Honourable mentions to Carlos Sainz Jr and Jolyon Palmer for their general incompetence, and Formula One Management/Liberty Media for letting this track drop off the calendar. I'm really gonna miss Malaysia.
Fetzie on Ferrari wrote:How does a driver hurtling around a race track while they're sous-viding in their overalls have a better understanding of the race than a team of strategy engineers in an air-conditioned room?l
2. Valtteri Bottas - I don't know what has happened since mid-season, but this was not the same Valtteri that started the year hassling Lewis Hamilton race in, race out. There's no excuses for being that far off the pace.
Honorable mentions to Palmer for spinning twice, for FOM for letting Sepang go and for Ferrari turbo's.
Last edited by Miguel98 on 01 Oct 2017, 09:26, edited 1 time in total.
Mario on Gutierrez after the Italian Grand Prix wrote:He's no longer just a bit of a tool, he's the entire tool set.
18-07-2015: Forever in our hearts Jules. 25-08-2015: Forever in our hearts Justin.
1. Ferrari's mechanical problems: Vettel had to start from the back while Räikkönen failed to start the race (very rare for Ferrari). They would have had a great result, possibly even a 1-2, without these problems. Essentially a repeat of Singapore: Ferrari could have taken a great result on a weak weekend for Mercedes, but had those chances ruined quite early. 2. Haas F1 Team: Got eliminated in Q1 along with the Saubers. Their race pace was better, but they seemed to be a nuisance to the other drivers with several near misses.
1. Ferrari - Could have won four championships in the last 10 years. Won none. Well done, guys. 2. Valtteri Bottas - Nowhere close to Hamilton since the end of the summer break.
HM to Lance Stroll for being Lance Stroll and Jolyon Palmer for being Jolyon Palmer.
sw3ishida wrote:Jolyon Palmer brought us closer as a couple, for which I am grateful.
Ataxia wrote:
Londoner wrote:Something I've thought about - what happens to our canon should we have a worldwide recession or some other outside event?
1. Ferrari's breakdowns - going by how quick Kimi was in qualifying and the strength of Vettel's pace during his recovery drive, Ferrari had the opportunity to get both cars ahead of Hamilton and undo much of the damage from Singapore, particularly if Red Bull also took points off Hamilton. Instead, Vettel ended up finishing behind instead of ahead of Hamilton, allowing his lead to increase even more, whilst Kimi never even made it to the grid - they had an open goal, and did the equivalent of booting the ball into the corner flag.
2. Bottas - I have to agree with others that, after the summer break, Bottas just hasn't looked anything like as strong as he did beforehand. Part of that could be that, in recent races, the tyre choices haven't really helped him - he reportedly isn't as comfortable on the softer compounds - so he's found it harder to set the car up, and this weekend he didn't quite gel with the new aero package either. Still, this is a bit of a worrying downward trend in recent races and he really needs a decent weekend soon, if only to restore his confidence a bit.
I guess that the Vettel-Stroll collision after the race definitely deserves at least an honourable mention - it was bizarre, and whilst neither driver has been blamed, it was an incident that Vettel really did not need to get himself involved in. Because of that, he might need a gearbox change for the next race, which will only further dent his title aspirations if, yet again, he finishes behind Hamilton because of that.
Some have nominated Palmer for his two spins, but Hulkenberg wasn't exactly great in the race either - in fact, he managed to burn out his tyres and had to make a late stop, so he ended up finishing behind Palmer. Both Renault drivers had a poor weekend, so I'd be inclined to say Renault in general were poor.
The two Haas drivers were also pretty poor too - no great pace, with both drivers moaning on the radio about their performance and both being more of a rolling hazard at times (with a rather unimpressed Alonso simply saying "Hulkenberg was right" when discussing Magnussen's behaviour on track).
Martin Brundle, on watching a replay of Grosjean spinning: "The problem with Grosjean is that he want to take a look back at the corner he's just exited"
1= Ferrari's reliability and Vettel's post-race crash
watka wrote:I find it amusing that whilst you're one of the more openly Christian guys here, you are still first and foremost associated with an eye for the ladies!
dinizintheoven wrote:GOOD CHRISTIANS do not go to jail. EVERYONE ON FORMULA ONE REJECTS should be in jail.
1. Bottas (nowhere and also was meekly jumped in the pits by Vettel).
2. The Vettel/Stroll incident at the end; reject comedy. Though IIRC Webber nearly did the same thing to Vetter after the finish in 2013 (Multi-21 gate).
