Grand Prix Rejects

Trulli's rear wing.

Mention goes to Liuzzi retiring AGAIN (however, it wasn't his fault this time around, but his retirement was the first in the race with Schumacher, so I had a good guess! ) and Glock's Virgin, and of course: Alonso.

CarlosFerreria, who now wins himself a shiny new I BELIEVE IN USF1 avatar for betting on the wrong horse.

Christijan Klien for being slower than Bruno Senna in every session except P2,- or at least, after all "Senna should get out of here", "Senna is here just because of his name", it should be this way...

But, my nomination is Fernando Alonso! What the heck was the point of "complaining" to Petrov for not being able to get passed...

I'm going to nominate Bridgestone - mainly because it's the last chance we'll get, but also that after all that time in F1, they didn't seem to be able read their tyres: something that was due to last 8 laps sure looked pretty handy underneath Jenson/Lewis/Sebastian. I guess Webber and Ferrari didn't get that memo.

Looking forward to Pirelli's aggressive approach next year!

Captain Hammer wrote:CarlosFerreria, who now wins himself a shiny new I BELIEVE IN USF1 avatar for betting on the wrong horse.

Very funny. But get the name right next time, will you?

Alonsos tantrum was the most fun part of the whole race. The real reject is holding the last race of the season at a garbage track.

Ferrari for the worst strategy they could've picked. Screwed both Massa's and Alonso's race.

Closely followed by Mark Webber who had a very anonymous race in the middle of nowhere.

CarlosFerreira wrote:

Captain Hammer wrote:CarlosFerreria, who now wins himself a shiny new I BELIEVE IN USF1 avatar for betting on the wrong horse.

Very funny. But get the name right next time, will you?

Hey, it's two in the morning and I have an endorphin high because Alonso isn't World Champion.

The avatar looks good on you, byt the way.

Also that abysmal music their playing in the Red Bull garage....

Alonso: If you can't get past a rookie (although a rather fast one) in 40 laps while you're a double WDC yourself, you have no right to shake fists for not letting you get past him.

Ferrari on being tricked by RBR. That's why I exclude Webber from ROTR, after qualifying + not passing Alonso at the start, all he was doing today was helping Vettel.

Alonso may have looked hopeless behind Petrov, but I don't think there was much he could do as the Ferrari was very slow on the straights. Not very classy behaviour at the end though.

Captain Hammer wrote:

CarlosFerreira wrote:

Captain Hammer wrote:CarlosFerreria, who now wins himself a shiny new I BELIEVE IN USF1 avatar for betting on the wrong horse.

Very funny. But get the name right next time, will you?

Hey, it's two in the morning and I have an endorphin high because Alonso isn't World Champion.

The avatar looks good on you, byt the way.

Granted. I shall happily display it for a month and think about you every time I log on.

It should be-
Alonso for losing it all
OR
Webber because he was very poor today. He could not stay close enough to pass Alonso, even when Alonso made mistake he was not there.

Alonso for that poor display. Petrov did nothing wrong, he didn't block, in fact he drove very well all weekend. I lost respect for Fernando that moment at the end.

I would have originally said Webber - at least Alonso was trying to get past Petrov, but Webber appeared to just be disinterested most of the time and was sitting 2 or 3 seconds behind them, when if he'd been closer to Alonso he could have slipped past on one of the occasions Alosno got too ragged. .

But Alonso's pathetic gesture towards Petrov at the end makes me vote for him instead.

Heh, just saw the tantrum on YouTube. He better be a man and apologize.

Fernando Alonso - never seen such a sore loser

I'm probably in agreement that Alonso is ROTR by some margin.

I'd love to give it to Fred or Mark, but I'll instead give it to;

FIA regulations - its a pity when a championship is decided because cars can't follow one another. Tilke could also be considered for a joint award.

Mentioned in dispatches would have to be Mark Webber's impression of Carlos Reutterman, Michael Schumacher's summing up of his 2010 in one succinct maneouver and Yas Marina's inability to punish drivers who run wide or off the circuit - its not like Abu Dhabi is short on sand or gravel.

However, the top 3 would have to be...

Modern F1 car design - when you have a track with two enourmous straights and heavy braking at the end if each and that little overtaking then there is clearly something wrong.

