Grand Prix Rejects

Wizzie wrote:I want Raikkonen to wipe out half the field with KERS going into the first corner so Luca won't be given ROTR

Actually, I suspect Badoer might get KERS-happy off the line and cause an accident that will bring out the safety car for several laps, force Lewis Hamilton to pit without anything resemblng a lead and watch helplessly as the Brawns take the win.

Captain Hammer wrote:

Wizzie wrote:I want Raikkonen to wipe out half the field with KERS going into the first corner so Luca won't be given ROTR

Actually, I suspect Badoer might get KERS-happy off the line and cause an accident that will bring out the safety car for several laps, force Lewis Hamilton to pit without anything resemblng a lead and watch helplessly as the Brawns take the win.

The thought has crossed my mind as well.

Finnish MTV3, television channel which airs F1.

Their headlines for this weekend an hour before the race:

* Lehto: Badoer doesn't look into his mirrors
* Badoer was too fast - but only in the pits
* Lehto: Badoer should have stayed at home
* Badoer was nearly excluded from the meeting
* Sutil stars in cut practice, Badoer last
* Badoer has bad record (regarding his most races without points)
* Look how much Badoer loses to Räikkönen
* Day in the paddock: Luca, you are the weakest link!
* Italians amazed of Badoer's slow pace
* Coulthard offers himself in Badoer's seat
* Why Ferrari gave Badoer drive - read the explanation!

Bleu wrote:Finnish MTV3, television channel which airs F1.

Their headlines for this weekend an hour before the race:

* Lehto: Badoer doesn't look into his mirrors
* Badoer was too fast - but only in the pits
* Lehto: Badoer should have stayed at home
* Badoer was nearly excluded from the meeting
* Sutil stars in cut practice, Badoer last
* Badoer has bad record (regarding his most races without points)
* Look how much Badoer loses to Räikkönen
* Day in the paddock: Luca, you are the weakest link!
* Italians amazed of Badoer's slow pace
* Coulthard offers himself in Badoer's seat
* Why Ferrari gave Badoer drive - read the explanation!

That's awful! Some of those are downright mean...

I vote for Reject of the Race the last pit stop for Lewis Hamilton, just make him lose the race.....

The pitstop of Hamilton, all the way..

Badoer, just so we can hear Michael Jackson's "Bad" used as the segue music on the podcast.

P.S. Congratulations to Rubens, he drove brilliantly...

Here are my picks:

Luca Badoer - I hate to do this, but he had those speeding incidents on the pit lane in Practice and then got a drive-through penalty for crossing the white line while exiting the pit lane. He was the slowest car on the track most of the time. I payed attention to the lap times and when he sometimes made a fast lap, he later made a much slower lap. The only time he was good was when he jumped to 14th at the start, but then he had that spin that made him lose everything. A performance below rookie level, I'm afraid

McLaren pit crew - a big "Minardi-like" mistake cost Hamilton the race. Even worse, made Hamilton's dad show up in slow motion on TV later on

Although by many standards Badoer qualifies for the ROTR, I don't think that he'll receive that award, mainly because of the unplanned circumstances that brought him back in the racing seat.. btw, I don't think that Jamie and Enoch will have the heart to do that..

What about Vettel's engines, two blowouts in one weekend.

Ultimately I would give it to Luca. He was nowhere near the pace (except in the pit lane, another reason he should get ROTR) and lacked the killer instinct of a true racing driver. Throughout practice and qualifying he was moving aside to let drivers through constantly, this was capped off in the race when he let Grosjean past for position while leaving the pit lane.

Luca Badoer, for the string of mistakes and being just damn slow. And the McLaren strategist, who called Hamilton in on the nick to time, without time for the info to get down to the mechanics.

May I also suggest Toyota?

You guys are all missing the big picture. Sure, Luca was bad but so was everyone else new to F1. I'd give RORT to the Rookies, namely Badoer along with Buemi (slow as hell and then oxidised his brakes), Algersuari (who?) and Grosjean for spinning as well and tangling with a Toyota. If anything, this means we can let them off for the rest of the season.

