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Reject of the Race - Spain 2021 POLL

Posted: 09 May 2021, 14:42
by Londoner
1. Red Bull strategists. A carbon copy of Hungary 2019, proving that they have learned ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! :facepalm:

2. Yuki Tsunoda. A mess of a weekend on and off track. Retirement wasn't his fault, but the hype is falling by the wayside.

Dishonorable mentions to Pirelli (how is it even possible for a tyre to be punctured in the paddock?), anyone else trying a one stop strategy, and Andy Neate for causing a stupidly dangerous crash at Thruxton midway through the GP, where he turned Glynn Geddie around at full racing speed. On the first friggen lap. :facepalm:

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 14:43
by Klon
Formula One Fans - remember when cretins tried to tell us there'd be a championship battle this year?

Strategists - honestly, nobody looked all that great today.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 14:46
by noiceinmydrink
Ah I gotta give it to Pirelli, a flat tyre at the pitstop is nigh-unprecedented. Further destroyed Alfa's race, has commercial implications for the company and gave me a good hearty laugh.*

Alfa Romeo are a close second - they looked promising through practice and we absolutely nowhere on Saturday and Sunday. Even Latifi passed Giovinazzi for chrissakes. (notwithstanding that Latifi himself drove a very fine race)

*EDIT: Upon new information, I've forgiven Pirelli and have made Alfa Romeo my first nominee. Young Yuki Tsunoda is going to be my number 2 for being an all-round header throughout the weekend.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 14:47
by Enforcer
Formula 1.5
Not a new phenomenon, but Max & Lewis disappeared off up the road at 1s per lap and then late on, Verstappen, Bottas and Perez were all able to take stops for fastest lap attempts with no danger of further track position loss.

It just seemed even more blatant than normal today.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 14:48
by Ciaran
1. Red Bull strategists for their sizeable deposit into the Hamfosi's collective spank bank. I muted my speakers rather than listen to yet another David Croft impersonation of Michael Cole after a face Roman Reigns win.
2. Pirelli for their quality control.

The only things I'm looking forward to in Monaco are the fight for pole and some more Mazepin shenanigans.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 14:52
by IceG
(1) Bottas - I like the guy, he can drive fast and win races. But trying it on with Hamilton while failing to catch up to Verstappen is just petulant.

(2) Red Bull - poor pitstop, poor strategic response to the Mercedes pit-stop, and weak drive by Perez.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 15:03
by Fetzie
1) Red Bull for letting Mercedes pull a Hungary on them a second time

2) Bottas for being a few cm away from crashing into Hamilton

DHM F1.5 for losing a second a lap on Hamilton and Verstappen after the safety car

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 15:08
by Francophone
Valterri Bottas -Another demonstration of how he's not fast enough in the race , and then he tries to make life difficult for Lewis Hamilton when he's asked to step aside. Should have been closing Max down as well I felt in the second stint to put pressure on him from behind.

Sauber pit crew - How on earth can a new set of tyres have a puncture before they even left the tyre warmers!?[/b]

Some mentions - Yuki Tsunoda (can't help but feel he's trying way too hard and overdriving his car , and his press comments are out of order after qualifying) , those who tried to one stop - those strategy calls really cost their drivers.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 15:56
by James1978
The two top teams' #2 drivers are really struggling at the moment - Perez too deserves a mention as if he'd been around at the sharp end, Mercedes might not have been able to pull that strategy off.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 16:09
by rachel1990
This one isn't an easy one.

HM- Gasly- yes he got a point but such a poor error by overshooting his starting lineup position.
HM- Bottas- I would love to give him this (such a waste of a decent seat). But he did finish third but the fact remains that if it wasn't for Tsunoda's engine failing he wouldn't have been anywhere near the top 2. And Hamilton showed how much BS Bottas talks when he overtakes and catches over drivers fine. So did Russell last year as well. Bottas can't.
HM- Tsunoda- the DNF was not his fault but he had another poor weekend overall

2-Red Bull poor pit stops and poor strategy allowed Hamilton the victory. oh well done.