"Poor old Warwick takes it from behind all throughout this season". (Tony Jardine, 1988)
1. Sebastian Vettel - For the post-race crash, and because I want him to earn the rare honour of being both the ROTR and IIDOTR at the same Grand Prix.
2. Valtteri Bottas - For being 20-odd seconds behind Vettel on pure pace, when Vettel started in last.
Honourable mention to Ferrari for putting their cars last and in the pit lane respectively for today's race.
RoTR: 1. the Ferrari 062 1.6 V6 power unit's turbo pipe: Robbed us of a potential Raikkonen win and seriously damaged Vettel's championship chances. 2. Bottas: Utterly anonymous all weekend and it was difficult to remember that he was in the race, let alone in the top 5 . A very Barrichello/Kovaleinen-esque drive. HM: F4 SEA: That's the kind of mistake I make on Grand Prix 2 sometimes... Palmer: Managed to spin twice in four corners, all while being lapped. The cool-down lap: That was weird
1. Ferrari - Vettels pace showed that they could have one the race but with the issues for them it was not to be . 2. Bottas - Completely outclassed today
HM Palmer - Back to being Palmer Grosjean - Most of the race with the Saubers
1. Ferrari - for scoring a second metaphorical own-goal in two races. Get your bathplugging act together. 2. Jolyon Palmer - for those spins.
HM - that incident after the race. But it was rejectful in a really funny way rather than a bad way, so I'm not giving it points.
Murray Walker at the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix wrote:The other [Stewart] driver, who nobody's been paying attention to, because he's disappointing, is Jan Magnussen.
1: The cool down lap crash: Because it was just one of the most random and unexpected incidents I've ever seen and that's what ROTR awards should be about. Plus we saw the return of the taxi driver which is something I didn't think we'd see after Singapore 13
2: The Ferrari power unit: It's quick but in Malaysia it was hideously unreliable. It robbed us of a possible Raikkonen win and made Vettel start last losing more ground in the championship
HM's
Valterri Bottas: What has happened to him since the summer break? These last 2 weekends especially have been very poor. He was gifted a podium in Singapore and here he finished miles behind the top 4 which included Vettel who started last. This performance reminded me of the one's Heinz-Harald Frentzen or Heikki Kovalainen would put in for much of their Williams and Mclaren careers
Jolyon Palmer: Normal service resumed, spun twice in the space of 3 corners and he blamed the wind for it. Or course it was Jolyon, nothing to do with the fact your rubbish is it. I'm convinced that it wasn't even him driving at Singapore
Haas: Both cars out in Q1 even with Vettel's woes, neither driver stopped moaning, Grosjean was languishing with the Saubers at one stage. 12th and 13th flattered them.
Carlos Sainz: one of his poorest weekends for some time. He's had an excellent season and deserves the Renault seat but he wasn't on it today
1. The post-race collision - I actually switched off after the chequered flag fell to go back to bed for a couple of hours and missed this...
2. Ferrari - If they don't get a really good result in Suzuka then that could almost be it for the season. Hamilton is looking like the more deserving champion this side of the summer break anyway...
This Could Be You wrote:F4 SEA: That's the kind of mistake I make on Grand Prix 2 sometimes...
Oh, man, that aborted Thruxton F4 race I ran last year. All the finishers were coasting...
So I'm getting slowly round to counting up these predicament scores. For the second time this season, we have a tie on one of our awards. Here are the scores:
1 Valtteri Bottas 110 - Ferrari('s mechanical problems) 110 3 The post-race crash 40 4 Formula 4 Southeast Asia 32 5 Carlos Sainz Jr. 10 - Sebastian Vettel 10 7 Jolyon Palmer 9 8 Haas 6 9 Nico Hulkenberg 3
There were plenty of great things to choose from this weekend, each with their own merit. Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari('s problems) each score 110 points overall. The former was slow all weekend in that Mercedes, trundling home outside of the podium whilst his teammate competed at the front. Seems to have been a change in Bottas' post-summer pace. Our second winner are Ferrari, and their many, many problems. One driver didn't start the race, the other started from the back, and on a circuit they were expected to have the advantage over their rivals, they failed spectacularly.
Honourable mention goes to the glorious crash between Stroll and Vettel that happened post-race. Reject gold, and it brought back F1 taxi-ing.
Murray Walker at the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix wrote:The other [Stewart] driver, who nobody's been paying attention to, because he's disappointing, is Jan Magnussen.
