Your Reject of the Race - Malaysia!

McDuck · Post by **McDuck** » 10 Apr 2011, 10:26

Williams earned this one handily. They should petition the FIA to retrofit their old 90s era active suspension onto the current car. Maybe then they'd be able to compete with Sauber.

J Washburn Stoker · Post by **J Washburn Stoker** » 10 Apr 2011, 10:29

fjackdaw wrote:Why wouldn't people have been able to chase because their tyres had lasted? That doesn't make sense to me.

Because the car they were chasing would also have had good tyres. With Pirellis at least there is a chance the tyre wear between two cars is out of sync, most noticeably when someone does an extra stop. Under Bridgestones we saw time and time again fresher tyres failing to make much impact against older tyres.

Ferrim · Post by **Ferrim** » 10 Apr 2011, 10:32

fjackdaw wrote:I dunno, I think Button in particular could have put in a charge towards the end on fresher tyres in the past. Not saying he would have succeeded, but now there's no point even trying, he has to preserve tyres and fuel and engine, so it's all over with enough laps to go to have potentially made the difference had he been able to try.

Why wouldn't people have been able to chase because their tyres had lasted? That doesn't make sense to me.

Preserving engine and fuel has happened for years now. And people weren't able to chase because they knew they wouldn't be much faster than the car in front under any conditions, the performance differentials were too small and there was no point on even trying. How many people dicing for the lead towards the end did you see last year?

Today there was no point for Button to try, but there will be other races when the guy behind has pitted more times and is 1-2 secs faster so he can bother and try, something that never ever happened last year.

Nin13 · Post by **Nin13** » 10 Apr 2011, 10:36

My reject goes to Mercedes. I think, they were very bad, bad car, bad strategy. They kept out Schumacher out for couple of extra laps when he was clearly losing time, sometimes almost 3-4s a lap. In 6 extra laps he did before his 3 stops, he lost around 10-15s. And cost him place to Kobayashi.

pablo_h · Post by **pablo_h** » 10 Apr 2011, 10:55

Williams of course.

Ed24 · Post by **Ed24** » 10 Apr 2011, 10:55

Nominees:

Williams - Not converting pre-season promise again, but is this really a surprise?
Ferrari - Bad pitstops ruined both drivers' races, and then whinged after the race that they 'deserved' a podium.
Petrov - Hasn't shaken his inconsistency just yet.

RotR:
Mercedes GP - Such a shame to see such a great marque dwindling around in the midfield.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 10 Apr 2011, 11:06

Valrys wrote:Honourable mention to Petrov for catching some serious air, but anywhere else on the track and he might have made it back on in one piece.

I've seen on-board footage of Petrov. He's turning the wheel, but the tyres aren't going with it. It's either epic understeer, or the steering column was already loose.

Plus, he had no way of seeing that drain. In fact, that drain was in a very dangerous position. Petrov ran out of run-off, and was launched straight into the air without warning. he never would have seen it coming. It's way too close to the circuit.

tristan1117 · Post by **tristan1117** » 10 Apr 2011, 11:17

Williams, for doing a Honda and making a big pre-season splash and then failing to meet expectations. We're just waiting for the excuses and Publicocrap to come now. Honorable mention to the weather service for convincing everyone it was going to rain.

Ed24 · Post by **Ed24** » 10 Apr 2011, 11:18

Captain Hammer wrote:Okay, I know I've railed against the Australian commentators before, but this one takes the cake. OneHD are showing a live stream of the race on their website, but that includes a one-hour pre-race show. Naturally, I forgot this and opened the stream up. Anyway, it just so happens that we're in the middle of play-offs for the Australian NBL, and the hotly-anticipated Breakers vs. Wildcats game went into overtime, delaying the pre-race show. Unfortuantely, someone forgot to tell the guy who sets up the live stream, and so for the past fifteen minutes we've been treated to an all-access backstage pass to the inner workings of the OneHD commentary team. And let me tell you - these guys are even more unprofressional (when they think they are) off-camera as they are when they're on, mocking the players and fans of the basketball, and, in particular the commentators, with all these wildly exaggerated "impersonations" of the basketball commentators that are all really quite rude (and, ironically, impersonations of themselves).