1-Alfa Romeo/Pirelli how on earth did that happen at Gio's pitstop- How was a tyre allowed to get a puncture like that- I'm sure they will blame each other in the enquiry so they both get it for me

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 16:19
by dr-baker
Andy Neate for banging Jade Edwards and Geddie out of the 2nd BTCC race at Thruxton...

Me for putting Albon instead of Perez in my Predicament Predictions post...

And Sauber/Alfa Romeo/ Pirelli for having a tyre punctured before it was ever fitted to the car!

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 16:30
by Vassago
Not many reject-worthy action in this race.

1. Red Bull Racing - got clowned by Mercedes and they knew the set up was on like 10 seconds after Hamilton pitted. You can't give away race wins like that if you want to end the Merc domination.

2. Whomever re-designed Turn 10 - it still brings zero quality racing-wise. I'd be willing to give it a try with Motorland Aragon for new Spanish GP venue.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 17:36
by Meatwad
Again, no obvious nomination, but I'll go with Yuki Tsunoda. Poor qualifying, questionable comments, the only retirement of the race (even if the last one wasn't his fault).

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 17:40
by Chrisdude
2. Valtteri Bottas - In his mind he probably thought his actions made him look like a racy, edgy hard-ass who never gives in. In reality, it was pure stupidity and he had nothing at all to gain from impeding Lewis. In other circumstances, if Valtteri had an outside chance to fight to win, then fair play, but today he was nowhere and should have played the team game when that is pretty much the only card he has left to play in retaining his seat.

1. Red Bull strategy/pitstops - slow stop, outsmarted on strategy. The race was theirs to lose and they lost it

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 17:56
by Miguel98
1. Red Bull Strategy - Though Red Bull wasn't the only team that struggled out there for strategy, their team radio to Max saying "could be Hungary all over again" - where, you know, HE LOST THE RACE - and still not covering Lewis was just plain hilarious. Max's post-race interview does seem to show that Mercedes and Hamilton are fully in their heads. And ever since Nico in 2016, everytime Lewis' title rival fell into those mind-games, they lost the title hard. And Monaco isn't usually Max's playground...

2. Yuki Tsunoda - I honestly would nominate him just for his post-qualifying remarks. You are a candidate for a Red Bull seat possibly, and it's not good showing when in your fourth race you decide to tell that to the world. Yuki's approach on team radio might seem funny, but it seems to be showing a rather... problematic approach to the weekend on his part. Retirement wasn't his fault, but his start wasn't exactly stellar (behind Mick at one point) and his pace wasn't lighting up the world as well until his engine failed.

Honorable mentions to Alpine - perhaps the worst strategy today was from them - to Gasly who should not be doing that kind of mistakes (he's not #1 because the rest of his race was stellar) at this point and to Alfa Romeo for that pitstop.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 18:22
by Aislabie
I'm very surprised there isn't unanimity from everyone to nominate Yuki Tsunoda, who got out of his car after bombing out in Q1 and then announced to the press that the reason he'd gone out at that stage was actually because his team was intentionally giving him worse equipment so that he wouldn't fight Gasly. Then couple that with a DNF in a race where he'd spent it fighting amongst the Williams and Haas cars, and yeah... that wasn't good.

And for a second nomination, I guess David Croft for chalking Valtteri Bottas being stuck behind Charles Leclerc up to the Mercedes being a car "not designed to run in traffic" rather than simply Valtteri's racecraft being his weakest attribute.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 19:01
by Aerond
1.- Alfa Romeo pitcrew - great fuggen job there

2.- Red Bull Strategists - also great fuggen job there

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 19:06
by Hermann95
1. Red Bull Strategy
2. Yuki Tsunoda
HM - Gasly
HM - Alfa Romeo/Pirelli

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 19:44
by SammiRei
Worst place easily goes to Max Verstappen's Strategist: Leaving him out like that was just asking for him to get caught by Hamilton.
Runner up goes to Alfa Romeo's Tyres: I'm not sure I want to know how you get a puncture when the tyre isn't even fitted to the car, but good job.

