ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

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Salamander
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Salamander »

Gotta love the mental gymnastics required to give someone who was like half a point off winning the title in their debut season ROTY. Especially when you start by saying you had no expectations.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Bobby Doorknobs »

Salamander wrote:Gotta love the mental gymnastics required to give someone who was like half a point off winning the title in their debut season ROTY. Especially when you start by saying you had no expectations.

He put Gasly on his F1 ROTY podium as well...
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Dj_bereta »

To be frank, putting Gasly on the F1 ROTY podium isn't that crazy, especially after Helmut Marko saying Kvyat is better than the new Toro Rosso drivers. Although I think Hartley deserves it more.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Salamander »

I do find some of the hate Gasly gets here really confusing though... I mean he seems like a good driver, certainly no Verstappen but probably capable of hacking it in the F1 midfield... but judging by the way some people complain about him you'd think he's the second coming of Yuji Ide.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Rob Dylan »

I rate Gasly a solid all-right out of ten ;)
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Wallio »

USA Failing to quali for the World Cup, while certainly rejectful, is the best thing that could ever happen. We play in the weakest region on the planet, and when we steam-roll into the cup, expectations get too high. Now, we at least know we're not that good, and are going to get a new soccer prez to hopefully tear the whole thing down and start over.

Yes, we are still saddled by the third-tier (at best) MLS, but soccer will hopefully be on its way up in the run to 2022. Of course they have been telling us that since 1994, but still...
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by yannicksamlad »

Rob Dylan wrote:Rob Dylan's Officially Unofficial 2017 F2 Reject Of The Year Podium
3rd - Jordan King: started off the season as a promising challenger for the world championship, but just how quickly that dissolved! Finished the season barely ahead of his teammate, the not-exactly-highly-rated Sette Camara, who ended up winning a race! It felt like he spent the whole season trundling around in the midfield, and never actually getting anywhere. When he started having regular incidents from about Hungary onwards, he had lost all hopes of saving his season.
2nd - Johnny Cecotto Jr.: One of those drivers who caused so much trouble and gave so many memories in such a small amount of time. By something of a miracle, he got a podium at Monaco in the sprint race, but that's the singular positive to his season. I was not at all surprised that he got replaced after Baku - that crash coming out of the pitlane was Coulthard-level shenanigans.
1st - Ralph Boschung: My goodness, I had something of a pet hate for this guy over the F2 season this year. An absolute menace on the track, it seemed he couldn't overtake without hitting someone. Ironically his strongest weekend for points was, in my opinion, his craziest and weakest, at Baku. He was very unreliable except in the expectation that he would hit somebody, and even Lando Norris in his first race for the team was on the same pace in his car. Sorry, Ralph, but you were clearly the Reject of the Year in my opinion.

Honourable mentions
Now these are interesting. There were quite a few people on the border of Rejectdom this year, but a surprising number of them ended up winning races, which made me hesitant in being able to pick them! But I'll put them here anyway - they're not getting away that easily.

- Nabil Jeffri: certainly wins my award for Anonymous Stint of the Year for this series. Don't you remember all those things he did?
- Sérgio Sette Câmara: Not only did he win in Spa, but he was on the podium the following weekend at Monza! Incredible. That's all that saved him from my nomination. Instead of being like King and trundling around the midfield, Sette Câmara was trundling around the back. But he sure as hell made up for it. And that brings me along to...
- Antonio Fuoco: Boy, oh boy, was I tempted to place him as Reject of the Year. He is so very, very lucky that the shenanigans at Monza occurred when they did so as to inherit that win. He was woefully off the pace of his teammate. I'd at least understand if he wasn't as good as Leclerc - I mean, nobody was! - but he could at least have picked up more than two points after the first eight races! His pace picked up in the last few races, but it was far too little too late, and Prema lost an easy Teams Championship win due to this pillock. Go home Antonio and think about what you've done.
- Alexander Albon: I hear he partnered Leclerc last year? Like King, he was touted as one of the title favourites, and was mostly uncompetitive. It's a shame that he had that injury to miss Baku, and it does feel a little bad to place him in this list due to forces outside of his control. But, regardless, he was pretty disappointing, and Matsushita was definitely the stronger of the ART drivers this season. Albon had better be hoping for a better season next year if he wants a chance at anything greater.