The Ferrari pit wall - if you wanted to win the WDC then by all means try and get Massa to leap frog Webber, but why pit Alonso when you know for certain that Webber is going to come up against slower cars who don't need to stop? Especially when Vettel is so imperious up ahead. Not the sort of call that would have been made in the Brawn/Schumacher/Todt days at Ferrari.

But the winner has to be...
Fernando Alonso - why did you get all shirty with Petrov?? If he was a lap down or even had to make another pit stop then you may have a case for being upset, but when you are both fighting on equal ground then he is well within his rights to race hard. It wasn't like you ever had more than a quarter-chance at a pass anyway. Just screams of a acting like a spoilt brat really! In fact... Reject of the Race!

The anti-rejects (whilst not strictly right to mention here) have to be...

Vitaly Petrov - after a season of erratic behaviour, the cyborg from Viborg was absolutely unfaultable for nigh on 2/3rds of the race. Should cement his place in 2011!

The race stewards - they have been excellent all year, but this weekend have made nothing but first rate calls, especially with Hamilton and Massa on quali and Kubica's pit exit. What a change a couple of years and some ex-F1 drivers makes!

Sebastian Vettel - not only for being an excellent race winner and worthy world champion, but also for winning and being the first world champion to win the last race of the season to clinch the world title in a long long time! To have Hamilton '08 WDC, Button '09 WDC and Vettel '10 WDC all on the podium today makes it much more special than the last few years where the driver has finished outside of the podium to clinch it. Fantastic!!!!

Ed24 wrote:I'd love to give it to Fred or Mark, but I'll instead give it to;

FIA regulations - its a pity when a championship is decided because cars can't follow one another. Tilke could also be considered for a joint award.

I like the thinking - Kuwashima and I were discussing exactly the same thing for the last 40 laps ...

(dis)honourable mentions go to whatever drink was on the podium - not champagne i presume - but it was useless.
Bridgestone again for making a soft tyre that lasted 40 (?) laps on button's car

With his teammate winning by some margin, position 8 surely justifies ROTR for Webber. Sadly.

patrick wrote:(dis)honourable mentions go to whatever drink was on the podium - not champagne i presume - but it was useless.

IIRC it's sparkling rose water.

Let's start the demolition!
Fernando Alonso: an absolutely wretched race that, sad I say, summarised his season.
Mark Webber: I can't still believe how pathetic Mark Webber has behaved today. It was like if he resigned himself to lose the title, sitting on Alonso's tail all race long. He deserves to fall a few places in the Season Review just in the light of this.
Vitantonio Liuzzi: he HAD to be the one crashing against Schumi. The whole thing just made me laugh.
Lotus' wings: first the front wing, then the rear one, with Trulli.
Bridgestone: these guys have no idea what they're doing. How come soft tyres can last almost the whole race?
The bathplugging Abu Dhabi track: probably one of the worst races I've ever seen in my life. It was like seeing the same things (i.e Hamilton behind Kubica, Webber behind Alonso, who in turn was behind Petrov, and Vettel cruising) all over again. All I got for renouncing to lunch to see the race was a headache. Thanks, Bernie.

The circuit - To quote Jonathan Palmer, it has no business in Formula 1.

My rejects?

Ferrari........ their strategy ruined Alonso's race...... this team is not the same since the schu,todt & brawn era.... they have the driver but not the team. (Though Alonso's tanterum with Petrov on the slow down lap deserves a nomination?)

Webber? ---- nah I can't give him the reject of the race, his mentality has been poor since Korea so can't give him it!

Liuzzi is a candidate though.... how many times has he caused a safety car session that has influenced the championship outcome? (Think of Istanbull 2006 people)....... that wouldn't earn him reject of the race... but plowing into schumacher is good enough to be nominated! Point taken he had no space... but has Brundle said "what happened to using the brakes?"


Finally, Herman Tilke and his bloody tracks! A fantastic situation for a grand championship decider! And while the strategies brought an interesting factor to the race.... IT WAS THE ONLY INTERESTING THING TO HAPPEN! There was no racing action! Alonso couldn't even get past Petrov! With a Mile long straight! This just shows we need new designers in as the circuit has ruined a good championship finale.

I nominate Abu Dhabi for being the last race. Dull track and I miss Brazil with the Confetti, real champagne...

