ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 10 Sep 2013, 13:38

If we have a topic like this already please merge them together but who would have been ROTY in other Motorsports outside of F1?

BTCC 2012: Andy Neate or Chris James (Neate for Crashing and James for being woefully slow)

You know what I'll let Stramala explain why Andy Neate was so poor in 2012

Stramala wrote:How the hell does that total brainless moron Andy Neate keep getting top drives? He can't be that rich now can he? West Surry Racing to Team AON to Triple Eight, that sounds like the career progression of a rising touring car star, not a clueless pay driver.

For example, why did Team AON even need the money? Chilton brought lots and lots of cash from Aon to fund the entire project, they wouldn't have needed Neate's cash surely. It's strange because it doesn't fit the traditional pay-driver model of bad driver going to small underfunded team that would be at the back of the grid anyway. It is a lot like Yamamoto starting out at Mercedes, then moving on to Lotus and finally ending up at Ferrari.

It's not just when you compare him to his team-mate he looks bad - he finished on exactly the same amount of points as Daniel Welch, who drove the Proton. The bloody PROTON. That car is never going to win anything, not even if you put Neal or Shedden in it. So, 79 points in a Triple 8 developed MG versus 79 points in a car cobbled together in a shed by Welch's own family team. Except it gets better; while Neate did all 30 races this year, Welch didn't start any races at Thruxton and didn't even turn up at Rockingham! SIX races less! What a total joke.

Actually, I stopped watching the BTCC much ever since Andy Neate got his drive with WSR, I think I was so disgusted that the series had got to the point that any old numpty with a ton of cash could buy his way into a top drive that I just wasn't interested anymore. When you have drivers like Fabrizio Giovanardi and James Thompson just sitting on the sidelines doing nothing and these clowns in the top seats, I don't see the point. I'm not interested in seeing Honda race against Jason "I'm a f***ing tool" Plato and a bunch of wealthy gentleman drivers lining the pockets of all the team owners in the series.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 10 Sep 2013, 14:03

Mika Duno for any and all years she competed in IndyCar. Plus for 2012, Lotus engines.

Post by **mario** » 10 Sep 2013, 14:40

Looking at sportscar racing, you would have to say that the utterly hopeless AMR-One would take the award for 2011.

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 10 Sep 2013, 14:46

dr-baker wrote:Mika Duno for any and all years she competed in IndyCar. Plus for 2012, Lotus engines.

Yeah, but for 2012 Marco Andretti deserves to be, at least, in the ROTY podium. Finished that year in a lowly 16th position, while one of your team mates won the title.

My Choices:

2012: Lotus
2011: Helio Castroneves
2010: Mika Duno

Also,another no brainer choice:

Cart 1998 ROTY: Paul Tracy (he crashed with almost everyone in the field and ends the season getting a race ban for the next season)

DOSBoot · Post by **DOSBoot** » 10 Sep 2013, 16:43

For the WRC between 2002-2004:

2002 - Mitsubishi: 3rd in the constructors last year, dead last this year. Even Hyundai managed to beat them on countback.

2003 - Hyundai: Loss of their Castrol sponsorship, and being blown out of the water by Skoda was the nail in the coffin for the team.

2004 - Mitsubishi: To say their return to the sport was unmitigated disaster would be a huge understatement.

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 10 Sep 2013, 18:45

DOSBoot wrote:For the WRC between 2002-2004:

2002 - Mitsubishi: 3rd in the constructors last year, dead last this year. Even Hyundai managed to beat them on countback.

2003 - Hyundai: Loss of their Castrol sponsorship, and being blown out of the water by Skoda was the nail in the coffin for the team.

2004 - Mitsubishi: To say their return to the sport was unmitigated disaster would be a huge understatement.

Mitsubishi were both rocked by the fact the new car introduced half-way through 2001 was poor and then when their star driver Tommi Makinen joined Subaru so it's not a real surprise that they faltered. Harri Rovenpera did a great job in 2005 beating former team-mate Gronholm for 3rd in Italy for a while I believe and then keeping his head in Australia to get 2nd in the finale before they pulled the plug.

Speaking of Makinen he probably deserves a mention for 02 and 03. In 02 he inherited the win in Monte-Carlo from Loeb when he was penalized but he fell off horribly after that finishing only 6 rallies all season and 3rd in Cyprus and New Zealand the best he could do after that. He also threw away the Win in Argentina by crashing near the end too thus winding up 8th overall

In 03 he finished only 2 rallies on the podium all season (2nd in Sweden and 3rd in GB) and seemed content to just pick up the minor points which one again put him only 8th overall while team-mate Petter Solberg took 4 wins to become the WRC Champion

Faustus · Post by **Faustus** » 10 Sep 2013, 19:19

Can one of the mods merge this topic with this one, please:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6192

go_Rubens · Post by **go_Rubens** » 10 Sep 2013, 21:34

Faustus wrote:Can one of the mods merge this topic with this one, please:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6192

Why?

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 11 Sep 2013, 07:55

go_Rubens wrote:
Faustus wrote:Can one of the mods merge this topic with this one, please:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6192

Why?

Yeah, ROTY and unpopular opinions are separate threads for F1, why should they be merged for other motorsports?

pi314159 · Post by **pi314159** » 11 Sep 2013, 09:20

mario wrote:Looking at sportscar racing, you would have to say that the utterly hopeless AMR-One would take the award for 2011.

