2016 Brazilian Grand Prix - Reject of the Race

[andrew]

1.romain Grosjean, it takes a special effort to crash before a race starts
2. Jenson Button, the constant monaning on the radio, and he finished last.


HM. Palmer, Ted kravitz for earlier suggesting that kvyat turned into Palmer and the FIA For red flag number 2.

[WeirdKerr]

1. RoGro ..... slamming it into the wall on his way to the grid...
2. hmmm it was going to be Verstappen for pitting during the last SC period but he saved it with a comeback..... so ill go for Palmer crashing into Kvyat....

HM Charlie Whiting..... because indecisive.....

[Meatwad]

1. Romain Grosjean: Crashing before the start is always rejectful and even worse when you had your team's best qualifying position.
2. Williams: Sad, sad day for them. Force India has pretty much clinched fourth in the constructors.

[tBone]

1. Romain Grosjean - Binned it before the start. A shame because his qualifying was IIDOTR (IIDOTQ?) material.
2. Felipe Massa - Not for any exceptionally rejectful moment in particular, but during his last home race, he had a disappointing qualifying and was invisible during the race, until he binned it. Not the goodbye he would have wanted.

[Londoner]

1. Romain Grosjean - An unenforced error like that is an instant ROTR.

2. Esteban Gutierrez - Utterly dismal behaviour all weekend long. He apparently sent an unbroadcastable radio message to his team shortly before he parked the car, which explains the altercation with Guenther Steiner in the garage. No-one's gonna want to employ him anywhere at the rate he's going.

[lance_rambert]

1. Romain Grosjean - Wow, you couldn't have binned it AFTER the green flag?!

2. Esteban Gutierrez - Hey, bud, after you parked it in the garage, why didn't you take your whiny little ass to the bus? Just open that seat up now so someone else much more worthy can race.

Just flat-out disgraceful behavior from someone who should be focusing more on actually driving the freaking car well. Hell, even Dave Rogers managed to keep himself from laying a hand on Kyle Busch at that one Bristol race. Thank goodness he's out of that Haas seat and (hopefully) out of a ride for next year.

[Fetzie]

Not sure if you can be reject of the race if you DNS but

1. Grosjean for crashing on the out lap to the grid

2. Gutierrez for throwing away his last chance to retain an F1 drive, nobody is going to want him after that display.

[solarcold]

1. Esteban Gutierrez Gutierrez. I tried to justify all he did this season and to see how he's just full of bad luck and not actually a bad driver, but today I lost a big chunk of respect for him. I dare to suggest that was his last race in Formula 1. You,young man, should be grateful to Guenther Shteiner for that chance he gave you. Utter disappointment.

2. Jenson Button.

HM. Jolyon Palmer.

[Dj_bereta]

1 - Grosjean: Probably the most rejectful moment of entire season. Crashing in the recon lap, before the race start! Threw away a good chance of scoring points today.

2 - Palmer: For ramming Kvyat during safety car, repeating what Vettel did with Webber almost 10 years ago. His second amateurish moment in a wet race in this season.

I don't nominate Gutierrez because I feel other drivers did worse and his outburst against the Haas team, while being a bit childish (and a bit hypocritical as well), had some justification considering the lack of reliability of his car in this season.

Special mention for:

Race control and Charlie Whitting: No wonder people booed so loudly after the second red flag. Too much interruptions. Two debatable red flags. Overcautious during wet races in this season. Charlie, let the drivers race. Although I have to give him some credit due the bad wet tyres from Pirelli.

Button: He just screwed himself with the full wets call. No wonder he finished last.

Ferrari: Forget 2016.

"The Intermediary gambles"

[UncreativeUsername37]

1. Grosjean: Crashing out on the formation lap? Nah.
2. Red Bull: Others went to the intermediates because they were far back, they had a reason to gamble. But at one point, Red Bull just kind of... did it.

[FullMetalJack]

Romain Grosjean - Phenomenal qualifying effort, but binned it before the race even began
Williams - 4th place is well and truly gone

[Dan B]

1) The FIA/Pirelli: Take your pick on this one. While Grosjean's crash was certainly laughable, I think it wasn't entirely his fault. How many drivers spun or crashed there that were using full wets? Yes Ericsson, Raikkonen and I think Massa were on inters but Vettel (and I think Alonso) spun on full wets, and there was that moment with Palmer and Kvyat, not to mention this was all at the last corner and front straight. Plus, if drivers are saying that the wets are doing marginally better than the intermediate tires then there is a problem with what Pirelli provided with the wet tires. Whether or not this was because the FIA told Pirelli to give them crap tires or if Pirelli can't build a rain tire to save their lives I don't know, but Grosjean was not the only victim

The FIA also was very wishy-washy about their safety car procedures and stoppages. I get the one where Raikkonen crashed, but the second stoppage was useless. Standing around while it is raining isn't going to make the track suddenly drier.