That sounds very embarrassing, thanks for posting that.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 10 Apr 2011, 11:23

Couple of things:

About Button saving his tyres, he was trying to make the harder compound go for 19 laps when the previous known maximum was 16 laps. I think he did a bloody good job to get to where he was after seemingly looking out of it at the beginning, falling into the clutches of Alonso and Massa.

Secondly, I'm agreeing with the Captain again, through 7 and 8 Petrov looked like he was having some difficulty making the corner at all so it may have been already damaged before he taxied down the Sepang airport runway!

And for that reason, Petrov gets a mention from me for the funniest moment of the season so far!

I think a joint reject of the race from me though has to go to both Williams and Mercedes, the former for what has been now two absolutely disastrous weekends, and the latter for being almost completely anonymous if it wasn't for Schumacher's dices with various cars for 10th place throughout the race. They're almost on a Toro Rosso level of anonimity now! :lol:

Pointrox · Post by **Pointrox** » 10 Apr 2011, 11:33

Williams - both BAR and MAL were outrun by Vitantonio Liuzzi in a fancy lunchbox.
Petrov - for his 2009 Hamilton-esque failure, that is overdoing it just a few laps from securing his points.

Myrvold · Post by **Myrvold** » 10 Apr 2011, 11:35

Lewis Hamilton: Got a reprimand for making more than one change of direction here last year. Haven't learned.

Ross Prawn · Post by **Ross Prawn** » 10 Apr 2011, 11:37

Williams, sadly. When you fare worse in the race than HRT, you must be doing something very wrong.

Honourable mention to Mercedes for consistent failure to perform.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 10 Apr 2011, 11:44

Williams - Seriously guys, what the hell is up?
Mercedes - Rosberg had a miserable start and seemingly gave up, while Schumacher had a good start and spent the rest of the race being passed by Kobayashi.
The run-off after turns 7 and 8 - I didn't expect that to launch Petrov enough that it broke his steering, and I doubt Petrov could've seen that was going to happen.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 10 Apr 2011, 11:49

Myrvold wrote:Lewis Hamilton: Got a reprimand for making more than one change of direction here last year. Haven't learned.

I'm curious what you mean by that, at what point during the race was he weaving excessively? It certainly wasn't with Alonso, he barely moved off line!

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 10 Apr 2011, 11:57

I too want to nominate the FOM director - there was a lot of stuff missed and some stupid moves (such as cutting to a car in the pits while there is a fight on)

tc3j3r · Post by **tc3j3r** » 10 Apr 2011, 12:23

The stewards for returning to their bad old days with ridiculous arbitrary penalties for Hamilton and Alonso's racing incident. Forget DRS, forget KERs, one easy way to increase good racing is to stop drivers thinking they'll be disqualified for attempting it.

LucaPacchiarini · Post by **LucaPacchiarini** » 10 Apr 2011, 12:31

Perov's steering wheel undoubtely

Post by **Londoner** » 10 Apr 2011, 12:34

tc3j3r wrote:The stewards for returning to their bad old days with ridiculous arbitrary penalties for Hamilton and Alonso's racing incident. Forget DRS, forget KERs, one easy way to increase good racing is to stop drivers thinking they'll be disqualified for attempting it.

Seconded. It was a clear racing incident to everyone else watching. The FIA may as well just ban overtaking that doesn't use the DRS. Way to ruin a brilliant grand prix for everyone.

Other than that, the other ROTR has to be Williams. Pathetic pace = pathetic race.

Ross Prawn · Post by **Ross Prawn** » 10 Apr 2011, 12:38

East Londoner wrote:
tc3j3r wrote:The stewards for returning to their bad old days with ridiculous arbitrary penalties for Hamilton and Alonso's racing incident. Forget DRS, forget KERs, one easy way to increase good racing is to stop drivers thinking they'll be disqualified for attempting it.

Seconded. It was a clear racing incident to everyone else watching. The FIA may as well just ban overtaking that doesn't use the DRS. Way to ruin a brilliant grand prix for everyone.

Other than that, the other ROTR has to be Williams. Pathetic pace = pathetic race.

Yep, I'm changing my vote to the stewards as well. Whats the point of all these trick tyres, DRS, Kers etc. to 'improve the show' when you penalise drivers for racing? Also if you must punish a driver, then why give Alonso a twenty second penalty which has no effect on his finishing position. Its all just bonkers.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 10 Apr 2011, 13:35

I vote the Stewarding.