Though knowing our site authors, by the time it comes to podcast time they'll nominate us, the F1 Rejects Forum Posters for nominating Luca so much

Toyota, for having very Toyota kind of race, or everyone and everything except for Nakajima's tyre for not doing anything exciting.

The Valencia circuit, for completely failing to produce anything that could be accurately described as 'racing', and for looking so bad as well. And tarmac runoffs, for not punishing mistakes

I'm suggesting Rubens Barrichello's beard for reject of the race, he looked like a tramp on the podium. I'd say Badoer usually, but I don't have the heart to do it...

Warren Hughes wrote:The Valencia circuit, for completely failing to produce anything that could be accurately described as 'racing', and for looking so bad as well. And tarmac runoffs, for not punishing mistakes

+ Infinity

The only excitement I got out of this race was watching Badoers laptimes, it's a truely horrific circuit

Valrys wrote:

Warren Hughes wrote:The Valencia circuit, for completely failing to produce anything that could be accurately described as 'racing', and for looking so bad as well. And tarmac runoffs, for not punishing mistakes

+ Infinity

The only excitement I got out of this race was watching Badoers laptimes, it's a truely horrific circuit

I'm adding my vote for the circuit.

Few reasons why NOT to ROTR Luca:

-McLaren had the best chance of the year for making a 1-2, and they blew it on their own account.
-Luca didn't participate in the 1st lap nosecone slamfest
-Grosjean spun off too, and had his nose replaced on the 1st lap
-Nakajima surprised again..
-He brought the car to the finish line in one piece (and he wasn't last to finish).

Yeah and Badoer actually got faster as the race went on too. He made up loads of places off the line (although something caused a spin to lose them all again) but at the start he was losing half a second to Algi but once the gap reached 11 seconds it stayed like it and then he started closing him down to 8 seconds. The only silly thing was the pit-lane stuff again.

I do hope Badoer gets another go at Spa, its a circuit he knows, has driven well on before and maybe will be more on the pace before. I think people forget Salo's back of the grid race at Hungary in 99. This is no different.

My ROTR may surprise many as...
Sebastien Buemi
Was the main participant in the Turn 1 shuntfest, but was woefully slow compared to fellow victims Glock and new boy Grosjean. Brake fail meant he could retire and avoid the ignomy of finishing stone dead last on the road, and meaning he has been beaten by Alguersuari both times. For me, that is an EPIC FAIL.

Though McLaren are a close 2nd with that awful Pitstop.

I would nominate McLaren's pitcrew for costing Hamilton the race, but since I really, really, don't like Hamilton, I'll let them off.

Instead, I'm nominating the circuit. Another dull race - and it's on the calendar for 5 more years? Why?

McLaren - threw away an easy victory.
Sebastian Vettel's engines - blew two in as many days, leaving him with just two left and effectively killing his season.
Red Bull - let Button, Barrichello and Brawn romp away.

My vote goes to Red Bull.

I nominate the Mclaren pit stop debacle... last time i saw anything like that happen was when ferrari decided to have a commitee meeting during Eddie Irvines pit stop athe the European GP 10 years ago......

WeirdKerr wrote: last time i saw anything like that happen was when ferrari decided to have a commitee meeting during Eddie Irvines pit stop athe the European GP 10 years ago......

This is a sign of the fate, as it was a Luca Badoer-themed race!

What's more, Barrichello unexpectedly came third in that race! And Herbert had his emotional victory, much like Barrichello had his emotional victory now.

The similarities are striking, except for the retirements and the excitements. Hehe, I just realized how much fun the 1999 season was.

Australia. Yes, all of it.
No points for Webber and nigh certain to lose in a certain other sporting event. Maybe it was weighing on his mind

The Valencia Street Circuit

It may be a race promoter's dream, but it's a fan's nightmare. Boring, underused, almost entirely pointless and incapable of producing any action. It cannot even have a proper start accident, all it can muster is a front wing being tripped over and a minor spin. Plus it all looks the same, having no discernable corners, except for the final corner due to the white line halway across it.

What did anyone see in building a semi-street circuit in a city wit a competition level circuit already in place.

The McLaren Pit-Crew

That was amateurish, guys. What modern team, when competing for the win, forgets to bring the tyres out before a pitstop?

