Reject of the Race - France 2021

[Londoner]

1. Charles Leclerc. Finishing 16th on merit in a Ferrari, seemingly unable to make any of his tyre sets last.

2. Mercedes strategists. Outfoxed and outgunned for the third weekend in a row.

[Shadaza]

[Spooder918]

1. Ferrari: They really had a terrible race today. Race pace needs a lot of work.
2. Merc strategists: They got Hungary'd by Red Bull

[Aerond]

Leclerc - Took the weekend off
Ocon - idem

[Kinnikuniverse]

How about ferrari in general? This is probably the worst performance i've ever seen from this team. I am literally too pissed off right now...

[Ciaran]

1. Ferrari.
2. Merc strategists.

Congratulations, you played yourselves.

[You-Gee-Eee-Day]

Mercedes - How did they lose this
Ferrari - Where were they

[RAK]

1) Ferrari: Disappointing result and dismal strategy.

2) Esteban Ocon: Expected better from him; Alonso at least secured a few points after early promise for Alpine from qualifying.

[rachel1990]

Only two nominations due to the obvious

1- Ferrari. Wow that was pure s***. Sainz looked the better of the 2 in 11th and LeClerc was 16th. The cars ate up the tyres. I'm not convinced the drivers were to blame that much but overall they looked rubbish.

2- Mercedes strategists. Hamilton and Bottas said the 2 stop was better. The team said no and the drivers were proved right. Dreadful. This time the drivers have every right to be pissed

[IceG]

(1) Ferrari - could not take the higher pressures it seems...
(2) Leclerc - 16th on merit. In a Ferrari? Between the two Alfas. What were they thinking?

[went]

1- On a race with very few errors or terrible performances, one shines well above and beyond what everyone else was capable of: Ferrari. Absolutely dreadful pace on hards. It's even more painful as, on softs (read: qualy), they were pretty decent! Sainz hovered around the top 5 all Saturday long, and then finished 11th today. And Leclerc... better not mention the poor soul.

HM: A 2-4 is hardly rejectful but Mercedes seem to be very prone to making mistakes of all sorts. Terrible strategy calls (why not pit Hamilton the lap after Bottas, depriving Verstappen of an easy overtake opportunity? why not go for a double stopper, as Bottas angrily demanded at the end?), Bottas's pisspoor defending (went long on the brakes the very first time Verstappen applied some pressure on him) and the inexplicable decision not to pit Valteri at the end to have a go for fastest lap are all truly inexplicable blunders for a team that has been collecting double crowns for the best part of a decade now.

[Freeze-O-Kimi]

DHM to me first of all for thinking this was going to be a crapfest. Actual mentions:

Ferrari: How nice of the Scuderia from 2020 to show up today, said no F1 fan ever

Charles Leclerc: Bonus points for Ferrari’s poor afternoon go to this guy. Sainz had his number all weekend and he was the only guy who pitted twice seemingly because he chewed the tyres rather than tactically like Verstappen. Did naff all after that and finished 16th on merit.

Esteban Ocon: Had the same strategy as Aston Martin yet they scored points and he was nowhere

Mercedes Strategists: that’s 3 races in a row now where they’ve been second best. I’m starting to wonder if they’ve swapped strategists with Red Bull

Formula 1.5: this is starting to look like the year 2000 where 2 teams are miles ahead of the rest. 5th place Norris was some 50 seconds behind and that would have been even bigger had Bottas’s tyres hadn’t given up.

[FullMetalJack]

1. Ferrari
2. Reliability - A bit of attrition and Williams might have scored points.

[Meatwad]

Ferrari went back to their worst form last year, otherwise no one was exceptionally rejectful.

[dj_vicious]

1. Ferrari: What on earth was that? Chewed their tires and couldn't salvage anything at the end.

2. The Dominant Car argument: 'Max only won because Red Bull is cheating with the rear wing'. 'Max only won because he has the better car'. When Mercedes has a clear dominant machine it's, 'brilliant victory for Hamilton!' We're finally seeing some real competition now that the top two cars are relatively evenly matched, and the top two drivers are relatively evenly matched. The pro-Ham/pro-Mercedes saltiness on broadcasts is making me queasy.

[noiceinmydrink]

[tBone]

1. Ferrari - Both cars dropped like a brick through the order.
2. Esteban Ocon - He was nowhere in his home race.

Dishonorable mentions for Mercedes, who managed to lose despite having the strongest package this race and Tsunoda, who again didn't have an incident-free weekend and who again didn't score points.