I really enjoyed reading Rob's views on the F2 runners.
Personally I'd excuse Albon a little - he had an undiagnosed chassis problem for a few races , and I thought he held up well against his team mate.
I'd also excuse Johnny Cecotto a little; he was only with Rapax, and at Monaco he had a (differential?) issue to spoil his sprint race, and had looked pretty good on pace. I assume he ran out of money - it was a very late deal that got him the place.
Jordan King ; yes he was disappointing, but also unlucky- other people ran into him, and his engine blew in races where otherwise he'd have a good result ( probably) - Abu Dhabi sprint, Silverstone sprint, Jerez sprint . But yes, MP arent top-rank perhaps, but we thought he'd do better, and that Manor F1 opportunity seems a long time ago now.

I think my choices for underachievers would be - Nabil Jeffri ( although hampered by Trident really struggling ) who was nearly always no higher than 17th fastest, and Santino Ferrucci (similarly hampered) but who comes with an F1 team tie-up and a lot of hype, but was barely faster than Nabil and arrived after failing to overcome the DAMS GP3 deficiencies . Santino only got points when everyone else lost their way , and was only a squeak faster than Nabil on several occasions .
If I had to pick a second Vice-champion I'd go for Visoiu over Ralph Boschung if only because he had some experience and the experience of 2018 was so demoralising for him it seems he retired from racing without finishing the season. Which was sad - he's not old.

I really cannot work out Sette Camara - who was nowhere...until suddenly he was quite quick , or even ...quick!
But that's F2/GP2/GP2/11 Dallara on Pirellis when the field is pretty close.

Looking forward to 22 cars on the grid in 2018 and more races too . Hope the new car allows overtaking like the GP2/11 did
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by yannicksamlad »

Rob Dylan wrote:Rob Dylan's Officially Unofficial GP3 Reject Of The Year Podium
3rd - Marcos Siebert: With the exception of a lucky 4th in Monza, Siebert has had a disaster of a season in GP3 this year. Regularly caught up in incidents, and one of those drivers where "when they show a replay of him, you know it's going to be exciting". That's not a good thing.
2nd - Tatiana Calderón: This was her second full season in GP3, and she was one of the very last of the drivers to get on the scoreboard over the season. She's one of the oldest drivers on the grid, and by now should have the experience and racing know-how both inside and outside of the series to do well against the GP3 crowd. With the exception of a few late-season grabs, a dismal season.
1st - Steijn Schothorst: a driver whose name I never heard outside of "bringing up the rear is..." and the occasional backmarker incident of no note to the outcome of the race. There were a few times that he was racing around the points region, but almost every time he was erratic, and just didn't grasp any of his many opportunities to shine this year. Reject of the Year in my opinion.
.


Thanks again to Rob for his entertaining opinions.
It does seem a bit harsh to label anyone a reject in a junior formula, when they may simply be developing at their own rate, but we all enjoy a good 'ranking', and someone comes at the bottom...so

I wont quibble with the choice for first - Schothorst must have disappointed himself ( and Giedo) with his performances this year.
I thought Tatiana shaded Bruno Baptista this year in the generally 'lost' DAMS set up ( did they pack up early, knowing they werent coming back next year- it seemed they barely bothered to start) and Dan Ticktum's most impressive achievement was in making the DAMS qualify in the top five, when Tatiana had only just broken in to the top 10 in the previous race. DAMS really struggled - but I though Bruno Baptista was more of a disappointment.
Marcos Siebert..or Kevin Joerg who was in a Trident ? Or Santino Ferrucci? I think I'd go for Joerg over Marcos ; Kevin was in a Trident and has some experience , and was just that little bit outside the points pace ..

I was disappointed that Leo Pulcini didnt contest for podiums regularly - I really thought his pace in a F3 meant he'd be up there regularly. Maybe its those peaky Pirellis..But it wasnt a disaster.