Indeed. The two AMR-One cars completed only 2 and 4 laps in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. ROTY for 2012 should be Peugeot, for withdrawing before the season even started. I don't have an idea for this year yet.

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 11 Sep 2013, 09:30

WRC:
1998 - Toyota
Robbing Sainz of a championship right at the very end of the GB rally, losing the manufacturer title there as well!
1999 - Ford Focus WRC
Alright, first year, but how many retirements exactly? 46 points behind Mitsubishi is a little too much
2000 - Seat
23 points in 1999, 11 a year later... the result is shutting down!
2001 - Mitsubishi Lancer WRC
The new car basically destroyed Mäkinen's chance at his 5th title

Faustus · Post by **Faustus** » 11 Sep 2013, 11:19

pi314159 wrote:
mario wrote:Looking at sportscar racing, you would have to say that the utterly hopeless AMR-One would take the award for 2011.

Indeed. The two AMR-One cars completed only 2 and 4 laps in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. ROTY for 2012 should be Peugeot, for withdrawing before the season even started. I don't have an idea for this year yet.

The Corvettes for this year's Le Mans, for being nowhere.

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 11 Sep 2013, 20:57

GP3 2012 and what should be 2013: Carmen Jorda: Quite Frankly she deserves to come last in this year's standings because of her shocking lack of pace. Also Status GP get an honorable mention. In the first year of GP3 Robby Wickens took runner up spot to Gutierrez and Daniel Morad won a race Fast Forward to 2013 and they are plum last overall with just 1 podium and with the likes of Adderly Fong and Josh Webster on the team that doesn't look to be changing anytime soon.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 11 Sep 2013, 23:12

My nominations for the BTCC in the past few seasons.

2012 ROTY Podium

3rd - Adam Morgan Although he proved he had the raw pace to qualify in the top ten regularly towards the end of the season, Morgan had an absolute shocker often squandering good track position by getting caught up in incidents seemingly every other race. In 30 races, Morgan was only classified as a finisher 14 times and for the first half of the season his teammate, the snail slow Tony Hughes was actually ahead of him in points! (Thankfully his 2013 has been the exact opposite).

2nd - Andy Neate Performed even worse than expected for Triple 8. While Plato got the MG to 3rd in the drivers standings, Neate was all the way down in 16th, only slighty better than his performance in the previous two seasons in comparatively inferior cars. Not only that but he finished behind several drivers in vastly inferior cars (Austin, Wood, Welch) some of which don't even have that great of a reputation. And only eight points ahead of Tony Gilham who missed two meetings and spent another three driving the awful Thorney Insignia and he's not exactly a great talent himself. Would have walked ROTY were it not for the shenanigans below.

1st - Chris James Not only was he as soundly beaten by Newsham as Neate was by Plato, his behavior both on and off the track, particularly on twitter was simply appalling. An embarrassment to the sport and a well deserved ROTY.

2011 ROTY Podium

3rd - Andy Neate In a season that saw many pay drivers manage to score top drives, a number of drivers came close to this spot but for the amount of decent results he choked on, Neate makes the podium again. There was that stupid collision with Tony Gilham at Donnington where they were racing for 5th, then at Brands he chucked away a podium by throwing his Focus into the gravel because 'the sun was in his eyes'. Not that bad speed wise but no less crashprone.

2nd - John George After a competitive (by his standards) season in 2010, I was expecting George to score at least half a dozen points in a two year old Cruze. Sadly he never troubled the scorers though he at least be excused since he was driving one of the non-turbo cars.

1st - Liam Griffin Perhaps the least competent driver since Farique Hairuman in 2004. While his teammate Mat Jackson led the championship on his way to 4th, Griffin could only manage a measly two points at Donnington in a race where just 13 finished. Even Andy Neate managed 15 in what I thought was a slightly slower car. The lowpoint came at Rockingham where he qualified last behind even Chris James in an ancient Lacetti. (At least he's improved into someone halfway respectable since).

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 12 Sep 2013, 00:47

2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup ROTY Podium thus far

3rd: Martin Truex Jr., for a driver to have ended his 200+ winless streak is an accomplishment, but for him it also led to Michael Waltrip Racing trying to manipulate the race to get Truex in. And then two days later NASCAR penalizes Truex 50 points for the actions of his teammates knocking him out of the Chase.

2nd: Michael McDowell/Phil Parsons Racing, his poor position actually has more to do with how Phil Parsons runs his team due to budget concerns and McDowell holds a great deal of talent given the equipment. However, that doesn't over shadow the fact that he has scored fewer points than NASCAR's pay driver in Timmy Hill despite competing in twice as many events as Hill even though McDowell started the season with a 9th at Daytona. It's clear that he would rather be in NASCAR's top series than not in it at all unlike the likes of Regan Smith and Elliott Sadler.

1st: Denny Hamlin, sure injury has also been a factor in Hamlin's poor points position as well. However, the fact he has as many top tens as poles in top quality equipment shows an absolute disaster of a season. In fact, he has more DNFs than top tens as well. So he's NASCAR's Andrea de Cesaris, just with more mechanical problems and less crashing.

Bleu · Post by **Bleu** » 12 Sep 2013, 07:21

GP2

2005: Fairuz Fauzy. Only driver participating every race weekend and not scoring points.

