2016 Monaco GP - Reject of the Race

[Izzyeviel]

I'll be a bit different and name Palmer as my reject.

This was a great chance to get a steady drive in and a chance to shine in the rain... and he bins it first chance he gets. On Renaults home ground.

[Samster]

1. Red Bull Pit Crew - I have no words. Biggest pit stop screw up since Ferrari on Irvine in Europe 1999?

2. Sauber Drivers - What made this funnier was how the director started focusing on them as the team started trying to set up Nasr letting Ericsson through and then wham! They collide. All this over 15th!

Mentions

Golden Boy - This is exactly why I'm not yet prepared to declare him a future great.

Renault Drivers - How many front wings did they go through this weekend?

Kimi Raikkonen - Amateurish error and ruined Grosjean's race.

Nico Rosberg - What the hell happened?

[Frentzen127]

.
2. Nico Rosberg - Was he even driving that Mercedes? He looked like a scared rookie out there.

That would be because he had little in the way of brakes. You know, those superflous things, even more so in the rain.

[DOSBoot]

1. Red Bull Pit Crew: Cost Riccardo an almost certain win.

2. Sauber: This team is going down like the Titanic.

Dishonorable Mentions:

Verstappen: Spain hero, to Monaco zero.

Palmer: Clearly out of his league here.

Justin Bieber: I want to go "Drive Elevator" on him whenever I see his face, or hear his awful music.

[AustralianStig]

.
2. Nico Rosberg - Was he even driving that Mercedes? He looked like a scared rookie out there.

That would be because he had little in the way of brakes. You know, those superflous things, even more so in the rain.

Oh really? Australia's version of C4's broadcast completely failed to mention that...
I'll change my nomination based on that.

[Row Man Gross-Gene]

1. Redbull pit crew.
2. Sauber boys.

[mario]

Renault Drivers - How many front wings did they go through this weekend?

Actually, it says a lot when both Renault drivers could have had such terrible races - with Magnussen earning himself a penalty for the Canadian GP for his behaviour - and yet still be overlooked.

Speaking of the front wings, Brundle mentioned during his commentary that he thought that the two Renault drivers had gone through six front wings.

[AustralianStig]

Actually, it says a lot when both Renault drivers could have had such terrible races - with Magnussen earning himself a penalty for the Canadian GP for his behaviour - and yet still be overlooked.

I think you're thinking of the Kvyat incident? Daniil got the penalty, not K-Mag.

Unless I missed something - hard to keep up with so many incidents...

[Neno]

1 : Palmer : to crash in a straight line like this when the race has just started, it was mega rejectful. I never saw a crash like this.

2: Charlie Whiting: starting behind the safety car and only after 8 laps when the race should have started normally is a shame.

Honorable mentions: Verstappen : you take it easy after two crashs the saturday.

[Aislabie]

10 points - Charlie Whiting
Put in a sterling effort to sabotage the race, only for it to be a success in spite of him.

6 points - Jolyon Palmer
Finest crash in F1 since Juan Pablo Montoya.

Honourable mention - Max Verstappen
Escapes because I don't think I've ever seen anyone pull off so many overtakes in a race at Monaco.

Honourable mention - Daniil Kvyat
That's why they dropped you from Red Bull good sir.

Honourable mention - Sauber
Superb self-sabotage.

Honourable mention - Nico Rosberg
Three seconds a lap off the pace of his team-mate.

Honourable mention - Rio Haryanto
Four laps down.

[DanielPT]

Sauber: They really didn't needed that.

Renault: In a weekend where they were bringing out a new competitive update for their engine, they had one of the most torrid races. And yet it was a bit wet yesterday.

[golic_2004]

1. Red Bull: You had this win in the bag!!!!
2. Saucer: comedy of a contact

[Rob Dylan]

I only found out on the internet after the race that Rosberg had problems. Coulthard and Edwards spent the whole race jerking off that Hamilton was doing well and I don't recall them mentioning problems.

Also, seeing as Max Verstappen had 3 crashes in 3 sessions and a complete disaster of a weekend, Red Bull should surely do a swap with Carlos Sainz Jr because he clearly can't deliver in a top car?