2) Esteban Gutierrez: The less said the better I am afraid. Talk about petulant.

[Meatwad]

I already voted for Grosjean and Williams, but I have to add a dishonorable mention: the director of the world feed. Räikkönen crashes in front of the entire field with cars desperately trying to avoid him and they switch to a bathplugging onboard. Fortunately, no one hit him, but if someone did, disturbing footage would have been shown live to millions of people.

[rachel1990]

1- Race Control- with a prime time audience in formula 1 biggest audience Europe, f1 was made to look farcical. I agree with the first red flag. Clearing up the debris from Rakkionen's car alone would take a while and doing it under those safety car conditions would be too dangerous. However the second Red flag was a farce. No-one could understand why it was brought out the drivers and the teams said it was fine to go. And then race control said it was still too dangerous despite it looking reasonable. What was charlie looking for? A pure dry track to start again. F1 shot itself in the foot again today.

2- Esteban Gutierrez I was so tempted to give this to Romain Grosjean for sticking it in the wall on the way to the grid. However just for the Maldonado attitude(Williams usa gp 2013) I give it to the Mexican who firstly said losing his seat was unfair (not really) had a poor race, retired for no clear reason then had a confrontation with the team principal. The dole Queue beckons.

Hm
Romain Grosjean- for sticking the car in the wall on the way to the grid- all the other cars managed to get their
Alonso- For overtaking Ocan on the last lap and robbing Manor of a point.
Felipe Massa- for Binning the car then having a guard of Honor- You are aware you didn't win the race Felipe.
Jenson Button- Yes the car was rubbish in the wet. What do you expect Mclaren to do- Wave a magic wand in the middle of the race and make it dry again. Stop Whinging on the radio. Not really going to miss him.

[Spectoremg]

1. Race Control. That race should never have gone ahead. It was almost as if the red flag/safety car periods somehow sanitized their dithering. If Jules' parents had been watching it they'd possibly have been dismayed at how little attitudes have changed.
2. Nothing.

[Peteroli34]

1. Gutierrez - I wonder if we wont see him in Abu Dhabi

2. Race control - Did we really need the constant stopping and restarting

HM
Palmer - there was a car there
Button - stop moaning
Nasr - For robbing Manor of 10th place in the championship a great drive it may have been.

I cant give Grosjean ROTR it hadnt even started yet.

[Aguaman]

10 - Romain Grosjean - Crashing out before the race starting is normally a slam dunk

6 - Esteban Gutierrez - Oh yeah....

[Bobby Doorknobs]

1. Romain Grosjean. Classic case.
2. Esteban Gutiérrez. Needs to take a leaf from the outgoing home favourite's book and stay cool.

[novitopoli]

1. Romain Grosjean - Don't care what happens: binning it on the out lap is a clear ROTR.
2. Esteban Gutierrez - Spent the whole weekend moaning about how his ditching was unfair and showing how his ditching was indeed fair.

HM to Jenson Button, Williams and race control for reasons most of you already said.

[Miguel98]

1. Romain Grosjean - da fuq
2. The teams - You should have listened to Paul Hembery, bathplug sake. You brought this on yourselves.

HM to Gutierrez (i know it's hard and frustrating, but you need to calm yourself down.)

[golic_2004]

1. Romain Grosjean
2. Esteban Gutierrez for not capitalizing on his teammate's misfortunes. He won't be on the grid next year, I'm afraid.

[CoopsII]

Grosjean - For becoming an answer in many F1 quizzes for decades to come

Gutierrez - For almost ending up on the wrong end of one of Guenther Steiners lethal 1-2 moves.

[watka]

A lot of differing opinions of race control regarding this race. Have to say I'm in the camp which says Charlie Whiting should never have restarted the races when he did - especially the Raikkonen crash restart - and also should have stopped the race earlier on a number of occasions. Raikkonen's incident could have been A LOT LOT WORSE - I was just waiting for it to be Spa '98 all over again but miraculously it wasn't. And if the world's best drivers all getting tank-slappers on at the final corner (i.e. the one where if you crash, you block either the pit lane or the fastest part of the track) isn't cause for at least a safety car, I don't know what is. We can applaud Verstappen for his drive all we like, but he was pretty close to binning it himself.

Pirelli have a lot to answer to as well for making seemingly inadequate tyres, but Charlie Whiting has to call the race as it is rather than thinking "well, the tyres should be good enough" rather than just reacting to crashes.

Anyway, they don't even make the reject top 2 as I agree with a lot of others:

1. Grosjean - It was bad out there but still, don't drop it on the lap to the grid for pete's sake.
2. Gutierrez - petulent

[Ciaran]

1. Esteban Gutierrez, for his career-ending tantrum. Is anyone taking bets on Leclerc to take his seat in Abu Dhabi?
2. Pirelli, for their crap rain tyres.