2006. Durango. Last in teams' championship and also excluded at Silverstone for tampering rear wing.

2007: Michael Ammermüller. Having shown promise in 20096, joined championship team. Injured early, then returned but all in all scored only one point.

2008: Javier Villa. Alongside eventual champion, didn't really improve from previous year where he won three sprint races (although all from front row). Including blowing a podium two corners from the finish at Hockenheim and probably using dry braking point at the torrential rain in Monza.

2009: DPR. 0 points.

2010: Ho-Pin Tung. Not very great performances earlier, but made a return. 0 points until injured in Hungaroring, his replacement was Grosjean who did much better job.

2011: Pål Varhaug. Team-mate won the title and Norwegian ended with 0.

2012: Venezuela GP Lazarus. Even with the new point system coming, just one point scored.

At the moment, Cecotto is favourite for this year. Not only because all the crashes he caused but he has not shown that promising pace either. After all, he won twice last year.

Faustus · Post by **Faustus** » 12 Sep 2013, 08:53

Bleu wrote:GP2

2012: Venezuela GP Lazarus. Even with the new point system coming, just one point scored.

I would have thought Ricardo Teixeira was even worse. His team-mates got 44 points, he had nothing.

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 12 Sep 2013, 13:39

Bleu wrote:GP2
2007: Michael Ammermüller. Having shown promise in 20096, joined championship team. Injured early, then returned but all in all scored only one point.

20096? Are you sure you're in the right era Bleu?

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 12 Sep 2013, 15:05

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:
Bleu wrote:GP2
2007: Michael Ammermüller. Having shown promise in 20096, joined championship team. Injured early, then returned but all in all scored only one point.

20096? Are you sure you're in the right era Bleu?

I know it's bad to see inexperienced drivers rushed into F1, but when you've had over 18,000 years in GP2 and scored one point....

Onxy Wrecked · Post by **Onxy Wrecked** » 12 Sep 2013, 17:39

I should make a 1985 NASCAR Winston Cup Podium

3rd: Cale Yarborough, 16 starts on a part time schedule, two wins, six top fives, seven top tens, but also 9 DNFs. I think you know what is wrong with this when he's behind Clark Dwyer, Jimmy Means, and Buddy Arrington. If he ran the full schedule, a terrifying 16 DNFs would have resulted if one could have projected that and all other finishes in the top ten.

2nd: Clark Dwyer, ran all the races and only one more DNF than Yarborough. The problem with Dwyer is that he was so bad that despite the era's high attrition that he didn't produce a top ten.

1st: Jimmy Means, the same dreadful performance of Dwyer with more DNFs (13 vs 10). Interestingly, as an owner-driver only one of the 15 DNFs was crash related and most were mechanical in nature with 6 engine failures. However, that also reflections on him as an owner to an extent as the team's low budget led to poor quality equipment.

Post by **Londoner** » 16 Sep 2013, 11:02

BTCC ROTY for 2003 and 2004: Petronas Syntium Proton. After a promising 2002 with the then-underdeveloped Impian, they were bloody awful in these two years. An absolute joke of a manufacturer entry. Pretty much killed Phil Bennett's career stone dead, and was a sad way for the late David Leslie to bow out from the series. And then, they turfed Bennett and Leslie out for two complete unknown rookies in 2004. The predictable result was stone dead last in the Manufacturers Championship, over 300 points behind Seat.

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 16 Sep 2013, 11:05

East Londoner wrote:BTCC ROTY for 2003 and 2004: Petronas Syntium Proton. After a promising 2002 with the then-underdeveloped Impian, they were bloody awful in these two years. An absolute joke of a manufacturer entry. Pretty much killed Phil Bennett's career stone dead, and was a sad way for the late David Leslie to bow out from the series. And then, they turfed Bennett and Leslie out for two complete unknown rookies in 2004. The predictable result was stone dead last in the Manufacturers Championship, over 300 points behind Seat.

Watson-Smith was actually a decent driver, like he was in South Africa. Other than that I completely agree

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 19 Sep 2013, 21:35

For my WRC 2004 ROTY Peugeot Sport have to take it for me, Seriously if Marcus Gronholm says he's fed up with the new car then your season hasn't been great. Not to mention they finished a poor 4th in the Teams title behind Ford and Subaru who virtually had 1 car doing all the work all season

And i'll be a bit controversial and say Richard Burns should get a nomination for 2002 ROTY. Granted he had to come to grips with the Peugoet having been at Subaru for about 3-4 years but coming into that team as the World Champion you would have expected Burns to run Gronholm close and while Monte was usually deceptive back then from Sweden onwards it was clear that Gronholm was taking Burns to the cleaners almost every rally of the year. Apart from New Zealand Burns never looked like winning a rally all season while Gronholm won 5 and deserved more. Of course there was terrible luck for Burns such as Argentina where he was Disqualified and Kenya where he retired meters from the service park but even then he was only on for about 5th place and of course there was New Zealand where he crashed on his own accord while leading easily.