[Miguel98]

1. Ferrari - Sainz didn't do too badly until the car started to eat its tyres but Leclerc was terrible all weekend long, not comfortable at all out there. Bad strategy and, after two good weekends for them, they failed to score.

2. Mercedes - Having two cars out in front and not using a single one to try a two stopper.

Honorable mention to everyone for thinking the race was going to be boring and to Esteban Ocon for getting destroyed by Alonso.

[tBone]

the inexplicable decision not to pit Valteri at the end to have a go for fastest lap

I thought that was because Perez was still under investigation. If he would have had a 10 second penalty, for example, Bottas would have gotten 3rd.

[CaptainGetz12]

1) Ferrari. Sank like a stone after the opening 10 laps. The strategists at least tried to gamble but the cars did not look like contenders, getting trounced by Constructors rivals Mclaren today.

2) Bottas's Strategists. I know the Mercedes drivers like to complain about the tires (especially Hamilton), but Bottas's word can be trusted on it. If he says he needs a second stop, they shouldn't have brushed him off like that and end up behind Perez. I don't give Hamilton's side the same nomination because he proved he can make the tires last on a 1-stop strategy, just couldn't factor in the weather and driver mistakes.

(Dis)honourable Mentions:
Estaban Ocon (Rather middling performance at his home race, but he has at least another season to refine against Alonso)
Alpha Tauri (Mediocre despite Gasly doing some heroics)

[Fetzie]

Ferrari - just where were they? One car in 11th, one in 16th. Not due to mistakes or even bad strategy - they were simply just slow.

Keep going like this and they'll be getting themselves another RotY nomination.

[dinizintheoven]

[Enforcer]

No surprises from me.

Ferrari for just an awful, awful day.

Mercedes strategy. I know the undercut was really powerful etc. etc., but there were at most 3 laps in that race where it wasn't obvious that Verstappen was going to pick Hamilton off. They should've responded to Verstappen immediately. Pit Hamilton the lap after Verstappen, yeah he'd have lost another couple of seconds, but he'd have still been close to him and in a faster car. Ok, Perez has to be negotiated past, but if Hamilton had got right on Verstappen's tail like he had earlier, it's not necessarily the easiest thing to have Sergio bail out of Verstappen's way without allowing Hamilton a nibble at him. The strategy seemed to be hope Valtteri can somehow hold off a car that's faster in a straight line, and when he has no tires, long enough to give Hamilton the space needed. Never a goer.

And then to top it off, once the gimping of Bottas was complete, you didn't even pit him and let him gun for fastest lap.

[dj_vicious]

1. Ferrari - Sainz didn't do too badly until the car started to eat its tyres but Leclerc was terrible all weekend long, not comfortable at all out there. Bad strategy and, after two good weekends for them, they failed to score.

2. Mercedes - Having two cars out in front and not using a single one to try a two stopper.

Honorable mention to everyone for thinking the race was going to be boring and to Esteban Ocon for getting destroyed by Alonso.

I gladly accept you nominating me as ROTR as I was one who thought it'd be a snoozefest.

[Batty]

Charles Leclerc - I would give it to Ferrari as a whole but Carlos wasn't bad. Charles just sank like a non pumice rock in water. Dude got lapped and tried to unlap himself which was funny.

Esteban Ocon - I mean the guy just ended up nowhere but it isn't really reject worthy or funny like Charles

I was thinking about the stunt to get the trophies but it was just hilarious.

[mario]

the inexplicable decision not to pit Valteri at the end to have a go for fastest lap

I thought that was because Perez was still under investigation. If he would have had a 10 second penalty, for example, Bottas would have gotten 3rd.

That is correct - Masi instructed Mercedes that Perez was under investigation for the pass on Bottas, so Mercedes did not pit Bottas and aimed to try to keep Bottas close enough to Perez so that, if he was penalised, he'd be moved back up ahead of Perez.

In the end, the stewards decided that they were not going to penalise Perez on the grounds that he'd completed the pass on Bottas before Turn 10, so they thought it was not relevant that he went off at Turn 10 afterwards. However, they made that decision after the race was over, so Mercedes couldn't react to it.

When you look at that sequence of events in the way that it actually unfolded, then you can see why Mercedes did leave Bottas out - if they had pitted and Perez was given a penalty, then they would have ended up losing more points than they gained from Bottas setting a fastest lap.

That said, you can see that Perez started blitzing fast laps as soon as he got past Bottas to build as much of a gap as possible to negate any penalty - it's worth noting that, in the closing laps, Perez was the fastest driver on track and his best lap, which he set on the final lap, was only a few tenths off Verstappen's fastest lap of the race.