Plus, it tarnished Rubens' win somewhat, making it seem like that incident gave him the race. Granted, it helped, but the ultra-fast laps he put in before his stops would have got him out just behind the McLaren at the very least, and probably past it. The we could have had a more thrilling end to the race with one car chasing the other, the drivers trying to out-psyche each other, whereas instead Rubinho gets an easier cruise to the line. Not that he didn't deserve or earn the win properly, but the bungle makes it look like the victory was handed to him.

Debaser wrote:I'm suggesting Rubens Barrichello's beard for reject of the race, he looked like a tramp on the podium.

Give the man a break

He's thirty-seven years old, and you could see when he took his helmet off just before the podium, that he's starting to lose his hair. Rubinho's probably trying to hang onto whatever hair he's got left, whichever end of his face it's at.

So many candidates (although I think all of these have already been mentioned):

Luca Badoer - Judging by most of the pre race posts, most people expected him to be Q2 material, if nothing more. But he wasn't, he made fundamental errors, and was damn, damn slow.

Sebastien Buemi - He seems to be becoming the new Bourdais! I think he's probably lost his front wing more than anybody this season (even Piquet complained about him), and Algusuereri seems to match him reasonably for pace. Plus, he cooked his brakes.

Heikki Kovalainen - He's always been fairly handy in qualifying, but in the races (at McLaren) he always goes backwards. Kovalainen does not have the potential to do anything at McLaren, and Rosberg should always have been in that seat IMO.

McLaren pit crew - That was a terrible, terrible pitstop. Why cut things so fine? What is 10 seconds more of tire warming going to do anyway? A quick pitstop should have been the ultimate priority with Barrichello breathing down Hamilton's neck.

Jenson Button - OK, he was 7th, but this time the Brawn was a race winning car. Barrichello comprehensively outperformed him throughout the race meeting. He is getting quite lucky with all of his rivals dropping points, he must be loving McLaren and Ferrari's renaissance.

Red Bull - 0 points, says it all. Vettel had 2 engines go in a single race meeting, where this is the era of bulletproof reliability. Webber was just slow, and didn't have the greatest race strategy. Oh, and I almost forgot Vettel's first pit stop with the fuel rig problem.


But my ROTR is... The Valencia Street Circuit itself. The only reason we even have the race is Alonso's popularity in Spain, and know that he's not doing so well, the crowds are down. So what's the point at racing at this poor circuit? Surely the deal can't be worth to Ecclestone as much as say Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, China etc. The circuit had the recipe for an interesting race this time, and it was fairly interesting, but I don't recall a single overtaking attempt in the whole race. Unless you count Grosjean's move on Badoer in the pits.

LukeB wrote:Australia. Yes, all of it.
No points for Webber and nigh certain to lose in a certain other sporting event. Maybe it was weighing on his mind

You're forgetting Will Power's crash in the IRL as well!

CarlosFerreira wrote:

Valrys wrote:

Warren Hughes wrote:The Valencia circuit, for completely failing to produce anything that could be accurately described as 'racing', and for looking so bad as well. And tarmac runoffs, for not punishing mistakes

+ Infinity

The only excitement I got out of this race was watching Badoers laptimes, it's a truely horrific circuit

I'm adding my vote for the circuit.

I'm adding a Reject of the Year vote to the Valencia circuit. It's a great track for GP2, where there was a massive fail in the Sprint Race + tons of other action that involved explosions, either brain explosions or car explosions.

It's even worse than the Hungaroring, because while the Hungaroring is just slow and dull, at least that track brought us a good race in its first year. Granted, it generally has disappointed every year since (save 1997 and 2006), but at least it has a decent F1 race to its name.

Valencia is so boring it makes a NASCAR race at Pocono look like high-quality art! Anyone who knows what I'm talking about knows that's a bad thing.

I said earlier that the Reject was Luca Badoer, but I changed my mind.

The reject of the race was Felipe Massa and the Brazilian Television.

Felipe made comments on Brazilian Television thoughout the whole transmission using SMS messages, and the commentators forgot to talk about the race to "chat" with him. Luckilly, I put my TV on mute and listened part on radio.

