Your Reject of the Race - Bahrain

[Londoner]

1. Charles Leclerc's turbo - This sport is a cruel, cruel beast sometimes.

2. Renault - A simultaneous double retirement is almost always slam dunk ROTR, though not in this case for obvious reasons. Did they run both cars out of fuel?

Honourable mentions to Sebastian Vettel (great job son ), Haas (what on earth happened to Magnussen's pace) and Pierre Gasly (he was awful this weekend, that 8th place was seriously undeserved)

[golic_2004]

1. Leclerc’s power issues

2. Renault’s power failure


What he said ^

[Gertrand Bachot]

I'd combine Leclerc's turbo and Vettel into a wider Ferrari nomination.

[good_Ralf]

I do need to find someone who'll love me like Londoner loves the smiley on here

Of course, Leclerc's PU is my first choice. It was rather undeserved, and again I wonder how these types of problems never seem to befall Lewis and Seb while their teammates catch them often enough for them to drop out of title contention early. But as unhappy as I am, based on his performance today, I'm sure that first win for Charles will come around before long

I stopped watching the race after Hamilton passed Leclerc, but Renault get an honorable mention from me, it's sort of similar, in terms of its timing, to what happened to the Toro Rosso drivers in Russia last year.

Oh, and Vettel, I thought he was past this, dear me.

[Alextrax52]

Leclerc's turbo

Leclerc's turbo

Seriously Leclerc's Turbo!!!

Mentions for Sebastian Vettel, Renault, Pierre Gasly and Haas

[lance_rambert]

I'll throw a hat in the ring for Ferrari as a whole thanks to Leclerc's uncooperative engine and Vettel's aspirations to be even more disappointing...

[dinizintheoven]

Irrespective of the rest of the nominations I'm going to give first place to Sebastian Vettel, for reasons which should be obvious. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A FOUR-TIME WORLD CHAMPION. ACT LIKE IT!

And the dishonourable mention goes to Renault, for reasons which should also be obvious. Never mind this whole "Formula 1.5" malarkey, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A TEAM THAT KNOWS HOW TO WIN THE CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP (even if it was 13 years ago). ACT LIKE IT!

[Rob Dylan]

- Renault: a dual problem at the exact same time about three laps from scoring a really solid points haul was more than embarrassing. They're probably the only people who were happy that Leclerc had a problem, so that it deflected attention away from their own humiliation.
- Charles Leclerc's luck: ...
- Pierre Gasly?: Where have you been this season, mate?
- Formula 1.5: Leclerc being ~5s off the pace of Mercedes drivers and still finishing in the top five. Vettel spinning backwards and stopping, then doing half a lap without a front wing, then pitting, and still finishing in the top five.

[You-Gee-Eee-Day]

- Formula 1.5: Leclerc being ~5s off the pace of Mercedes drivers and still finishing in the top five. Vettel spinning backwards and stopping, then doing half a lap without a front wing, then pitting, and still finishing in the top five.

I couldn't agree more on this.

Just to spice things up I'm going to nominate:

The guy shooting lasers into the crowd from the big laser tower

The guy who was in charge of fireworks and set up the Red ones assuming Ferrari would take the win

[Meatwad]

Leclerc's car for robbing him of a completely deserved win. Dishonorable mention to Renault for their completely baffling double retirement.

[Samster]

Great another race that seemed designed to piss me off. Leclerc having power issues costing him his first win gifting a win to Hamilton and on top of that a last minute double DNF for Renault. Literally everything I didn't want to happen in the final laps happened.

So my nomination goes to the final 10 laps of this race. I actually ended up switching the channel out of frustration.

HMs

Pierre Gasly Stuck in Formula 1.5 on merit in a Red Bull. Should have picked Sainz.

Haas Race pace was garbage, Magnussen started 6th had no delays yet ended up 13th even after Renault's double DNF.

Renault Double mechanical DNF on the same lap. Shades of Arrows 1998.