Not only did he finish behind Petter Solberg and the 2 Fords of Sainz and Mcrae down in 5th overall he was only 3 points ahead of Giles Panizzi aka the Tarmac Expert and while Burns did all 14 rallies Panizzi missed 2 rallies and didn't start in Australia. Not only that but 1 of the rallies Panizzi missed was the German round on Tarmac because of a DIY incident. Just to cap it off Harri Rovenpera aka The Gravel Expert was just a further point back in the same car!! having matched Burns's record of 4 2nd places and he was a very good if not spectacular driver playing wingman to Gronholm and not being renowned for good Tarmac rallies. I think you got the feeling that although he was one of Peugeot's leaders Burns wasn't always living up to that

However i do agree with DOSboot that Mitsubishi should take it outright although for a slight correction Hyundai beat them by 1 point rather than on countback. It was actually Skoda who got 5th courtesy of being "Lucky Bastards" Because the chaotic ending to Argentina promoted Skoda to 4th and 5th plus also having a 4th in Kenya when most guys ahead were retiring whereas Mitsubishi only had 1 4th in Sweden however the loss of Makkinen and the fact that the new car hadn't worked in the 2nd half of 2001 also set them back and the rest as they say is history.

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 19 Sep 2013, 23:58

Some ROTY podium from Cart 90s, IMO:

1999 cart season:

3rd Jimmy Vasser: Another year, another team-mate winning the title and Jimmy in the shadows. Lose to your rookie team-mate, who won the title, and finished the year in a lowly 10th position. I think Frentzen had done a lot better than him

2nd All-American Racing: Another year escaping miraculous of ROTY. At least they beaten Penske and Alex Barron did some surprising driving and even leading some laps with that crap car. However, this is the only good thing to say.

1st Team Penske: By far the worst year of Penske in the 90s. Beaten by the Reject All American Racing, questionable driver line-up, Unser Jr had a disastrous farewell season and the tragic accident with Rodriguez. A year to forget for Roger Penske, definitively.

1998 cart season:

3rd Lola: Only four points, only three ahead of the rubbish Eagle. Nuff said.

2nd All-American Racing: Another rubbish year with your custom eagle chassis and the poor Toyota engine. Dead last in almost every race.

1st Paul Tracy: Over aggressiveness, a lot of crashes and a racing ban for the next season. Tracy could had easily finished in the top 10 in the final standing or in the top 5 without his antics. He finished 99 points behind of his team-mate!

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 13 Oct 2013, 20:19

Now that the BTCC 2013 season is done here's who I think are my ROTY

3rd Will Bratt: He isn't the most spectacular driver I've ever seen but considering his F2 results you would have expected more. While Rob Austin took 1 win and 5 podiums on his way to 11th overall Bratt only finished 2 races in the top 10 all season and was even 40 pts off the next man ahead in the championship. No surprise he was replaced for Brands Hatch because he just wasn't good enough

2nd Ollie Jackson: Like Bratt he was soundly thrashed by his team-mate here being the super quick Dave Newsham. 1 top 10 finish at the very first race says it all and I don't remember him putting in a single moment of note all season. Tied with Bratt on points despite the fact that Bratt missed Brands Hatch and failed to start 2 other races (To be fair Jackson also DNS'ed 2 races) Oh Dear.

1st Frank Wrathall: His early promise at Brands Indy proved to be a very false dawn and he finished a mere 16th overall on just 76 pts, 23 pts behind Nick Foster and only 3 pts ahead of Jack Goff and just a further point clear of Daniel Welch and here's more: while Wrathall did 29 of the 30 races Goff missed the trip to Knockhill and failed to start a race as well. Welch meanwhile raced the last 3rd of the season with a fractured pelvis and also missed 2 races at Rockingham. Wrathall's season was in short a total disaster

roblo97 · Post by **roblo97** » 13 Oct 2013, 20:45

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:Now that the BTCC 2013 season is done here's who I think are my ROTY

3rd Will Bratt: He isn't the most spectacular driver I've ever seen but considering his F2 results you would have expected more. While Rob Austin took 1 win and 5 podiums on his way to 11th overall Bratt only finished 2 races in the top 10 all season and was even 40 pts off the next man ahead in the championship. No surprise he was replaced for Brands Hatch because he just wasn't good enough

2nd Ollie Jackson: Like Bratt he was soundly thrashed by his team-mate here being the super quick Dave Newsham. 1 top 10 finish at the very first race says it all and I don't remember him putting in a single moment of note all season. Tied with Bratt on points despite the fact that Bratt missed Brands Hatch and failed to start 2 other races (To be fair Jackson also DNS'ed 2 races) Oh Dear.

1st Frank Wrathall: His early promise at Brands Indy proved to be a very false dawn and he finished a mere 16th overall on just 76 pts, 23 pts behind Nick Foster and only 3 pts ahead of Jack Goff and just a further point clear of Daniel Welch and here's more: while Wrathall did 29 of the 30 races Goff missed the trip to Knockhill and failed to start a race as well. Welch meanwhile raced the last 3rd of the season with a fractured pelvis and also missed 2 races at Rockingham. Wrathall's season was in short a total disaster

I think that there should be and dishonuorable mention for Nick Foster. For sure he is a very nice person IRL but he has very little talent and taking your teamate out in the final round breaks the first golen rule of racing in my mind.
Rule number 1: Never take out your team mate :lol:

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 13 Oct 2013, 20:53

roblomas52 wrote:
Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:Now that the BTCC 2013 season is done here's who I think are my ROTY

3rd Will Bratt: He isn't the most spectacular driver I've ever seen but considering his F2 results you would have expected more. While Rob Austin took 1 win and 5 podiums on his way to 11th overall Bratt only finished 2 races in the top 10 all season and was even 40 pts off the next man ahead in the championship. No surprise he was replaced for Brands Hatch because he just wasn't good enough

2nd Ollie Jackson: Like Bratt he was soundly thrashed by his team-mate here being the super quick Dave Newsham. 1 top 10 finish at the very first race says it all and I don't remember him putting in a single moment of note all season. Tied with Bratt on points despite the fact that Bratt missed Brands Hatch and failed to start 2 other races (To be fair Jackson also DNS'ed 2 races) Oh Dear.