I do enjoy a bit of GP3 ( though not as good as F2) , and I do hope the new merged GP/F3 keeps a car with the horsepower of the current GP3 machine
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Samster »

Just finished up re-watching the 2007 Champcar season on YouTube. My individual ROTR awards are in the ROTR outside F1 thread. Here are my picks for ROTY podium.

Dishonorable Mentions

Katherine Legge and Alex Figge - Comfortably the weakest drivers of the season, Figge only had a small handful of races where he didn't spin at least once while Legge struggled in her sophomore season with the underfunded Dale Coyne Racing while her teammate Bruno Junqueira put in some great underdog performances and nearly made the top five in points.

Forsythe Racing - Having been Newman-Haas Racing's biggest threat for the previous four seasons, they struggled massively with the new Panoz DP01 particularly on the road courses. Not only that but Gerald Forsythe made a mess of running the team in what turned out to be their final full season, laying off nearly half his staff initially intending on running just one car before bringing back a driver last minute that they sacked less than 12 months prior in Mario Dominguez for his Mexican $$$. A few races later Mario was gone in favour of Servia who dragged some good results out of the car before dropping him for the last two races for David Martinez because they needed a Mexican driver to meet the series contract with the Mexico City race.

3rd - Paul Tracy - Paul Tracy's final full season was probably the worst of his career asides from his previously mentioned 1998 disaster. It started out okay where he contended with Will Power for the win at Las Vegas but a slow speed crash at Long Beach oddly injured him enough to put him out for two races. When he returned for Portland it was clear Forsythe were struggling with the new DP01 and surprisingly despite his experience and reputation with setting cars up, Tracy was faring worse than Servia. From there his only bright spot was a lucky win at Cleveland after breaking two front wings early in the race, his resulting alternate strategy just happened to land him in the lead thanks to some well timed SCs. After that it was back to either struggling near the back or crashing out while Servia at least managed to drag the car to some half-decent results even challenging for victory at Toronto and San Jose.

2nd - Dan Clarke - A quick glance at my ROTR nominations post will tell you all you need to know about his season. After his debut season in 2006 where he quickly gained a reputation for being fast but erratic, 2007 saw him make Pastor Maldonado look squeaky clean with a series of ridiculous collisions culminating in a weekend ban at Zolder. I've given him no less than four ROTR awards out of 14 and that doesn't even include what he did to get banned at Zolder. Its no surprise he never got a ride in Indycar after the merger.

1st - Champcar Itself - After three rebuilding seasons since CART's bankruptcy and OWRS's rescue deal, 2007 was meant to be the breakout season with the new Panoz DP01 intended to cut costs and increase car counts. Instead the Panoz turned out to not be much cheaper than the old Lolas and as a result despite gaining one new team car counts were actually one short of the previous seasons. Then there was the schedule issues with no less than three races getting cancelled for various reasons. By the end of the season the series was on its last legs and 2008 was in serious doubt leading to the incredibly rushed merger with the IRL for that season. A massive shame, if the series had managed to survive for one more season it could have had a solid send off year while planning a proper merge for 2009, with Bourdais moving on the championship would have been wide open between the likes of Power, Wilson and Doornbos. And it would have been likely that more of the classic venues would have made it into Indycar had they been able to hold for a final season and allowed the teams a more smooth transition. Instead the merger was more of an absorption with only a small handful of old CART races making it into the merged series. Only now a decade later are some of these races reappearing on the Indycar schedule.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by mario »

Salamander wrote:I do find some of the hate Gasly gets here really confusing though... I mean he seems like a good driver, certainly no Verstappen but probably capable of hacking it in the F1 midfield... but judging by the way some people complain about him you'd think he's the second coming of Yuji Ide.