That latter aspect does also make me wonder if the whole "Mercedes was the faster car" is quite as true as is being asserted - if Perez was able to bang in such fast laps in the closing laps of the race and didn't finish that far behind on a one stop strategy that was meant to have been so terrible, doesn't that suggest that the car wasn't exactly that bad to begin with?

[CaptainGetz12]

No surprises from me.

Ferrari for just an awful, awful day.

Mercedes strategy. I know the undercut was really powerful etc. etc., but there were at most 3 laps in that race where it wasn't obvious that Verstappen was going to pick Hamilton off. They should've responded to Verstappen immediately. Pit Hamilton the lap after Verstappen, yeah he'd have lost another couple of seconds, but he'd have still been close to him and in a faster car. Ok, Perez has to be negotiated past, but if Hamilton had got right on Verstappen's tail like he had earlier, it's not necessarily the easiest thing to have Sergio bail out of Verstappen's way without allowing Hamilton a nibble at him. The strategy seemed to be hope Valtteri can somehow hold off a car that's faster in a straight line, and when he has no tires, long enough to give Hamilton the space needed. Never a goer.

And then to top it off, once the gimping of Bottas was complete, you didn't even pit him and let him gun for fastest lap.

Note that Perez was being investigated for track limits. Bottas had to stay out in case Perez got a time penalty, thus promoting Bottas to 3rd.

[James1978]

Ferrari for definite.

I get why people are saying Mercedes but they haven't had competition like this for a while (and when they did you knew Ferrari in 2017/18 wouldn't be as sharp as Red Bull are now), plus also most of 2019 and 2020 Red Bull only had one car in the mix - having Perez in the mix instead of Gasly or Albon mired in F1.5 is really making a difference. It's purely pressure.

[UncreativeUsername37]

Shadaza for post the year.

So first nomination goes to Ferrari, and second nomination goes to you, the person reading this post, for saying this season was clearly going to be another one of Hamilton domination.

[RAK]

second nomination goes to you, the person reading this post, for saying this season was clearly going to be another one of Hamilton domination.

Still plenty of time to go - Hamilton has tended to gallop away in the later parts of the previous seasons when he's been challenged at all.

[Wallio]

I really don't understand why people are saying Ferrari. We have known since preseason testing that, while yes, they have taken a large step forward from last year, they still won't be any good this year. A pair of street circuits and fluky qualifying red flags simply flattered to deceive. Coupe that with Mclaren essentially running one car for the first six races and you have why Ferrari was P3. It's a return to form, not being rejectful.


Mercedes - Now the Silver Arrows on the other hand? Oof. Had the whole chassis-gate situation on Friday, only to have it revitalize Bottas despite all their insistence that it was "nothing" and a "coincidence". But hey, at least they had the two cars dominate Free Practice (Max's glory lap in FP2 aside). Their long-run pace looked very good as well. Then on Saturday it turns out that they actually are nearly SEVEN TENTHS down on Red Bull in FP3 (over one lap), and lose out on pole after qualis.

They then bungle away not just the race win, but a second podium and the fastest lap as well all because they refused to even consider a two-stop despite not only both of their drivers wanting it, but Red Bull proving it was the way to go. While leaving Bottas out to die is simply par for the course at Merc, not pitting Hamilton was suicide, as he had a race pace advantage all weekend. The team at least apologized to Lewis and admitted they cost him the race, poor Bottas got radio silence.

Totto then admitted they didn't understand that the undercut would work in France (how, just how?) and also that they didn't understand why they didn't understand that the undercut would work. And to top it all off, in a joint interview with Horner and Totto, Rosberg showed footage of the Merc front wing still flexing and offered it to Horner as evidence in a future protest. Bathplugging a man.

[Pacific Edge]

Those trophies: Looked like a low poly 3d gorilla from a bad PC game

Merc strategists: Knew they were outsmarted and just sat there like a deer in the headlights.

Ferrari: One thing to have a bad race, but THAT bad?

[Rob Dylan]

At a race such as Paul Ricard, the action is not guaranteed to be perfect, and in the last two French Grands Prix, something French has always won Reject of the Race as a result (in 2018 France itself was ROTR). Therefore, with a grand prix that was admittedly a little more exciting this year, we still have quite obvious and repetitive candidates for this year's Reject of the Race.

Therefore, vote for your Reject of the Race using the poll at the top of this thread. You have 48 hours

[Rob Dylan]

Forgot to link this. Here are the results of ROTR and IIDOTR in France.