[CoopsII]

1 - Sauber drivers - Just because the Merc drivers did it...
2 - Justin Bieber - No reason required

[FMecha]

1. Ricciardo's pit crew
2. Sauber

[andrew]

Actually, it says a lot when both Renault drivers could have had such terrible races - with Magnussen earning himself a penalty for the Canadian GP for his behaviour - and yet still be overlooked.

I think you're thinking of the Kvyat incident? Daniil got the penalty, not K-Mag.

Unless I missed something - hard to keep up with so many incidents...

Kvyat got the grid drop for the next race along with Erricson. Kmag didn't get any penalty as far as I'm aware,

[Bleu]

1. Sauber
2. Jolyon Palmer

[CaptainGetz12]

Well this list is gonna be long..

1) Sauber. Aside from another Felipe being told to not let his teammate up, the team just clobbered their weekend. Both drivers threw away their finishes and cars when their team cannot afford it.

2) Red Bull's put crew. Very uncharacteristic of their crew to not have tires ready for Ricciardo, especially when he's fighting for a win. Completely threw away their victory.

(Dis)honourable mentions:

Renault. Neither driver looked very convincing out there today, and both crashed out. Palmer's turn 1 crash is not doing him any favors...

Max Verstappen. Had a great run up from dead last, but pushed it too hard into the wall. He still needs a bit more consistency.

Kimi Raikkonen. What the hell was that!? At this rate I can say for certain that Ferrari won't be winning the constructors title this year.

Danill Kvyat. He did have a rough start to the race, but doing bumper cars with other cars was uncalled for.

Esteban Gutierrez. That screw-up late in the race cost his team a points finish.

Pirelli's tires. For ultrasofts they lasted awfully long, longer than the "harder" compounds. Did they switch the labels for this weekend?

[mario]

1 - Nico Rosberg: Okay, you are the championship leader and your team mate is your biggest threat. You are holding him and the team wants you to let him pass because he has better chances of winning. What Nico did? Simply obeyed the team orders. Lewis won the race, reduced the gap and is back to the championship fight. Nico, please, stop being a bathplugging Mr.Nice guy to everyone!

Yeah, because he's going to disobey team orders when his contract's up for renewal.

Do you really think Mercedes will drop Rosberg just because disobeying a team order like the one in this race? It's just the fifth race in the season for team orders and everyone knows Monaco is an unusual track . Mercedes still the best car around and Rosberg is the leader. It's really strange for me this kind of move from the team.

I can still see why Rosberg would have preferred to accept the team order and move over for Hamilton given recent events within the team. I don't think it was so much a case of "Mr Nice" as "Mr Percentage Game", as it were.

We have to consider that this event came only two weeks after their crash in the Spanish GP, where it was felt that Rosberg, although not the clear cause of that collision, nevertheless carried some responsibility for the crash (Wolff at least gave the impression that he felt that both drivers contributed to the crash).

Now, moving on to Monaco, we had a situation where Rosberg had been struggling from the outset of the event with a lack of confidence on initial turn in to the corner and from front end stability issues - perhaps because Mercedes were orientating themselves towards a slightly more race biased set up that tended towards understeer in order to protect the rear tyres.

His confidence in his car already sounded low before they even began the race, and in the race itself he seems to have been thrown by the fact that he just couldn't get the car to behave as he wanted it to, as well as having that issue with a lack of brake cooling.

Back in the pit lane, he knows that some of Mercedes's more senior board members have come to what is one of the most prestigious races on the calendar with the expectation of a Mercedes victory. Meanwhile, behind him he has a very aggressive teammate who is likely to force the issue if Nico rejected the order, and at that point in time was clearly much more competitive than Rosberg was.

Now, we saw what happened between Ericsson and Nasr when the latter refused and order and the whole situation eventually ended in tears. If Rosberg and Hamilton had come together, we'd probably have seen one or both cars retire and, most probably, Rosberg would have been the party that would have received more criticism given that most would most likely view him as having cost the team a potential win. It might not cost him a contract extension - that seems to have been lined up already - but it might well have caused some friction within the team and slightly soured contract negotiations, resulting in Rosberg getting a worse deal than he might have hoped for.

In that situation, he might well have not felt confident that he could have held Hamilton behind him for that much longer and worried that the whole situation could have backfired horribly if he refused the order.