1st Frank Wrathall: His early promise at Brands Indy proved to be a very false dawn and he finished a mere 16th overall on just 76 pts, 23 pts behind Nick Foster and only 3 pts ahead of Jack Goff and just a further point clear of Daniel Welch and here's more: while Wrathall did 29 of the 30 races Goff missed the trip to Knockhill and failed to start a race as well. Welch meanwhile raced the last 3rd of the season with a fractured pelvis and also missed 2 races at Rockingham. Wrathall's season was in short a total disaster

I think that there should be and dishonuorable mention for Nick Foster. For sure he is a very nice person IRL but he has very little talent and taking your teamate out in the final round breaks the first golen rule of racing in my mind.
Rule number 1: Never take out your team mate

Bit harsh Rob. Foster might not be on Turks levels or even Collard's for that matter but he did come 4th in Croft and isn't prone to brainfades like Andy Neate or diabolically slow like Chris James. Plus it didn't look like he could see Turkington spinning as he was in the middle of the pack.

I actually thought of nominating Neate because of what his replacement Sam Tordoff did in the MG compared to him

Andy Neate 30 races Best finish 6th 16th overall 79pts
Sam Tordoff 30 races 1 win 6 Podiums 2 Pole Positions 2 Fastest Laps 6th overall 286 pts

Just says it all doesn't

roblo97 · Post by **roblo97** » 13 Oct 2013, 21:57

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:
roblomas52 wrote:
Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:Now that the BTCC 2013 season is done here's who I think are my ROTY

3rd Will Bratt: He isn't the most spectacular driver I've ever seen but considering his F2 results you would have expected more. While Rob Austin took 1 win and 5 podiums on his way to 11th overall Bratt only finished 2 races in the top 10 all season and was even 40 pts off the next man ahead in the championship. No surprise he was replaced for Brands Hatch because he just wasn't good enough

2nd Ollie Jackson: Like Bratt he was soundly thrashed by his team-mate here being the super quick Dave Newsham. 1 top 10 finish at the very first race says it all and I don't remember him putting in a single moment of note all season. Tied with Bratt on points despite the fact that Bratt missed Brands Hatch and failed to start 2 other races (To be fair Jackson also DNS'ed 2 races) Oh Dear.

1st Frank Wrathall: His early promise at Brands Indy proved to be a very false dawn and he finished a mere 16th overall on just 76 pts, 23 pts behind Nick Foster and only 3 pts ahead of Jack Goff and just a further point clear of Daniel Welch and here's more: while Wrathall did 29 of the 30 races Goff missed the trip to Knockhill and failed to start a race as well. Welch meanwhile raced the last 3rd of the season with a fractured pelvis and also missed 2 races at Rockingham. Wrathall's season was in short a total disaster

I think that there should be and dishonuorable mention for Nick Foster. For sure he is a very nice person IRL but he has very little talent and taking your teamate out in the final round breaks the first golen rule of racing in my mind.
Rule number 1: Never take out your team mate

Bit harsh Rob. Foster might not be on Turks levels or even Collard's for that matter but he did come 4th in Croft and isn't prone to brainfades like Andy Neate or diabolically slow like Chris James. Plus it didn't look like he could see Turkington spinning as he was in the middle of the pack.

I actually thought of nominating Neate because of what his replacement Sam Tordoff did in the MG compared to him

Andy Neate 30 races Best finish 6th 16th overall 79pts
Sam Tordoff 30 races 1 win 6 Podiums 2 Pole Positions 2 Fastest Laps 6th overall 286 pts

Just says it all doesn't

The only reason I would never nominate him is because of your valid point and the fact that he lives in Hook, which is very close to where I live.

Samster · Post by **Samster** » 13 Oct 2013, 22:07

Here is my 2013 reject podium for the BTCC. Fairly tough this time since there have been no stand out rejects what with Andy Neate only doing three rounds and Chris James not on the grid at all, just several mediocre performances.

3rd James Cole Was always going to struggle as an open-wheel convert driving a developing car but Cole was absolutely anonymous to the point that I almost forgot he even competed this season. Looking at his qualifying performances he was often struggling to beat the Jack Sears drivers. And then he walked out on TGR midseason in a rather Paul di Resta esq inflated sense of his own entitlement because he wanted better equipment. Somehow I doubt anyone better than TGR will ever hire him and if he stuck around maybe he could have scored some top tens as the Insignias improved, look at what Jack Goff achieved today in the sister car.

2nd Frank Wrathall Another harsh call, but I really do have no idea what happened at Dynojet this year. After looking like he would continue his good pace from 2012 at Brands and Donnington, his season just seemed to lurch from disaster to disaster from then onwards. Even when he was quick he would usually DNF and loose a bunch of points. And then there was the unfortunate incident offtrack when he killed that cyclist while driving on the phone. I don't see how he won't end up with at least some jailtime once that's finally settled in court.