Sebastian Vettel Oh COME ON!

[CaptainGetz12]

1) Renault. Double DNF on the same turn on the same lap. You couldn't write it better than that!

2) Leclerc's Ferrari Engine. Heartbreaking.

Mentions:

Sebastian Vettel (Pushed it too hard)

Pierre Gasly (Not a good showing)

Bahrain's track surface (This track is not kind to the tires. May of had a hand in Vettel's tire puncture/spin)

[rachel1990]

Tough race to hear about especially in the last 10 laps because as mentioned above everything that could go wrong did for some well deserving drivers...

HM- Gasley. Didn't even notice he was racing. Lucky boy to come 8th.

HM- Renault- The Hulk started 17th and was 5th when it failed. Riccardo was 9th. On the SAME Bloody lap. FFS

VERY VERY LUCKY (Very close to ROTR) HM- Sebastian Vettel- His teammate drivers a peerless race and yet once again he f**** up and loses his front wing tangling with a Williams. And of Course, because of what happened below he could have won. His teammate has outpaced him in both races so far.

But of Course, it has to go to
Charles Leclerc's Turbo
He was peerless for 99% of the race and his car let him down. He actually said Sorry to the team after the race. Charles. You have NOTHING to be sorry about (Your teammate though...). The team should be saying sorry to YOU!

[James1978]

As well as everything else that's already been mentioned about Ferrari - in addition we have Vettel's moustache. It's March, not Movember.

Though I think Renault should really get it for comedy - that was SO Arrows in Spain 1998!

[mario]

Quite a few nominations to be made for that race - since I know that Leclerc's MGU-H is going to get a lot of nominations, let's at least look at a few of the alternatives:
Haas - OK, Grosjean was a bit unlucky to be tagged by Stroll, but their attempt at a one stop strategy backfired horribly and saw Magnussen just tumble down the order. It looked clear fairly early on that, with overtaking not being too challenging and with a reasonably pronounced tyre drop off, it wasn't worth trying to eke the tyres out when last year was a marginal one stopper.
Renault - quite asides from the peculiar double retirement, they also made a similar mistake to Haas and put Ricciardo onto a one stop strategy that didn't work out either.
Gasly - off the pace in qualifying and similarly lost in the race: I imagine that Marko's patience is going to run short with Gasly soon if he doesn't start showing more pace. Whilst Albert Park is not the easiest circuit to make a pass around, this time around it should have been much easier - yet he seemed under more threat from the midfield drivers behind him than to those in front of him.

[Psyclepath]

Leclerc's luck deserves a mention. I wanted him to win, he thoroughly deserved it. At least Hamilton acknowledged that he'd lucked into this win.

Renault are deserving of it. Both cars going off at the same point is pretty embarrassing. Hulkenberg was one of the best performers in the race, but it was all for naught.

Vettel gets the award. Unlucky to have taken that kind of damage, but it was all caused by driver error.

[UncreativeUsername37]

Last time, Gasly had the excuse of not being run again in Q1 and a race where overtaking was difficult... he better stop finishing among the LMP2s or he's going the way of Kvyat, except there'll be no free Toro Rosso seat... or will there? Who's the replacement?

[Vassago]

Obviously Ferrari as a whole effort. A supposed 1-2 lock-in on a circuit that suits them ends in calamity through both reliability & driver error.

A honorable mention to Renault for suffering two mechanical failures in the same spot on the track in a matter of seconds. That's Hollywood like script nobody would even believe in.

[FortiWinks]

Leclerc’s turbo -

Renault - I am a Renault fan because of Daniel Ricciardo but seriously, this team is making it really hard to support them...

[yannicksamlad]

I'll agree ;
The piece of Ferrari that stopped the win we all wanted

Renault - that didnt look good . Failures in the race , Hulkenberg's quallie ruined ....

[Faustus]

Since everyone else has mentioned Leclerc's turbo, Ferrari, Vettel and Renault, It would have been too easy to say Williams, so I'll say Racing Point. Perez squeaked a point in the race but they seemed to have gone back from last year.