I get the feeling that Rosberg was perhaps playing the percentage game and decided that, on balance, the lowest risk option was to let him past - he probably still expected to finish on the podium, so even a victory for Hamilton wouldn't have hurt his lead much if he could have still hung on to, say, 3rd place. He might have even thought that, if Hamilton did catch Ricciardo, the fact that they are so aggressive might have meant they'd take each other out, so any points finish would increase his lead even further.

Now, obviously I don't think that he would have gone through every single one of those thoughts - however, I think that lack of confidence and slightly conservative nature would mean that he'd have got himself into a mental space where he is focussing on damage limitation and on simply trying to make it to the end, as if he was expecting Hamilton and Ricciardo to beat him.

He probably was thinking along the lines of "Let's just get this to the end and get some points on the board" - from that point of view, letting Hamilton go, although not something he'd like doing, would have meant that he could focus more on his own race.

[rachel1990]

1- Sauber drivers. Exactly what they DON'T need at the moment. a huge repair bill because both drivers were idiots. I would make them pay for the repairs.

2- Red Bull. second race in a row they stuff it up for Ricciardo. Poor bloke must be feeling more and more like Mark Webber.

Honourble mentions

Kimi Rakkioen- Pathetic
Joylon Palmer- Becoming more rejectlike- Just like his dad
Max Verstappen- From hero to zero.

[watka]

I think it shows just how much of a bathplug this race was with Renault/Palmer not amassing a great deal of votes.

I'm surprised. I'm nominating them for the 10 points because of the sheer amount of crashes and spins they had, in the wet and the dry, all weekend. Palmer's crash in the stuff of reject legend - he didn't even make the first corner!

6 points goes to anyone attempting a pass at Rascasse. It's a 1 in a 100 chance of pulling that off without a crash.

[yannicksamlad]

So much competition , but safety is paramount;

1. Kimi - he knew there was something badly wrong with the car as it wasnt responding when he pushed the throttle and yet he still set off into the tunnel...

2.The drain cover - and those responsible for fixing it- -- -could have been nasty

[RonDenisDeletraz]

1. Red Bull
May well have cost Ricciardo the win

2. Justin Beiber
For bathplug sake, when will this talentless bellend go away

[Miguel98]

1. Renault - Dear god, what the bathplug was that weekend?
2. Red Bull - Costing a win with that mistake is simply stupid.

Honourable Mentions:
Kimi Raikkonen, Sauber, Max Verstappen, Daniil Kvyat

[Alextrax52]

After Sauber had the 2014 race disaster from what Ataxia dubbed Estrian Sutierrez I'm giving my nomination of 2016 Rotr to the mess that was Felicus Nasricsson. It was so comedic, Nasr disobeying orders, the fact it was over 15th place and it's exactly what Sauber didn't need with their financial issues. I'd argue Sauber are even worse than in 2014 right now.

6 points go to Jolyon Palmer for such a rejectful crash. I mean he lost it on the start finish straight for gods sake. I know it was wet but even a Sunday kart driver wouldn't have screwed that up. He's wasting a seat real badly atm

[Normal32]

1. Sauber
2. Max Verstappen

[RedEyes504]

Marcus Ericsson - Yes Nasr ignored team orders, but that doesn't mean you can just drive into the side of him. Especially bad considering they were miles from the points and the last thing Sauber needs is extra repair bills.

Max Verstappen - Hero to zero in two weeks. Eerily similar to Maldonado in 2012, wins in Spain and then spends most of the Monaco weekend sticking out of a barrier.

[yannicksamlad]

6 points goes to anyone attempting a pass at Rascasse. It's a 1 in a 100 chance of pulling that off without a crash.

I know what you mean , but actually the GP2 boys managed it on more than one occasion ...although why Marcus thought there was a gap on that particular lap escapes me..

[lance_rambert]

...although why Marcus thought there was a gap on that particular lap escapes me..

I guess Marcus thought Felipe would move over at Rascasse, but then Felipe decided to be, as Ricciardo puts it, a "(ugly bathplug word) of a bloke" and not move over after being told over the radio, probably for the umpteenth time.

Of course, Marcus probably also thought that "Hey, Max made passes at Rascasse! I should be able to do it too!". That obviously didn't work... at least we got a big laugh out of it.