1st Jeff Smith May be a bit harsh since he's not an awful driver on the Neate/James level but he only made it to 14th overall while his teammate won the title. He started the season respectably enough but it was fairly obvious even then that he was complimented by the fact he's driving a Civic. Therefore it was no surprise that he plummeted down the order once the Civics were crippled by the boost settings. Plus his race craft is amongst the worst in the field, his Snetterton performance was nothing short of abysmal.

And before Knockhill Rob Collard was my nomination for ROTY having gone from 5th overall with three victories to being behind even Nick Foster at that point. Turkington thoroughly kicked him despite him being WSR's best driver last season. His return to something close to regular front running form from Knockhill onwards managed to just get him off the podium though.

roblo97 · Post by **roblo97** » 13 Oct 2013, 22:12

I wonder if any of you knew that Rob Collard is serving a 12 month driving ban for going 120 ish in a 50 IIRC

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 20 Oct 2013, 05:08

I waited until the last race for do this:

My ROTY Izod Indycar Series 2013:

3rd A.J Foyt Racing: The main reason of Sato's terrible unlucky in the second half of the season. Sato had too many mechanical problems, more than any other driver in this season. There's no meaning of hiring a talented driver if you can't deliver a reliability car.

2nd Rahal Racing: In overall, the worst team of the season. Both their drivers managed to finish the season behind Ed Carpenter, a driver who only do well in Ovals.

1st Dario Franchitti: My 2013 Izod Indycar series ROTY was decided in the last race. Tagliani replaced him in the last race, a driver who debuted in Cart, like Franchitti. His pace was very good and until the crash, he recovered from a not so good start position to challenging the front runners. Unlike Franchitti, that underperformed during all the year and his team mate made an amazing recovery to grab the title. If him continue to underperform, 2014 probably be his last season. There are a lot of drivers who could do a better job with the #10 than Franchitti and after the Tagliani performance in this race, Chip Ganassi might be aware of this.

Special Mention:

Tony Kannan: Yes, its strange to mention the Indianapolis Winner, but he did too many driver mistakes in this year for a experienced driver like him. He lose the victory in Poccono due a contact with Dixon and hit the wall in Toronto and Houston. He lose 30~50 points due mistakes and this is too much. Also, he had lackluster races in the permanent road courses of the season.

Simona de Silvestro: Alongside with Franchitti and Saavedra, the deadbeat team mate of the year.

Sebastian Saavedra: Overaggressive like Maldonado and Cecotto Jr. (and he is a Colombian, not a Venezuelan).

Ana Beatriz: No pace since 2011. Its sad because she did well in Indy lights. She needs to improve if she wants a Indycar seat again.

Takuma Sato: Despite the team being the most responsible for his misfortune, the Japanese did some kamikaze mistakes.

E.J Viso: Carlos Munoz showed in the last race that he deserves a lot more the seat than him.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 20 Oct 2013, 06:18

My ROTY for IndyCar? It'd go like this:

3rd: Takuma Sato
There were signs early on that we were gonna see from Taku what we've wanted to see for over a decade now; fast, wild, excited, but controlled. He almost won two races in a row - and then the wheels seemed to fall off the wagon when they came to Indy. Aside from his brilliant race at Milwaukee where he should've won, any flash of speed we've seen from Taku has been doused by him having some form of accident. Not all of them were his fault and he had some mechanical troubles, but at some point it becomes the driver's fault. I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't on the grid at all in 2014 - a shame, because he and Foyt seemed a great fit to me.

2nd: Graham Rahal
I could nominate the whole team, but I'm gonna let them off the hook because they came up with some good cars at various points, and Jakes' problem was that he was largely anonymous. Not like Rahal. Ohhh boy. Graham Rahal's 2013 was much like Sato's, but with the driver errors and never-really-explained lack of pace at most tracks turned up to 11. At least Sato had the decency to be a threat for race wins - Rahal's 2nd place in Long Beach was a very distant one, and he had the fastest car in Iowa at several points yet never touched Hinchcliffe. Meanwhile, he spent most of the rest of the year making an absolute nuisance of himself - the final straw for me was Baltimore. Stacking up the field twice on a restart in turn 1 is totally bathplugging inexcusable. He should count his lucky stars that his dad is Bobby Rahal - else he'd have to look into another line of work after this year. Absolutely atrocious.

1st: DRAGON GODDAMN RACING I MEAN COME ON, REALLY NOW
Oh god, where do I even begin!? The team had the absolute luck of the gods to have Sebastien Bourdais drive for them this year, and what do they do with him? Why, of course, they bungle countless pitstops, strategy calls, have a bunch of ridiculous mistakes and failures that happen to no other team on the grid, such that a driver that should be challenging for a top 5 points position if not the title outright is instead 12th overall. Furthermore, they compound the problem by hiring the only driver in the series that matches their level of incompetence: Sebastian Saavedra. Saavedra spent most of the year being hopelessly off the pace or stuffing it in the wall. More often both. He also finished the season on 236 points. What's significant about that? Why, it's only 3 more than Oriol Servia scored. Oriol Servia. The guy who missed 7 races this year. Unacceptable.