DHM: Everyone who tried to 1-stop
DHM: Nikita Mazepin for being nearly a minute behind his teammate on merit again, without the excuse of extra pit stops or penalties this time.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 21:11
by Rob Dylan
I think when we put up the nominations, due to how many parties were involved (and how we don't really know who was to blame yet) that the flat tyre itself will be the nomination :D whoever's fault it was, that was something I've never seen before, whether it was Alfa's fault for not refilling it or Pirelli's fault for having rubbish tyres I don't know. But the tyre itself gets my nomination for the damage it did to Alfa's race.

Otherwise Aston Martin have had it easy on this thread so far. What on earth were they doing? Their entire strategy seemed to be "pit and end up behind Mazepin". There was a time when Vettel was genuinely 19th and last for a few laps. Once again they were Pnowhere, and once again seem to be a one-car team with Lance.


Honourable mention to Tsunoda. I don't think he deserves a full nomination because he retracted his comments on Saturday very quickly (we all get hot-headed and the media make a far bigger deal of it than it actually is) and his retirement was hardly his fault. Though perhaps I am being unduly sympathetic...

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 21:13
by mario
1. Both Alpha Tauri drivers - Tsunoda had already put himself on the back foot with his poor qualifying performance, and whilst, as others note, it wasn't his fault that he did DNF, at the same time it didn't look like he was on course to make up a lot of ground either. Incidentally, as Miguel98 notes, Yuki's behaviour on the radio is perhaps emblematic of a flawed approach - it seems something rather ingrained too, as it seems he had a reputation in both Formula 2 and Formula 3 for tending to shout a lot of abuse over the radio at his engineers in those series.

That said, Gasly kind of undershot on his potential too - the penalty could have been worse than 5 seconds, but given Ocon only just held him off by a few tenths on the final lap, that penalty cost him at least one place.

2. Alfa Romeo and Giovinazzi's tyres - as others note, given the indication that the team managed to puncture the tyres themselves, they really shot themselves in the foot big time with that.

With regards to Red Bull's strategists, I do agree that they were poor, though more of a dishonourable mention than outright terrible.

Considering that the 2020 race was a two stop event, it was not unreasonable to expect that this year would also see a two stopper being the favoured strategy - but, from the way that Red Bull only kept back one set of medium tyres for the race, they backed themselves into effectively only having the option of a one stop strategy before the race even began.

By the time they could have reacted, they'd effectively lost the position thanks to giving Mercedes the strategic initiative, added to Max then locking himself into that strategy by being the one to call the pit stop. It might have temporarily given him the track position advantage, but it feels as if Red Bull put too much reliance on track position alone when the degradation was too high for that alone to do the job.

Alpine perhaps deserve greater criticism too - both Ocon and Alonso had a platform to work from, but they managed to turn 5th and 10th in qualifying into 9th and 17th in the race with their attempts to run a one stop strategy.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 09 May 2021, 21:23
by RAK
1) Yuki Tsunoda: Of the rookie drivers this season, I'd most like to see him succeed, but he did not cover himself in glory with a dismal qualifying, invective following it and an ignominous retirement in the race itself.

2) Red Bull: The strategists for cocking it up and allowing Mercedes to snatch yet another victory; Perez for not being able to keep up.

Dishonourable Mention: Pirelli/Alfa Romeo - embarrassing.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 10 May 2021, 04:08
by dj_vicious
It makes my heart tickle with joy to see so many active replies to these post-race threads!

1st. Max Verstappen's team mate. No not Perez specifically, I mean his team mate at Red Bull that is always too far behind to cover off max. Red Bull simply doesn't have that cushion needed to prevent clever tactics like Mercedes pulled today. If it were hockey, Max would be running the entire game shorthanded.

2nd. Yuki Tsunoda. Sure the mechanical breakdown wasn't his fault, and I don't think Alpha Tauri is audacious enough to kill his car out of spite, but blaming the team and car for a poor qualifying performance is not a good look, especially in a race fairly void of serious rejectdom!

DHM: I'm grasping at straws here, but it would have been awesome if Pirelli had brought softer compounds and forced all the teams into wild 3-stop strategies.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 10 May 2021, 08:02
by Batty
I'm surprised about the lack of Pierre Gasly.