Ferrari's idiot strategy. Please bring back Ross Brawn.

Tie with: the ridiculous drink on the podium that didn't gush out of the bottle at all.

Libertango wrote:I nominate Abu Dhabi for being the last race. Dull track and I miss Brazil with the Confetti, real champagne...

Interlagos, Suzuka and Adelaide are the only tracks that should host season finales.

Jonathan Legard needs a mention for thinking it was Trulli's FRONT wing that was disintegrating when I had already noticed it was his REAR wing.

Otherwise Alonso for copying Webber's strategy or the Liuzzi/Schumi incident.

Mark Webber - the most annonymous weekend he's had all year, just when he needed the opposite. You'd never have guessed he was in the title hunt but for the on screen graphics. Completely outperformed by Vettel.

Ferrari's strategy proved bad but in handsight you can understand why they were covering off Webber and I guess nobody believed Alonso would get stuck behind Petrov for 40 laps afterwards.

Ferrari, for throwing the race away with an idiot strategy, as has already been said. Having dropped Massa into an impossible position in the pack, they then proceeded to do the same with Alonso.

Webber, for giving up and not having a go at Alonso. There were at least two occasions where Alonso slid off the track and Mark was too far back to capitalise.

The track for being impossible to overtake on. 'Like Monaco in the middle east'. Yep, but Monaco is a fifty year old anomaly, there is no reason to replicate it. So the whole race and championship was decided by traffic.

Ferrari 'for sure'

As for webber, don't know what happened, RBR needed him to win the WCC. It seems after that, they abandoned him/set him up to fail/ used him to stuff up ferrari.
Everyone knew that ferrari would cover webbers moves, and for some reason he didn't get quite the car or set up as vettels car did.

Alonso - Couldn't get past a rookie in an inferior car while being a double world champion. And at the end he threw a tantrum at Petrov. Classless.

For me, I was thinking Ferrari were on course for ROTR after their strategy call to bring in Massa a lap or two early, keeping him stuck behind the Alguersaurus for the rest of the race, and then doing the same thing with Alonso and Petrov. Yes, Webber was faster, but he also had to contend with traffic. It would've been better to have left the decision for a few laps and make sure at least Alonso was clear. Instead they cost themselves the title.

Webber also deserves a mention - he wasn't there in qualifying, and as soon as Alonso came back out in front, he seemed to give up all hope. A sad end to what was a very good season for him.

But the clincher for me was Alonso after his post-race tantrum at Petrov. If you're fighting for a World Championship and you're stuck for half a Grand Prix behind an erratic driver fighting for their career, you do not have the right to complain. End of.

Gotta say I really like the track! I think the main reason Alonso couldn't pass Petrov was the Renault was too fast on the straight! (And also the fact that Hamilton couldn't get past Kubica either).

Everyone seems to be jumping on the track again, but I didn't see a track that was difficult to overtake on, just one car (Renault) that was difficult to overtake. I guess the longer the straight, the easier to defend if you have massively better straightline speed than your oppenent, but it's Renaults 'fault' they had such a low-drag car in the first place. I didn't really see Alonso or Hamilton struggling to track their respetive marks through the twisty bits, following wasn't a problem - It was just that when they hit the straight Kubica and Petrov had enough speed to break the tow. There's not really a lot you can build into a circuit to counteract that.
Kubica himself was on the right end of it and made an awesome move around the outside.
Equally, I don't really see what else Ferrari as a team could have done. Giving Webber a 5-second advantage while Alonso's tyres fell apart, in the hope that Webber's pace behind Petrov would have been sufficiently worse than Alonso's on shot Options to claw it back doesn't strike me as Strategic Genius either.
I'm actually going to say Schumacher. It was a nasty accident with Liuzzi, but his spin was just caused by the kind of overexubrance on cold tyres he should really know better than.

Jordan192 wrote:Everyone seems to be jumping on the track again, but I didn't see a track that was difficult to overtake on, just one car (Renault) that was difficult to overtake. .

I think it was more than that, we didn't see it.

There was Heidfeld, Massa and Alguersurari as well, and also, Barrichello, Sutil and Kobayashi were together at the end of the race, and considering Sutil and Kobayashi were on newer tyres, they still couldn't get past Rubens.