Grand Prix Rejects

Surprised nobody made a thread yet! Y'all know the deal; what driver, team or other organisation put in an unexpected and masterful performance against the odds?

As I'm going first, I'm going to be cheeky and go with Daniel Ricciardo. There's no doubting it was a fantastic drive, but was it improbable? I'd say so. With Renault's powerplant proving itself a wildcard element not just last weekend but also on Saturday, many weren't sure he'd even finish. He took his younger team-mate to school and showed who RBR's true number one driver really is. That's how you do it, Max. Watch and learn.

Daniel Ricciardo is the obvious choice here for me. Exhibiting great finesse when overtaking both of the Mercedes cars, he made the Red Bull tyre strategy work in a way that Verstappen couldn't quite manage.

Ricciardo - stuck down the middle of the top ten, initially looking at wrong tyre strategy then drove great off the start and did some of the best driving seen in some time. Easiest week ever

So many things can be said about Ricciardo and his incredible drive, but I gotta give a hand to Red Bull's garage. They played the perfect strategy. They pulled off two double stacked out stops. Their call during the safety car was so snappy and well-worked, it was almost like it was Crashgate 2.0 out there. If it weren't for Verstappen pulling a total Kvyat, Red Bull could've very well had a 1-2, all down to the guys in the pits. Kudos, Horner and co.

I can't nominate Ricciardo? Damn.

I'll nominate the potential title battle, because I get the sense that many people were still writing off the championship as another Mercedes walkover going into the weekend (many people probably still are, knowing their thought processes).

Simtek wrote:I'll nominate the potential title battle, because I get the sense that many people were still writing off the championship as another Mercedes walkover going into the weekend (many people probably still are, knowing their thought processes).

I have a friend who, before the weekend, was writing the championship off as a Vettel walkover. To be honest, knowing him, he still is.

WaffleCat wrote:So many things can be said about Ricciardo and his incredible drive, but I gotta give a hand to Red Bull's garage. They played the perfect strategy. They pulled off two double stacked out stops. Their call during the safety car was so snappy and well-worked, it was almost like it was Crashgate 2.0 out there. If it weren't for Verstappen pulling a total Kvyat, Red Bull could've very well had a 1-2, all down to the guys in the pits. Kudos, Horner and co.

Add to that the work the Red Bull mechanics did on Ricciardo's car before and during quali after his problems earlier on Saturday. To come away with a victory after all those problems was unbelievable. Sure, Ricciardo had a great race but I agree it was the Red Bull garage that were the true heroes of the weekend.

Shoutout to Mercedes pit crew who were almost a second faster than Ferrari's which allowed Bottas to take the lead from Vettel. They would have probably won without the safety car.

CarloSpace wrote:

WaffleCat wrote:So many things can be said about Ricciardo and his incredible drive, but I gotta give a hand to Red Bull's garage. They played the perfect strategy. They pulled off two double stacked out stops. Their call during the safety car was so snappy and well-worked, it was almost like it was Crashgate 2.0 out there. If it weren't for Verstappen pulling a total Kvyat, Red Bull could've very well had a 1-2, all down to the guys in the pits. Kudos, Horner and co.

Add to that the work the Red Bull mechanics did on Ricciardo's car before and during quali after his problems earlier on Saturday. To come away with a victory after all those problems was unbelievable. Sure, Ricciardo had a great race but I agree it was the Red Bull garage that were the true heroes of the weekend.

Shoutout to Mercedes pit crew who were almost a second faster than Ferrari's which allowed Bottas to take the lead from Vettel. They would have probably won without the safety car.

I agree that, in some ways, it's perhaps worth nominating Ricciardo and the Red Bull pit team together - the former put in the right performance to make the strategy stick, but the latter played a blinder to get him into that position to begin with. Had Verstappen not screwed up, they'd have taken a 1-2 at a race where it looked like they weren't really in it in the early stages.

Speaking of Bottas, I feel that his performance was, if a little understated, worthy of mention too - consistently quicker than Hamilton and, almost by stealth, pulled out a blinder of an outlap that helped catch Ferrari off guard, particularly when combined with some impressively slick pitstop work by Mercedes.

To a lesser extent, I would suggest that Alonso deserves a mention too - not a great qualifying session, but his usual opportunism during the race paid off: as some joked after that race, he probably would have been grinning from ear to ear after getting a chance to put one over on Vettel in the closing laps too.

I would nominate everyone at Red Bull other than Max Verstappen. Fantastic pit-stops without any slip-ups. Excellent driving from Ricciardo, who was sitting in 6th for most of the race until his opportunity came by, and BOY did he take it!

Excellent driving from Bottas as well. I don't want to say that he's showing up Hamilton, but I'm happy to at least get the feeling that Australia was a blip, and that he's outqualified and outraced the defending champion twice in a row. I want to see him challenge for the title more this year, and he's doing that to the best of his ability right now, which makes me happy. As I said on one of the other threads, all we need is a tiny amount more variety - perhaps say another Red Bull win - and 2018 looks set to be great.

For information on the new system, please see the Reject of the Race thread for this race

Counting up the scores ala 2017, the Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race comes from Daniel Ricciardo. A tale of two garages at Red Bull, whilst his teammate floundered at the death, Ricciardo succeeded magnificently. Forceful but fair overtakes, and without incident, he showed up his younger teammate and took a great victory to shake up the championship.

Points:
1. Daniel Ricciardo 51
2. Red Bull garage / strategy 25
3. Valtteri Bottas 12
4. Potential title battle 10
5. Mercedes pit crew 6
6. Fernando Alonso HM