I don't think that he is really hated here, more that there is something of a sense of indifference towards him. I'll be honest, I kind of fall into the camp of those who are a indifferent towards him - there are some who really hype him up, but personally I would agree more with what Rob Dylan says (i.e. that he is solid enough, but not a particularly exceptional driver) and feel that he is a little overhyped in terms of performance.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Bleu »

In today's IndyCar race at Detroit it's easy to give ROTR to the pace car driver.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by 1993DonningtonNo1Mk2 »

F3000 in 1999 has to be Mario Haberfeld, from F3 Champ to the Dave Walker of F3000.
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Post by yannicksamlad »

Yes- Mario Haberfeld ! He was going to BE something....and then got to F3000 and really wasnt
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by CarloSpace »

yannicksamlad wrote:Yes- Mario Haberfeld ! He was going to BE something....and then got to F3000 and really wasnt

Has anyone ever discovered any reason why he sucked so much in F3000, especially in 1999? Obviously all I've seen of the season have been some races and season review some years ago but I don't remember reading/hearing a reason for his struggles. It's just unbelievable to me that a reigning British F3 champion could barely qualify fro races in a leading team while his teammate basically dominates the series.

In hindsight though, the quality of drivers in British F3 of the late-90's wasn't that great anyway...
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by 1993DonningtonNo1Mk2 »

CarloSpace wrote:
yannicksamlad wrote:Yes- Mario Haberfeld ! He was going to BE something....and then got to F3000 and really wasnt

Has anyone ever discovered any reason why he sucked so much in F3000, especially in 1999? Obviously all I've seen of the season have been some races and season review some years ago but I don't remember reading/hearing a reason for his struggles. It's just unbelievable to me that a reigning British F3 champion could barely qualify fro races in a leading team while his teammate basically dominates the series.

In hindsight though, the quality of drivers in British F3 of the late-90's wasn't that great anyway...


Those who claimed the Championship maybe, those who claim close however, some of them were odd exceptions.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by RonDenisDeletraz »

Not sure if this is strictly the place for this but couldn't think of anything better

Was randomly looking through some recent Sheffield Shield stats and I have came to the conclusion Alex Doolan is the Jean-Pierre Jabouille of cricket. In 2016-17 he made a fine 202 not out, but didn't pass 50 in his 13 other innings that season. Last season was similar as he made 247, and his next highest score was about 80odd. Real rocks or diamonds stuff.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Aislabie »

RonDenisDeletraz wrote:Not sure if this is strictly the place for this but couldn't think of anything better

Was randomly looking through some recent Sheffield Shield stats and I have came to the conclusion Alex Doolan is the Jean-Pierre Jabouille of cricket. In 2016-17 he made a fine 202 not out, but didn't pass 50 in his 13 other innings that season. Last season was similar as he made 247, and his next highest score was about 80odd. Real rocks or diamonds stuff.

In that case, Keaton Jennings is the Giancarlo Baghetti of cricket - got dead lucky and cashed in with a hundred on debut. Has done absolutely nothing of value since as his stock gradually diminishes, and gets more opportunities than someone of his ability usually would in the hope that he can repeat that bit of beginner's luck
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by 1993DonningtonNo1Mk2 »

Now that the 2018 BTCC is over, here's my ROTY podium for that series:

ROTY: Jason Plato - I said last year he's been getting worse since he started driving the Subaru but seriously, what the heck happened to him this year? One lousy podium and only 3 other points finishes while his team-mate achieves the most wins of the record 17 different winners? THE KEYS, JASON! HANG'EM UP! HANG'EM UP I SAY!

2nd: Team HARD - The ugly affair with Jake Hill losing his seat and unable to switch to the AMD MG plus the constant chopping and changing of drivers would never have done any team's cause any good, at least Tony Gilham didn't run as many drivers over the course of the season as he did in 2013.

3rd: Sam Smelt - The only driver to contest every round and not score, he's no Ant Whorton-Eales but still...

Dis-Honourable Mentions:

Sam Tordoff's luck prior to Silverstone.
Rob Austin's luck at everywhere besides Brands Hatch.
James Cole for his anonymity compared to his team-mates.
Stephen Jelley, I honestly thought he'd fare better this year in the BMW than he did in the Focus last year, alas not, his cause not helped by the number of times there was contact involving him or Turks punting him off at Knockhill when they were fighting over a podium position.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by dr-baker »

1993DonningtonNo1Mk2 wrote:Now that the 2018 BTCC is over, here's my ROTY podium for that series:

ROTY: Jason Plato - I said last year he's been getting worse since he started driving the Subaru but seriously, what the heck happened to him this year? One lousy podium and only 3 other points finishes while his team-mate achieves the most wins of the record 17 different winners? THE KEYS, JASON! HANG'EM UP! HANG'EM UP I SAY!