Honourable mentions:
Tony Kanaan: I hate to nominate TK, especially in a year where he finally won the Indy 500, but there were a few too many mistakes on his end to be quite frank. Chief among these is breaking his front wing on DIxon's car at Pocono and ruining what would've been a sure win
AJ Allmendinger: I hate even more to nominate the Dinger, but AJ had a golden opportunity to get back in IndyCars and he totally blew it. He was a major contender in the Indy 500, until his seatbelts came undone. He then followed that up by crashing in Detroit. In both races. On lap 1. Both times. It just leaves me so very disappointed.

EJ Viso: Let's look at what every driver who got a hold of Andretti equipment did this year. Marco Andretti: A very consistent, solid year, if missing that edge that makes it a title-contending year. James Hinchcliffe: Ragged and wild, but damn fast as well, winning 3 races. RHR: Somewhere in between Marco and Hinchtown. Carlos Munoz: Could very well have won the Indy 500 in his first try, and showed absolutely no fear while doing it. Now, what did EJ Viso do? Oh, that's right. Nothing. 20 drivers walked away from this season with a podium. Viso was not one of them.
Will Power: Yeah, he won 3 races. He won on an oval to boot. He finished 4th overall. But for 16 races of the year this guy did nothing but choke.
Alex Tagliani: Every single time Tags looked like doing something impressive he threw it away. I'll be surprised if he's back in any capacity for 2014.
Dario Franchitti: And here's the kicker. I don't like to kick someone while they're down, but the fact is Tagliani was more impressive at Fontana subbing for Dario than Dario himself was all season. If I were him I would seriously consider hanging up the helmet at this point.

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 20 Oct 2013, 16:35

East Londoner wrote:BTCC ROTY for 2003 and 2004: Petronas Syntium Proton. After a promising 2002 with the then-underdeveloped Impian, they were bloody awful in these two years. An absolute joke of a manufacturer entry. Pretty much killed Phil Bennett's career stone dead, and was a sad way for the late David Leslie to bow out from the series. And then, they turfed Bennett and Leslie out for two complete unknown rookies in 2004. The predictable result was stone dead last in the Manufacturers Championship, over 300 points behind Seat.

Can someone tell me who this Farique Hairuman chap was please? He was probably there because Proton is Malaysian and they wanted a Malaysian driver but can someone tell me what he did?

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 21 Oct 2013, 16:17

Samster wrote:My nominations for the BTCC in the past few seasons.

2012 ROTY Podium

3rd - Adam Morgan Although he proved he had the raw pace to qualify in the top ten regularly towards the end of the season, Morgan had an absolute shocker often squandering good track position by getting caught up in incidents seemingly every other race. In 30 races, Morgan was only classified as a finisher 14 times and for the first half of the season his teammate, the snail slow Tony Hughes was actually ahead of him in points! (Thankfully his 2013 has been the exact opposite).

2nd - Andy Neate Performed even worse than expected for Triple 8. While Plato got the MG to 3rd in the drivers standings, Neate was all the way down in 16th, only slighty better than his performance in the previous two seasons in comparatively inferior cars. Not only that but he finished behind several drivers in vastly inferior cars (Austin, Wood, Welch) some of which don't even have that great of a reputation. And only eight points ahead of Tony Gilham who missed two meetings and spent another three driving the awful Thorney Insignia and he's not exactly a great talent himself. Would have walked ROTY were it not for the shenanigans below.

1st - Chris James Not only was he as soundly beaten by Newsham as Neate was by Plato, his behavior both on and off the track, particularly on twitter was simply appalling. An embarrassment to the sport and a well deserved ROTY.

2011 ROTY Podium

3rd - Andy Neate In a season that saw many pay drivers manage to score top drives, a number of drivers came close to this spot but for the amount of decent results he choked on, Neate makes the podium again. There was that stupid collision with Tony Gilham at Donnington where they were racing for 5th, then at Brands he chucked away a podium by throwing his Focus into the gravel because 'the sun was in his eyes'. Not that bad speed wise but no less crashprone.

2nd - John George After a competitive (by his standards) season in 2010, I was expecting George to score at least half a dozen points in a two year old Cruze. Sadly he never troubled the scorers though he at least be excused since he was driving one of the non-turbo cars.

1st - Liam Griffin Perhaps the least competent driver since Farique Hairuman in 2004. While his teammate Mat Jackson led the championship on his way to 4th, Griffin could only manage a measly two points at Donnington in a race where just 13 finished. Even Andy Neate managed 15 in what I thought was a slightly slower car. The lowpoint came at Rockingham where he qualified last behind even Chris James in an ancient Lacetti. (At least he's improved into someone halfway respectable since).

Pardon the double post but i'll respond to that

2012

3rd Nick Foster: Yes he came 11th overall but team-mate's Collard and Onslow-Cole did so much better than him. Collard won 3 races and both drivers scored 7 podiums. Foster however scored no podiums and was usually the slowest BMW out there despite 15 top 10's

2nd Andy Neate: Admittedly he had some good moments like 6th and leading a race at Croft and 7th at Oulton Park and Rockingham but these are cancelled out by some moments where you think he's got the attention span of a Goldfish. A needless incident with Aron Smith at Donnington, A pathetic attempt to overtake Lea Wood at Knockhill resulted in him going into the gravel and the clincher at Brands Hatch where he swiped Adam Morgan and took out Onslow and Williamson which summed up his year. Stramala and yourself have both summed up his Championship position perfectly as well.