1. Pierre Gasly - Imagine the result he would have gotten if he decided not to be out of position. It was a hilarious mistake. I know he scored a point but still it was so god damn rejectful way to get a penalty. I mean out of position in a grid box? Brah

2. Flat Tire - Hilarious.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 10 May 2021, 13:41
by Spectoremg
1. RB strategy, but I can't help thinking they were never gonna win this race.
2. Botthas. Not him specifically, but do Mercedes feel no embarrassment for employing this deadbeat?

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 10 May 2021, 14:13
by Spooder918
1. Red Bull strategy: Hungary 2019 all over again.
2. Alfa Romeo: A new tyre but it's already punctured? Seriously?

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 10 May 2021, 16:49
by Pacific Edge
Points finish: Pitstops, not the top day in pit lane

Points finish: Tsunoda, Really unnecessary outburst after qualy, then found out in the race what happens when you insult your car (joke)

Points finish: US, Agree with Klon on this one, we got fed the story that this year would be different. And we fell for it.

Anyway..

3rd:David Croft, for telling us that the Sky F1 team don't care who wins, and HONESTLY expecting us to believe that.

2nd:: Alfa Romeo for damaging a brand new tire. Well done

1st: Red Bull Strategy team Were sleeping, got caught sleeping, then went back to sleep. Not before sending Verstappen a radio message saying that they had been caught out, and had no real immediate intention of doing anything about it.

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 10 May 2021, 18:41
by Alextrax52
I’m giving it to the Pirelli Tire. How does one get punctured before it actually goes onto the car? It was that sheer random and unexpected moment that’s always good for ROTR

Oh and obviously the Red Bull strategists deserve a pasting here. Have you lot learned nothing from Hungary 2 years ago? Not to mention you gave the only fanbase more annoying than the Tifosi more content to get carried away again. (Lewis did a good job but he didn’t have to do anything spectacular like some would have you believe)

Mind you the Alpine strategists were just as awful for being the only ones who tried to persist with the 1 stop. Had Ocon not kept hold of 2 points I think they’d be getting more mentions here

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 10 May 2021, 19:37
by UncreativeUsername37
That pit stop was so distinctive I can't give it to anything else. It wasn't Nürburgring 1999 bad, but I agree with Chandhok about the flashbacks

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 11 May 2021, 08:04
by Miguel98
For the record, it wasn't Pirelli that provided Alfa Romeo with a punctured tyre - it was Alfa Romeo themselves who ended up puncturing tyre during their procedures.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/tyre-valve-issue-caused-disastrous-giovinazzi-pitstop/6505868/

"Alfa Romeo's head of track engineering Xevi Pujolar said that the tyre set was alright when checked before the start of the race.

"It was an operational problem when just picking up the set at one point when getting everything ready in the garage that damaged the valve," he said.

"We've got a monitoring system. It was okay when the race started, but at some point in the garage, then it it went wrong, a couple of laps before before the pitstop."

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 11 May 2021, 10:40
by noiceinmydrink
Miguel98 wrote:For the record, it wasn't Pirelli that provided Alfa Romeo with a punctured tyre - it was Alfa Romeo themselves who ended up puncturing tyre during their procedures.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/tyre-valve-issue-caused-disastrous-giovinazzi-pitstop/6505868/

"Alfa Romeo's head of track engineering Xevi Pujolar said that the tyre set was alright when checked before the start of the race.

"It was an operational problem when just picking up the set at one point when getting everything ready in the garage that damaged the valve," he said.

"We've got a monitoring system. It was okay when the race started, but at some point in the garage, then it it went wrong, a couple of laps before before the pitstop."


In that case, gonna change my nominations to Alfa Romeo and Yuki Tsunoda for being a daft arse. (I'll edit the above to reflect this)

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021

Posted: 12 May 2021, 06:58
by Rob Dylan
The poll is up! You have 48 hours to vote for who you think was the top reject in Spain. There are three to choose from - and yes I did not add Bottas to that pole on purpose. I think that with such as successful result as 3rd place, he did not embarrass himself enough to truly count as a full ROTR.

Get voting everyone :dance:

Re: Reject of the Race - Spain 2021 POLL

Posted: 15 May 2021, 09:07
by Londoner