No penalty= No one would care.

Penalty= Raises questions about the fairness of the FIA, causes problems for the casual fan and spectator at the event who thought the results were decided on track, Fuels the Mclaren and Ferraris trolling.

Why?

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 10 Apr 2011, 13:44

Late entry: - FIA Stewards: - Hamilton is deemed to have moved too much in the defending line, yet Vettel can move at least four times on the opening of the race and Massa constantly switched more than once during the Australian GP when duelling with Button. Their inept inconsistency makes them a late candidate in my view

Post by **mario** » 10 Apr 2011, 13:46

I'm afraid that my pre-race prediction of Williams looks like it was right after all - another double DNF due to mechanical problems (Maldonado is listed as having a misfiring engine, whilst Barrichello officially had hydraulic problems). I'm sorry, but even Virgin Racing are beating them in the WCC (with 14th in Australia and 16th today), and if Liuzzi had just managed to do a few more laps so he could have been classified, so would HRT, and that would be truly humiliating. And even when they were running, their pace was pretty dire - they couldn't really keep up with any of the established teams, and were not even that much quicker than Team Lotus.

Mercedes were also pretty poor today - Rosberg could only scrape an anonymous 12th place today, whilst Schumacher had to fight hard to finish in 9th. They also chewed up their tyres pretty badly today - Schumacher was struggling for grip throughout, and Rosberg found things just as tough today. I'm inclined to say that Williams beat them though, since at least Mercedes finished the race and have scored a couple of points via Schumacher today.

Somehow, though, I suspect that the stewards decision to penalise Alonso and Hamilton will probably be a fairly strong challenger for ROTR, since, after the Sauber DSQ in Melbourne, it means that nobody is quite sure whether they can trust the results in case the stewards and FIA decide to change the results after the race has taken place.

Myrvold · Post by **Myrvold** » 10 Apr 2011, 14:26

sswishbone wrote:Late entry: - FIA Stewards: - Hamilton is deemed to have moved too much in the defending line, yet Vettel can move at least four times on the opening of the race and Massa constantly switched more than once during the Australian GP when duelling with Button. Their inept inconsistency makes them a late candidate in my view

The start is a bit special, I think that is some of the things they talk about on the drivers meeting before the race. Therefor they migt move more than once.

Myrvold · Post by **Myrvold** » 10 Apr 2011, 14:28

AndreaModa wrote:
Myrvold wrote:Lewis Hamilton: Got a reprimand for making more than one change of direction here last year. Haven't learned.

I'm curious what you mean by that, at what point during the race was he weaving excessively? It certainly wasn't with Alonso, he barely moved off line!

Well, it was, he made 4 moves the lap before the crash, and he got a penalty as well. He should've know...

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 10 Apr 2011, 15:06

tc3j3r wrote:The stewards for returning to their bad old days with ridiculous arbitrary penalties for Hamilton and Alonso's racing incident.

I was going to go with Pastor Maldonado, until I saw this. I am beginning to think that there won't be a single result this year that won't be meddled with by the stewards afterwards.

tc3j3r wrote:Forget DRS, forget KERS, one easy way to increase good racing is to stop drivers thinking they'll be disqualified for attempting it.

Can we make this line into a huge, flashing neon sign and install it in the hallway of the FIA's headquarters? Failing that, I'll make a signature out of it.

Myrvold · Post by **Myrvold** » 10 Apr 2011, 15:12

So, let's get this straight.

Tyres that are too durable = boring, and bad.
Tyres that's easier to ruin = boring and bad.

Stewards not penalizing moves that break the rule = bad
Stewards that doen penalize moves that breaks the rules = bad.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 10 Apr 2011, 15:23

Myrvold wrote:So, let's get this straight.

Tyres that are too durable = boring, and bad.
Tyres that's easier to ruin = boring and bad.

Stewards not penalizing moves that break the rule = bad
Stewards that doen penalize moves that breaks the rules = bad.

I don't remember anyone complaining about a lack of penalties...

Myrvold · Post by **Myrvold** » 10 Apr 2011, 15:26

Maybe not, but there has been many complains on the driving.

Post by **Ataxia** » 10 Apr 2011, 15:41

Williams gets my vote. They claimed they had a good car and they're just being rubbish. Frank, just sell up.

