Reject of the Race - Australia 2018

[Bleu]

Quite easy to make selections this time.

1. Haas pit crew
2. Valtteri Bottas

[Meatwad]

I can't disagree there.

1. Haas pit stops: Robbed them of a very good result, they would definitely have had at least one car in the top five.
2. Valtteri Bottas: Silly crash in qualifying when he was already under pressure to perform. Without the aforementioned Haas problems, he would have barely scored a point.

[novitopoli]

1. Haas pit crew: Doing it once is already ROTR-worthy. Doing it twice is a reject masterclass.
2. The Twitter conspiracy theorists: "Hurr durr, Haas botched the pit stops on purpose, Lewlew got robbed, racism1!11!1!"

[Aislabie]

1/ Haas

2/ Bottas

[Miguel98]

1. Haas - Doing it once was already stupid enough. But doing it twice? Takes a whole new level of rejectfulness, and this was the first time that I've seen a team do this mistake. It also helps that it triggered all the conspiracy theorists in the world that claim that helped Ferrari win by purposelly loose valuable points...

2. Williams - Apparently, Williams were going to be in the midfield. Nope. They are the third slowest team right now, and at no point in time did they appear in points. Retirement and 14th in the end show how much they are going go struggle this year.

Honorable mention to Valtteri Bottas for his dismal pace - although the dirty air created by the general rule package does him zero help - and the race control overall.

[dinizintheoven]

This one is absolutely cut and dried, isn't it?

Half of Kevin Magnussen's number of points (his car number, not what he scored on the day, for obvious reasons) go to the Haas pit crew for throwing away - potentially - 22 points and the bragging rights of third place in the championship, however short a time they might have sat there. Just like the commentators, I'd thought they had two engine failures, but once the truth broke, it was signed and sealed.

Six points go to, that's right, Valtteri Bottas for starting the season in the worst way possible. Force India aren't looking too hot this year, but I don't remember anyone having that much trouble passing an inferior car since David Coulthard spent lap after lap stuck behind Enrique Bernoldi. At least he had the excuse of being at Monaco before anyone had even thought of DRS.

Dishonourable mentions go to Sebastian Vettel's hairdresser - I really can't believe he chose that cut himself - and the new graphics for working about as well as a 2015 Honda engine; for half the race, Pierre Gasly and Marcus Ericsson were shown as still being in it even though we'd seen them retire, Rrrrrrmmmnnn Grrrrrrjjjjjnnn rejoined even though he hadn't, and the only saving grace is that they haven't tried to make it as mad-action-animated as the Formula E graphics which are pretty much unreadable every time there's a change in position.

[Alextrax52]

1 Haas Pit Crew: I felt really sorry for both drivers, As Martin Brundle said in commentary "In the space of 3 laps the wheels have literally fallen off". What makes it even worse is that Autosport reported afterwards that Haas have hardly practiced stops this weekend

2 Williams: Were they even here this weekend? Every other team had a moment of note before Raceday (Even Sauber with Ericsson in FP3) Williams's first was Sirotkin's retirement which is being reported as a sandwich bag in the sidepods. Stroll finished behind Leclerc's Sauber which is very worrying for them

HM's
Valterri Bottas: Not a great start to a key year with his contract up soon, Crash was completely his fault which left him stuck in the midfield. I give him a HM because Albert Park is very tough to pass on especially with these cars. I personally think it's the 3rd hardest circuit to pass on after Monaco and Hungary

Max Verstappen: Very ragged, Watching his first 8 laps you knew he was going to make a major mistake at some point, Wasted opportunity really.

Hamilton Fanboys: More of a personal nomination but seriously Haas were told by Ferrari to deliberately fix the race? What planet do these morons live on

[CarloSpace]

1 - Haas pit crew of course

2 - The person responsible for Sainz' water bottle: I'm not sure but normally you'd try to add subtances that potentially improve your driver's ability right? Maybe the French know something I don't..

[WeirdKerr]

1) Haas pit crew
2) the operator of the graphics for leaving a couple of drivers in position after they retired then the Lastname gap to lastname

HM to me for nearly thinking I had missed the start after waking up at 5 past 6

[good_Ralf]

1) Haas pit crew - In a repeat of last year, neither cars finish the season opener, but this time, due to a really stupid blunder that cost them at least 15-18 points. Their shot at 4th or 5th in the WCC might already be gone.
.
2) Hartley - Not a great home performance really, especially compared to the Ric.

HMs:
Dirty air - Not even a 3rd DRS zone helped. Bahrain should be an easier track to pass on however, so this won't completely be the norm (I hope...).
Bottas - For reasons others have stated, although he didn't drive a bad race.
Verstappen - Yes, his car was damaged, but if he hadn't messed up his Q3 lap and been on the front row, he would surely have been higher than 6th place. Then there was the illegal pass on Alonso. It's 1-0 to Ricciardo already, in a year where Max is/was meant to thrash the Honey Badger.

[mario]

Whilst I must admit that I've read more about the race than watched, I think that it is probably not exactly hard to pick nominees.

1. Haas's botched pit stops - as others have noted, they threw away a large haul of points that could end up costing them dearly at the end of the season if, as in previous years, they end up falling back during the season.