[mario]

1. Gutierrez - I do feel sorry for Grosjean going out in such an embarrassing way in a corner where many drivers were having difficulty, although at the same time it did somewhat sum up how the latter part of his season has gone. On the other side of the garage though, it is hard to have much sympathy for Gutierrez given the way that he has behaved throughout the weekend - it feels like the sort of behaviour of a man who knows he won't be around in F1 again and is acting increasingly out of spite.

2. Button - he was out of sorts all weekend long, complaining about the handling of the car and regularly taking pot shots at his team (for example, in qualifying where he sarcastically told the team "Guess we solved those handling issues then"). Brundle commented before the race that Button's attitude was of a man who was just counting down the days until he left, and I feel he was right - that attitude of disinterest was prominently on display during the race.

However, there were certainly quite a few other parties who deserve something of a dishonourable mention though.

Verstappen's climb back through the field rather disguises the fact that Red Bull made poor strategy calls - they tried to repeatedly switch to intermediates when it was fairly apparent from the lap times of the other drivers trying that strategy that the performance just wasn't there and the rain was forecast to intensify.

They really didn't need to go so aggressive on their strategy - Verstappen was comfortably lapping faster than Rosberg and, although Hamilton was easing away, was still quick enough to present a threat if he had made any mistakes. Ricciardo, meanwhile, had also made up ground compared to his starting position and could have begun to come into play later in the race - really, in that situation they had little to gain and much to lose with that gamble, and that podium finish disguises the fact that they really snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by putting both drivers in a worse position.

With regards to the way that race control approached the race, rachel1990 is right that the first red flag was the right decision in those circumstances - that really was the only way to get Kimi's car out of the way safely. Furthermore, given the hostile jeering of the crowds when the safety car came out, I can see why Whiting might well have come under pressure from the clerk of the course to keep the race going under green flag conditions to mollify the crowd.

However, there is a question as to whether the extended safety car period beforehand might have actually made things worse - with the tyres losing temperature rapidly, the subsequent reduction in pressure might well have lead to a slight loss in ride height and increased the likelihood of aquaplaning. For all the good intentions that Whiting had, he might have ended up causing the very situation he was trying to avoid.

I do agree that the second stoppage made less sense though - pretty much every single driver in the field was saying that the conditions had improved, and quite a few noted that, after the stoppage, that the conditions were virtually the same as they had been before the stoppage. I'm not sure what his logic was there - Brundle did wonder whether Whiting might have been pressurised by somebody back in the FIA's headquarters to stop the race at that point, and I can see why he might have thought that.

I'd also nominate both Renault drivers - I'll grant that the onboard footage suggests that Palmer's forward visibility was very poor, though ultimately it was a poor mistake to make. Mind you, whilst Magnussen did at least bring the car back in one piece, his pace was pretty atrocious.

[Normal32]

1. Full wet tyres
2. Romain Grosjean

[Aislabie]

1) Charlie Whiting - It's either safe or it isn't. Make your damn mind up man. Don't even care what you decide, just DECIDE.

2) Full Wet Tyres - Were Pirelli even trying? There were maybe two drivers on the entire grid (Hamilton and Verstappen) who could handle them on a wet track, and one of those drivers still aquaplaned at 160mph.


DHM
Romain Grosjean would have got all my votes but for his absolute zinger of an interview about the Full Wet tyres.

Jenson Button showed that it really is time to say goodnight to Formula One. Just get Stoffel in for Abu Dhabi already.

Esteban Gutierrez was a brat.

Jolyon Palmer was a prat.

Pascal Wehrlein was outclassed by Ocon. (Good call Force India.)

Martin Brundle for being my least favourite man in F1.

Bernie Ecclestone for showing his face.

Australian cricket team for obvious reasons.

Red Bull strategists (although they did facilitate arguably the drive of the decade from Verstappen)

[TomWazzleshaw]

1. Romain Grosjean - Threw away one of the best chances to score a big result all year
2. Esteban Gutierrez - How does this guy still have a drive?

Dishonourable mentioned to The Teams, The FIA, FOM and anyone and everyone that's scapegoating Pirelli: Now, I'm not denying the Pirelli full wet is a terrible tyre, but to blame it solely on them would be doing Paul Hembery and co a great disservice. Hembery and Pirelli have been begging for years to be allowed to test the wet weather tyres with contemporary F1 cars so they could actually improve them, but for whatever reason, these tests were either sandbagged or vetoed altogether. So instead, we're now in the situation that we're in and it's going to remain that way unless the powers that be actually let Pirelli work through their development programs as they need to (which hopefully will for next year based on the recent 2017 tyre tests).

I could go on that it's become part of the default position to blame Pirelli for most things, but that's a different discussion for another day