Would have to agree with this. Matt Neal has not had the greatest of seasons, but may well be a result of an uber-competitve grid and the car not being as dominant, but he still was winning races, including the Snetterton Double Diamond. But Plato is a shadow of his former self, and he cannot possibly blame the car.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by 1993DonningtonNo1Mk2 »

dr-baker wrote:
1993DonningtonNo1Mk2 wrote:Now that the 2018 BTCC is over, here's my ROTY podium for that series:

ROTY: Jason Plato - I said last year he's been getting worse since he started driving the Subaru but seriously, what the heck happened to him this year? One lousy podium and only 3 other points finishes while his team-mate achieves the most wins of the record 17 different winners? THE KEYS, JASON! HANG'EM UP! HANG'EM UP I SAY!

Would have to agree with this. Matt Neal has not had the greatest of seasons, but may well be a result of an uber-competitve grid and the car not being as dominant, but he still was winning races, including the Snetterton Double Diamond. But Plato is a shadow of his former self, and he cannot possibly blame the car.


Well I'm glad to hear it, I don't dislike Jason but he's always moaning in some way or another, always! Even when he started and finished 2nd at Croft, he still moaned, even Matt Neal managed to win twice while developing a new-shape Civic and some drivers who won a race this year had struggled just to get into the points prior to this year. Even Collard Sr. managed 1 win before his accident! Sutton managed 6! So, in all honesty, what and where is the excuse, Jason?
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by 1993DonningtonNo1Mk2 »

Samster wrote:Just finished up re-watching the 2007 Champcar season on YouTube. My individual ROTR awards are in the ROTR outside F1 thread. Here are my picks for ROTY podium.

Dishonorable Mentions

Katherine Legge and Alex Figge - Comfortably the weakest drivers of the season, Figge only had a small handful of races where he didn't spin at least once while Legge struggled in her sophomore season with the underfunded Dale Coyne Racing while her teammate Bruno Junqueira put in some great underdog performances and nearly made the top five in points.

Forsythe Racing - Having been Newman-Haas Racing's biggest threat for the previous four seasons, they struggled massively with the new Panoz DP01 particularly on the road courses. Not only that but Gerald Forsythe made a mess of running the team in what turned out to be their final full season, laying off nearly half his staff initially intending on running just one car before bringing back a driver last minute that they sacked less than 12 months prior in Mario Dominguez for his Mexican $$$. A few races later Mario was gone in favour of Servia who dragged some good results out of the car before dropping him for the last two races for David Martinez because they needed a Mexican driver to meet the series contract with the Mexico City race.

3rd - Paul Tracy - Paul Tracy's final full season was probably the worst of his career asides from his previously mentioned 1998 disaster. It started out okay where he contended with Will Power for the win at Las Vegas but a slow speed crash at Long Beach oddly injured him enough to put him out for two races. When he returned for Portland it was clear Forsythe were struggling with the new DP01 and surprisingly despite his experience and reputation with setting cars up, Tracy was faring worse than Servia. From there his only bright spot was a lucky win at Cleveland after breaking two front wings early in the race, his resulting alternate strategy just happened to land him in the lead thanks to some well timed SCs. After that it was back to either struggling near the back or crashing out while Servia at least managed to drag the car to some half-decent results even challenging for victory at Toronto and San Jose.

2nd - Dan Clarke - A quick glance at my ROTR nominations post will tell you all you need to know about his season. After his debut season in 2006 where he quickly gained a reputation for being fast but erratic, 2007 saw him make Pastor Maldonado look squeaky clean with a series of ridiculous collisions culminating in a weekend ban at Zolder. I've given him no less than four ROTR awards out of 14 and that doesn't even include what he did to get banned at Zolder. Its no surprise he never got a ride in Indycar after the merger.