[mario]

Since everyone else has mentioned Leclerc's turbo, Ferrari, Vettel and Renault, It would have been to say Williams, so I'll say Racing Point. Perez squeaked a point in the race but they seemed to have gone back from last year.

Wasn't that also the case this time last year though? Ocon had scored one point for them in Bahrain last year as well - their current position looks a bit more like where they were at this point in the 2018 season, which is perhaps not surprising if the current car is still fairly heavily based on their 2018 car.

[novitopoli]

With all due disrespect to Ferrari's woes, Renault seeing their two cars come to a halt in a ten-second window in the exact same point is the stuff ROTRs are made of.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

With all due disrespect to Ferrari's woes, Renault seeing their two cars come to a halt in a ten-second window in the exact same point is the stuff ROTRs are made of.

Wanted to say Ferrari, but this is just too good of a point. Renault it is.

[Wallio]

It has to be Renault. Which after watching The Drive to Survive, and seeing how unlikable Cryil is, felt kind of good. Pity for Danny though. But hey, his newly huge wallet will cushion his fall.

[good_Ralf]

He won't make the shortlist, but I'm throwing a shout-out to F2's Mahaveer Raghunathan. He was lapped by Ghiotto before the finish to the sprint race, but instead of slowing down after crossing the line, proceeded to drive the slow-down lap at racing speed, thinking he was still unlapped and on the final lap! He has a 10 place grid penalty for the next race.

[Samster]

Adding Autosport to my shortlist for giving Lewis a 10 despite lucking into a win. Not even the first time they have done this either.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Adding Autosport to my shortlist for giving Lewis a 10 despite lucking into a win. Not even the first time they have done this either.

What did he do wrong then?

[FortiWinks]

Adding Autosport to my shortlist for giving Lewis a 10 despite lucking into a win. Not even the first time they have done this either.

What did he do wrong then?

Not taking anything away from Lewis but he did look pretty toothless with the stint on the softs when everyone else was on the mediums near the start of the race.

[Samster]

Adding Autosport to my shortlist for giving Lewis a 10 despite lucking into a win. Not even the first time they have done this either.

What did he do wrong then?

Not taking anything away from Lewis but he did look pretty toothless with the stint on the softs when everyone else was on the mediums near the start of the race.

Yeah it was hardly exceptional like Leclerc and Hulkenburg who also got 10s. Quite a lot of the field did nothing wrong technically but they don't all get 10s. Lewis' performance this weekend was 9 at best by Autosport's stated rating standards and his average reader rating reflects that. To be honest Bottas getting an 8 (same as Norris for example) is also a bit sketchy.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Hmmm, fair points to both. I found the way he managed to pull out the massive gap over Bottas much like Valtteri himself did in Australia to be really impressive, but I guess the opening laps seem like a distant memory to me given everything that happened later!

I actually don't know much about or pay attention to Autosport's ratings in general, it's just that the general discourse around Hamilton lately has been annoyingly similar to how it was when Vettel was dominating (if not quite as bad), so I tend more towards scepticism whenever he's in the conversation; hence my previous question.

[Rob Dylan]

Sorry for the little delay in this, but here's the poll for Reject of the Race in Bahrain. Charles Leclerc's issues and luck that robbed him of a win is the first option; Pierre Gasly's poor performance for a second race in a row driving a Red Bull is our second; Renault for their simultaneous blow-ups and also general performance disasters; and finally Sebastian Vettel for his comparative pace, as well as that spin.

You've got 48 hours, people!

[Rob Dylan]

So in Bahrain, the only thing that could have defeated Charles Leclerc's luck to being Reject of the Race, was the most classically rejectful situation seen in F1 for quite some time, and that was Renault for having two cars retire from the race at the same time with the same issue. It's quite incredible actually, and it was the exact kind of thing this website has been created to celebrate. I have just one question, though: What on earth happened!?