2. ESPN coverage - this is a bit more of a wild card but, from what I have read about it, it sounds as if ESPN screwed up pretty badly. For a start, their broadcast didn't start until about 20 minutes after it was meant to due to technical issues: even when they did finally manage to get things going, it seems that the constant cutting to adverts meant that most viewers couldn't work out what was going on (Graham Rahal has been rather public with his criticism).

As has been noted elsewhere, if Liberty Media are hoping to try and improve F1's reach in the US, it sounds as if ESPN have probably done more damage than good with their coverage.

[This Could Be You]

1. The wheelguns on the left hand side of the Haas pitcrew- Ruined what was going to be the team's best ever result (they would be 3rd in the WCC now if not for that)
2. Williams: Truly dire- Neither car showed any pace in qualifying or the race, and seemed worryingly fragile as shown by Sirotkin's defeat at the hands of a sandwich bag.
DHM:
The new FOM graphics: Pretty, but also pretty unreadable on a 720p television, especially in qualifying mode
The race: Largely uneventful, and pretty much solely decided by qualifying and mechanical attrition rather than any on-track exploits
Honda: Just when everything started to go decently, it all fell apart in the race

[This Could Be You]

2) Hartley - Not a great home performance really, especially compared to the Ric.

TIL Melbourne is in New Zealand...

[Spectoremg]

1. The Haas pit crew. Pit stop detention guys.
2. Aerodynamics - a shocking procession.

[good_Ralf]

2) Hartley - Not a great home performance really, especially compared to the Ric.

TIL Melbourne is in New Zealand...

Dammit! I blame the braindrain over the off-season for that one.

[UncreativeUsername37]

1. Haas - duh
2. The technical regulations - I shouldn't be bored after four months away

[RAK]

1) Haas pit crew: Pretty obvious one, spoiling what could have been a decent result for the team.

2) Williams: Anonymous.

[Pilot]

1. Haas

2. Williams

[takagi_for_the_win]

1. Haas - easy peasy.

2. Williams - back to their delightful 2011/13 pace.

[Rob Dylan]

1. Valtteri Bottas - I called it that winning in Abu Dhabi would give him a great springboard to enter 2018 on, and he might be able to do a Rosberg c. 2016 and get the jump on Hamilton. Instead he damaged the car badly, started 15th, finished 8th while his teammate almost won from pole...
2. Haas - I'm going to give these guys nominations for both awards, because although it's great to see them do well, they also flipped up royally. Such a shame, but so rejectful in a time of such hope.

[Normal32]

1. Haas
2. Hartley

[Bobby Doorknobs]

1. Haas - Like watching Hungary 1997, although the stakes were admittedly much lower.

2. Valtteri Bottas - That was, needless to say, one very costly mistake in qualifying. His race wasn't absolutely awful, but it didn't really leave the impression that that was the best he could theoretically have done from where he started.

I considered nominating Williams and Force India but, as I've said in IIDOTR thread, it's a matter of whether what we saw will be representative of their regular form this season, and I have a bad feeling it is.

[dr-baker]

2) Hartley - Not a great home performance really, especially compared to the Ric.

TIL Melbourne is in New Zealand...

Dammit! I blame the braindrain over the off-season for that one.

Well, it is as close to a home race as he is going to get, there is no other F1 race on the same continent...

[yannicksamlad]

1. Haas. ..threw it away
2. Verstappen - went off which was a small error, but damaged the car, and then knew the car didnt have the grip to chase that hard, but persisted in over-driving until the inevitable spin. Very entertaining, hugely committed, but seemed to overlook that there is a 'limit' ( both on absolute adhesion, and for tyre management )

[SuzukiSwift]

1. Bottas
2. Haas

HM:
Williams drivers.
People with ridiculous expectations from Toro-Rosso. It's a team with a modest budget, the weakest engine, and two inexperienced drivers.

[Enforcer]

1st: Haas - Kek.

2nd: Bottas. Mercedes in 8th? Come on, man.

[Aguvazk]

1. Haas: i think they trew away the best chance to have big points, this gonna really cost they.

2. Verstappen: really a hothead. He need to be more cerebral, maybe need a talk with the Proffesor Prost.

[DemocalypseNow]

I'm going to declare an official ROTR for this race first hand, and that dubious honour goes Haas' way. Though they also got IIDOTR, which I feel is fair.

Running as a much leaner organisation, Haas need to take advantage of early season form they'll have courtesy of their close relationship with Ferrari's technical department. It'll tail off over the course of the year; if competitive order were decided by staffing levels Haas would be mixing it at the back of the field. They can't manage the same development curve as some of the teams behind them like McLaren, Renault and Williams (though it appears the latter has a very long way to go to catch them).

4th and 5th was on the table, and they lost it through what I understand to be self-inflicted mistakes, cross-threading the wheel-nut but still allowing their drivers to leave pit-lane through a sub-optimal procedure. It allowed both drivers to exit their box despite tyre changers gesticulating to hold both drivers back to correct the issue.

Losing one car in such a manner is extremely unfortunate, but to lose both, and when both are competing for top five finishes, is unthinkable. They might score more top fives soon, but this one will really hurt their WCC position come Abu Dhabi.

A new procedure will be implemented for ROTR at Bahrain onwards; stay tuned.