1st Chris James: Awful simply awful. Finished no higher than 12th all season and came 23rd in the standings behind most drivers who did only 3-4 meetings while he did all 30 races. While Newsham got 2 wins and 6 podiums James was racking up crashes and incidents at an alarming rate. Plus his attitude stinks as well acting like it was him and not Newsham who won the 2 races just because it was his team. And don't get me started on his twitter antics as well. If Andy Neate is bad then Chris James is much worse altogether

2011

3rd Andrew Jordan: Controversial but after a stellar 1st half of the year with 1 win and 7 podiums Jordan's season fell off the rails after Croft with no outright podiums and just 2 in the independents cup in the 2nd half of the year. At Snetterton Autosport reported that Jordan had described his engine as "flat as a fart" and the same could be said for the 2nd half of his year.

2nd John George: In a 2 year old cruze he expected he would be fighting for points from the word go but as it turned out he would become the only man to start all 30 races and not score a point (Chris James DNS'ed 2 races) While Paul O'Neill scored 3 podiums with the car. The only reasons why he isn't first is because he damaged his gear change hand at Croft and Techspeed weren't running an NGTC engine.

1st Liam Griffin: Scored a paltry tally of 2 points in a Ford Focus with which Mat Jackson won 4 races got 10 podiums and 4th overall with. The race in which he scored his 2 points was the chaotic Race 3 at Donnington where only 13 finished. Behind him were Foster, George, James and Austin who were either delayed, slow or in a new car respectively. Qualified bog last at Rockingham and why Motorbase even kept him on for 2012 I will never know

wsrgo · Post by **wsrgo** » 21 Oct 2013, 16:47

ROTY podium (Formula Renault 3.5):
3= Marco Sorensen: despite bad luck last year, he still managed to get the better of fellow Dane Kevin Magnussen last year. Expected to fight for the title in 2012, ended up finishing lower than his championship finish last year. Nowhere as impressive as last year, with only the Spielberg weekend standing out. I understand it's a harsh decision, but was in the forefront of an overall poor season for the Lotus Junior Team.
3=Arthur Pic: In his third season of Formula Renault 3.5, the younger Pic was expected to at least significantly better his 2012 performance, He failed to do so, picking up one podium and eighth in the championship. That eighth could've easily become ninth if Sergey Sirotkin did not have his last two weekend compromised. Pic showed pace throughout the season, but when it mattered the most, he wasn't there. Picked up too many DNFs.
2. Mikhail Aleshin: where do I start? The guy who beat Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Guerrieri to the title in 2010 rarely featured throughout the season. He was racing with top squad Tech1, but failed to make any impression. Made Nigel Melker look like Schumacher.
1. Matias Laine: downright disappointing from the word go. After finishing a strong 5th in GP3 last year, a lot more was expected of the Finn. But he simply failed to get his season going, while teammate Will Stevens picked up five podiums. Qualified outside the top 20 on many occasions, while his teammate was fighting for pole. He's 23, so he needs to get a move on.

Liquid · Post by **Liquid** » 04 Nov 2013, 09:17

These are my Rejects Of Some Years.

1995 British Touring Car Championship

Alfa Romeo - Now, it would be easy to criticise Prodrive for not building upon Alfa Corse and Ninni Russo's 1994, but quite simply, this was a shocking year for them. Even with the other teams catching up aerodynamically, they were by far the worst works team that year, finishing only above the British Minardi that is Peugeot. Only Toyota also failed to score a podium but 8th place for the defending champions was abysmal.

---

1996 British Touring Car Championship

Roberto Ravaglia - Just... the entire season. Haphazard driving, several obviously deliberate incidents. At the end of his career sure, but much like Johnny Cecotto the previous year, the British series was one series he just didn't get. For those who have seen it, his argument with Paul Radisich at the late Brands Hatch meeting was embarrassing.

---

1997 British Touring Car Championship

Kelvin Burt - Not delivering on his initial promise as seen in 1990, then again in 1995. A dismal year in a good car; comprehensively outclassed by Rydell and making his own S40 look like a Lada.

Ian Hewland - Using a 1993 Vauxhall Cavalier and failing to qualify for the four or five events he managed to enter. Now, here at F1Rejects we love an underdog, but he was way out of his depth. Like tackling urban warfare with a musket and bayonet.

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 04 Nov 2013, 09:48

Liquid wrote:Ian Hewland - Using a 1993 Vauxhall Cavalier and failing to qualify for the four or five events he managed to enter. Now, here at F1Rejects we love an underdog, but he was way out of his depth. Like tackling urban warfare with a musket and bayonet.

Ian Heward?

Liquid · Post by **Liquid** » 04 Nov 2013, 11:08

Haha, yes.

Sorry, I must have had him confused with a transmission manufacturer!

Frentzen127 · Post by **Frentzen127** » 09 Nov 2013, 17:16

Saavedra makes me feel embarrassed for sharing his name and nationality. His twitter battles with Yacaman were also hilarious.

Gerudo Dragon · Post by **Gerudo Dragon** » 09 Nov 2013, 17:32

Vautier did worse than Saavedra this year imo. He had a much better team but only scored 30 more points.