Ed24 · Post by **Ed24** » 10 Apr 2011, 16:20

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:I don't remember anyone complaining about a lack of penalties...

After Malaysia 2010, I think many people complained, including myself, that Lewis wasn't penalised for the excessive weaving.

It is important to mention that, from Autosport:

"Although Hamilton had escaped punishment for weaving down the straight last year to try and break Vitaly Petrov's tow, the FIA tightened up the driving standards regulations at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council last December."

I suppose they are only acting to the rules, but other drivers within this race (such as Petrov against Massa) moved on the straights and got no penalty. It seems that Hamilton was just a scapegoat for a general FIA mandate to clean up the driving. However, his past record (being shown a bad sportsmanship flag for weaving last year) may have also come into it.

P_Friesacher · Post by **P_Friesacher** » 10 Apr 2011, 16:32

The weather - should stop crying wolf for 1 1/2 hours. No one is going to believe it might rain in China.

fjackdaw · Post by **fjackdaw** » 10 Apr 2011, 16:35

I don't think Hamilton's penalty for weaving is necessarily a bad thing, if that's what he did, but Alonso's penalty seems excessively harsh. It's close racing, there's bound to be a touch from time to time.

Dan B · Post by **Dan B** » 10 Apr 2011, 17:32

3: The Stewards: For the penalty against Alonso. Now, mind you, I am no fan of Alonso, but that was a racing incident. The penalty against Hamilton, okay, I can accept that, but what's next? A penalty for passing on the outside? Passing in the non-DRS zone (as someone pointed out)? I am curious as to know who the former driver-turned-steward-de-jour was, and if he had any say.

2: Mercedes: Does big money turn teams into midfielders? I mean, look at Honda, BMW, and Toyota before them. It's a repeat of 2008 Honda. At least they finished the race unlike....

1: Williams: Wasn't this car pegged to be a race winner? I know, it's too early in the season, but here comes Williams at the beginning of the season saying they are going to be right up there with the leading teams. So far, both races thus far have achieved double DNFs. What is going on Frank? Heck, I haven't seen Williams perform this badly since the Walrus of 2004, and that was when I started watching since I was 2 (and that would have been...1991 I think?). Heck, the car does have a semblance to the Walrus too...

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 10 Apr 2011, 17:36

Honourable mention for Mercedes - Quick in practice. Slow on raceday.

But RotR has to go to Williams. Bottom of the midfield and the ones most in danger from being picked off by Lotus.

Warren Hughes · Post by **Warren Hughes** » 10 Apr 2011, 17:48

Petrov - you're off the track, you're on the grass, back off the throttle a bit!
Rosberg - poor start, then tootled around the midfield being useless and getting overtaken by Force Indias.
Williams - 2006 form. Nuff said.
Alonso - blew his chance of a podium in a car that would never have deserved it.
Stewards - Hmm.

James1978 · Post by **James1978** » 10 Apr 2011, 17:57

Williams. They must be the team who have got most RotR's anyway!!!

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 10 Apr 2011, 19:45

1. Alonso - Epic Fail on Hamilton, nuff said.

2. Williams - Two Double DNF's in two races? Fail!

Honorable mention goes to the stewards for penalizing Hamilton for no apparent reason.

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 10 Apr 2011, 20:15

1) Williams. So pathetic that it makes me really sad.
2) Stewards. Look, I'm a Ferrari fan and I hate Hamilton. *I* can see that the clash was Alonso's fault for being too impatient and/or angry that his DRS wasn't working. So if I can, why can't they. (Is it true that Pirro was the 'expert'? In which case I do sort of understand....)

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 10 Apr 2011, 20:20

Barbazza wrote:1) Williams. So pathetic that it makes me really sad.
2) Stewards. Look, I'm a Ferrari fan and I hate Hamilton. *I* can see that the clash was Alonso's fault for being too impatient and/or angry that his DRS wasn't working. So if I can, why can't they. (Is it true that Pirro was the 'expert'? In which case I do sort of understand....)

Actually, as I understand, Hamilton's penalty was for weaving a bit the lap before the crash. Not that it makes it any less of a terrible call - nobody else seemed to think that Hamilton was excessively weaving, not even Ferrari who you'd imagine would at least bring it up.