change the cars, change the men, change the design... but you can't change Ferrari"
2.Isack Hadjar I am lost for words for his crash on the formation lap.

[rachel1990]

1. Liam Lawson. Not good at all. I wasn't expecting him to be close to Max but to be THAT far back both in dry and wet conditions is a very worrying thought for Red Bull.

2. Fernando Alonso. The most experienced driver on the grid crashed out and made his teammate looked competent. Very poor from him.

[Alextrax52]

Isack Hadjar: I know he’s a rookie but sorry mate, crashing out before the race even starts is an automatic ROTR in my book

Ferrari Strategists: Get used to this Lewis. The team in general could also merit this as their performance was average even before the strategic bumbling and not justifying the hype of their superstar lineup

DHM: Liam Lawson: “Here we go again” is how I sum up his weekend, he’ll be following Gasly, Albon and Perez to the Red Bull scrapyard if this is anything to go by

DHM: The experienced Spaniards: Alonso and Sainz were the only two seasoned veterans on the grid who binned it.

DHM: RB Strategist: Thank you tBone for reminding me that Tsunoda was on for a comfortable 6th place until he became another driver to be screwed over by his team rolling the dice to stay on dries which meant he finished an undeserved and pointless 12th.

[tBone]

I'm seeing some mentions of Ferrari strategists, but how about the Racing Bulls pit wall? Properly screwed over Tsunoda who otherwise seemed a lock-in for IIDOTR.

I agree with the mentions of Hadjar, Alonso and Lawson as well.

[TomPryce]

Absolutely agree with Hadjar and Ferrari Strategy for all reasons noted.

[Meatwad]

I'll split this between two members of the Red Bull family:

Isack Hadjar: Good qualifying, but a nightmare Sunday. Driving in F1 is a dream come true, but he'll definitely want to forget his debut!
Liam Lawson: The curse of the second Red Bull seat continues, struggled all weekend in a performance reminiscent of Pérez's last couple of years.

[dr-baker]

All the rookies except for Antonelli. Yes, they are rookies, but some have a little bit of experience in F1, and allmhave spent years honing their craft in junior categories, and all must have experienced rain at some.point. A bit of a baptism of fire.

And also the Spanish pair of drivers as alextrax52 said above.

Oh and the second Red Bull. A cursed seat it seems.

[Row Man Gross-Gene]

Isack and Liam

[Salamander]

Liam Lawson: ... okay, am I alone in thinking Sergio Perez wasn't usually quite that bad?
Yeah the Ferrari strategy cockup was bad but they weren't exactly running great to begin with so I don't feel like giving them the second nomination, nor anyone else, really.

[James1978]

The "rookies" bar Kimi, Ferrari doing Ferrari things and Piastri are all contenders here.

[IceG]

I am with Martin Brundell on this:

Great big industrial trucks driving around next to F1 cars on a greasy slick track is not a good look.

Everything mentioned above is competition and under the control of the individual drivers and the teams - but Race Control have a greater responsibility for everyone, not just the drivers but especially the marshals who were standing back and moving behind the truck when the cars went past. Cringeworthily rejectful.

[RAK]

1) Isack Hadjar: Rookie or not, wet race or not, spinning out before the race even starts is a quintessential reject move.

2) Liam Lawson: Not the only driver to go out, but he never looked like threatening his podium-winning teammate anyway.

[TomPryce]

New entry - Helmet Marko

https://www.planetf1.com/news/helmut-ma ... n-gp-crash

I don't like Hadjar really, but I REALLY cannot abide Marko.

Yes Helmet was NOT a typo.

[Bleu]

Has to be Hadjar.

[Wallio]

Rookies - Doonan allegedly only has six races, and makes it just one corner. Hadar didn't even make it that far. Gabriel an eventful day to oblivion. Lawson is....well Lawson so his weekend wasn't unexpected. Bearman had two wrecks and two other spins, and even Kimi failed to make Q2. We used to wonder why no one ever it made it out of F2, maybe now we know?

McLaren Pitwall - Called off Oscar when he was just 3/10s off, the immediately reinstated the "go" code a mere two laps later once he made a mistake and was out of contention. Gonna be a long season for him.

F1TV crew - I usually defend these guys, but talking about the track drying for lap after lap when it's actively raining is really pathetic. Do they not have the new 4k stream?

[Spectoremg]

It's all been said very well already so I'll go for petulant drivers dissing radio messages - it's useful info for your benefit guys.

[RAK]

We used to wonder why no one ever it made it out of F2, maybe now we know?

I've been arguing for a while that aside from Piastri, F2 has been working off a depleted field of talent since 2019 when Russell, Norris and Albon made their way up from the season before, so I'm not surprised that the new rookies have been struggling since then.

[Ducktanian]

It must be the water - Epic words of wisdom.

[Wallio]

It must be the water - Epic words of wisdom.

In The Mechanic's Tale Steve Matchett tells the story of Nelson Piquet coming back to the grid for the restart of the 1991 Aussie GP (still the shortest actual race in F1 history) and complaining that his socks got wet. Matchett says the mechanics exploded on him for such a silly complaint after driving about in a literal typhoon.

That's all I could think of when I heard that exchange on Sunday.