And also Rubens's victory was annoying for the ones who likes to see good comments.

My vote goes to Red Bull. Failing to score any points messing up Webber's stop and not one but 2engine failures. Just when we thought Brawn was gone, Red Bull has a terrible race and Barichello wins. So much for momentum.

Heikki Kovalainen, for proving what Martin Whitmarsh was complaining about earlier in the weekend: that he's handy in qualifying, but doesn't seem to come up with the race pace. Was beaten by the closest rival in both pit stops. Not brilliant, mate!

Bleu wrote:Finnish MTV3, television channel which airs F1.

Their headlines for this weekend an hour before the race:

* Lehto: Badoer doesn't look into his mirrors
* Badoer was too fast - but only in the pits
* Lehto: Badoer should have stayed at home
* Badoer was nearly excluded from the meeting
* Sutil stars in cut practice, Badoer last
* Badoer has bad record (regarding his most races without points)
* Look how much Badoer loses to Räikkönen
* Day in the paddock: Luca, you are the weakest link!
* Italians amazed of Badoer's slow pace
* Coulthard offers himself in Badoer's seat
* Why Ferrari gave Badoer drive - read the explanation!

Two more MTV3 headlines after the race:

* Badoer let willingly another driver past - see stupid incident
* Ferrari team boss's amazing decision: Badoer can continue!

Bleu wrote:

Bleu wrote:Finnish MTV3, television channel which airs F1.

Their headlines for this weekend an hour before the race:

* Lehto: Badoer doesn't look into his mirrors
* Badoer was too fast - but only in the pits
* Lehto: Badoer should have stayed at home
* Badoer was nearly excluded from the meeting
* Sutil stars in cut practice, Badoer last
* Badoer has bad record (regarding his most races without points)
* Look how much Badoer loses to Räikkönen
* Day in the paddock: Luca, you are the weakest link!
* Italians amazed of Badoer's slow pace
* Coulthard offers himself in Badoer's seat
* Why Ferrari gave Badoer drive - read the explanation!

Two more MTV3 headlines after the race:

* Badoer let willingly another driver past - see stupid incident
* Ferrari team boss's amazing decision: Badoer can continue!

No intention of insulting any Finns, but these reporters really are some kinda dicks...

I don't think Badoer should get the reject of the race award (see my comments in other threads for my reasons).

I would award it to both the Valencia track, which is truly awful in my opinion (again see my comments in the Valencia race thread for more details), and Jonathan Legard, for trying to convince us that the race wasn't a procession....What? Was he watching the same race as everyone else?

The Valencia circuit, for supplying us with yet another bland race where the only entertaining bits where spins, collisions and mechanical failures. That's why I'm not nominating Luca, he was one of the few to provide some entertainment!

I'll give it to McLaren's pit crew. Not for costing Hamilton the race, I think Rubens would have got him anyway, but for costing all of us the drama of at least trying to watch Hamilton track him down from closer distance.

Badoer? I enjoyed his 17th place finish in the Minardi and I also like their new red livery.

Kidding aside, riddle me this, didn't Ferrari send him out on his infamous pit stop too early? Grosjean was coming down the pit lane, Badoer was sent basically into his path. He had a choice: let Grosjean hit him -- which I think he would've -- or give way.

None of that excuses going over the line on his pit exit, though. Unfortunate.

And I agree that Valencia fellates farm animals.

The hits just keep on coming. According to a Twitter from Autosport's Jon Noble, Badoer ended his weekend by rear-ending Adrian Sutil in parc ferme.

http://twitter.com/noblef1

Bleu wrote:Two more MTV3 headlines after the race:

* Badoer let willingly another driver past - see stupid incident
* Ferrari team boss's amazing decision: Badoer can continue!

They keep on coming:

* Day at the paddock: Best of Badoer today

I assume that is a montage of Badoer's various mishaps during the race, probably with Yakety Sax playing over it (I'm not going to watch the clip, but I could see them doing something like that), gathered into one so all us Finns can point and laugh at a driver being humiliated. MTV3 gets my vote for Reject of the Race with this nonsense.