1st - Champcar Itself - After three rebuilding seasons since CART's bankruptcy and OWRS's rescue deal, 2007 was meant to be the breakout season with the new Panoz DP01 intended to cut costs and increase car counts. Instead the Panoz turned out to not be much cheaper than the old Lolas and as a result despite gaining one new team car counts were actually one short of the previous seasons. Then there was the schedule issues with no less than three races getting cancelled for various reasons. By the end of the season the series was on its last legs and 2008 was in serious doubt leading to the incredibly rushed merger with the IRL for that season. A massive shame, if the series had managed to survive for one more season it could have had a solid send off year while planning a proper merge for 2009, with Bourdais moving on the championship would have been wide open between the likes of Power, Wilson and Doornbos. And it would have been likely that more of the classic venues would have made it into Indycar had they been able to hold for a final season and allowed the teams a more smooth transition. Instead the merger was more of an absorption with only a small handful of old CART races making it into the merged series. Only now a decade later are some of these races reappearing on the Indycar schedule.


I miss Champ Car a lot.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Alextrax52 »

Surprised no one has done the IndyCar 2018 nominations. I have a couple of candidates

Simon Pagenaud: Seemed like he just struggled to gel with the new car. Often the slowest of the Penske's on outright speed and struggled to impose himself in races. Finished 6th in the championship mainly because he could be counted on to finish in the top 10 consistently but just 2 podiums was a poor return

Ed Jones: Soooo Disappointing. After looking so dynamic in the Dale Coyne machine last year and finishing 3rd in the 500 I was really excited to see what he could do in the 2nd Ganassi car especially with the fact that the team cutting down from 4 cars to 2 should have given him more attention. Barring Long Beach, The Detroit weekend and to a lesser extent Gateway I saw very little in terms of outright pace from him culminating in a final placing of 13th while his team mate won the title. Overall I'm not surprised he lost his seat for 2019

Max Chilton: What on earth was that? Yes joining a new team in Carlin was always going to be a struggle but he's been here for 3 years now and apart from the 500 in 2017 he's made very little impression. Charlie Kimball in the 2nd Carlin utterly thrashed him and managed to drag some respectable results out including 5th at Toronto. Chilton didn't crack the top 10 all season

Will Power's inconsistancy: Yes he came 3rd overall, yes he finally won the Indy 500 but when he wasn't winning or finishing on the podium you could often find him spinning around or in the wall. It amounted to 6 finishes where he was 18th or lower including crashing at Phoneix, Alabama, Texas and Toronto all from strong results, And then there was the shambles at Portland with the sticking gearbox and another crash, That inconsistancy just won't win championships
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by 1993DonningtonNo1Mk2 »

Now that the official entry list has been confirmed, who or what does everyone believe to be potential rejects of the year for the 2019 BTCC? My suggestions are:

    The MG6 GT, especially in the hands of an inexperienced team with two rookie drivers
    The Team HARD driver-merry-go-round, the season hasn't even started yet and already, Bushell's had to make way for Goff

Dishonourable mentions:

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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Rob Dylan »

1991 Formula One World Championship

So since summer last year I have been resuming watching old F1 seasons, and now I watched 1991. Oh boy, it was a way better season than 92 and 93, which were quite dull for on-track action and classic races. My Rejects of the Year for those seasons were:

1992: Olivier Grouillard
1993: Michael Andretti

But now we're onto 1991. Let's have a look shall we:




Best drivers (in no particular order)
- Jean Alesi. Well I never thought the day would come when I would come out in praise of “the French-Sicilian”. But he was there when Prost was not. When Alain was having the world’s worst season, Jean came to Ferrari and delivered probably his career-best performances (that I’ve seen at least) all year.

- Stefano Modena: I cannot praise this dude highly enough. On merit and with a bit more reliability he would have been on the podium in THREE OF THE FIRST FIVE RACES. Unbelievable pace and talent. Far more deserving of a top drive than some people *cough* Berger *cough*.

- Michael Schumacher: It’s a tired subject, but daaaammn did Schumacher unreject himself in his third race!? Outpacing Piquet from the get-go, what a star driver, I can see a bright future ahead for him.

- Of course Ayrton Senna: consistent and able to get the car to the finish, even with mistakes like in Spain or in Italy. He was reliable whilst some like Patrese were not. Even if he didn’t win, he was always 3rd or 4th at the end of the Sunday, and that counted a lot when Williams were the fastest.

- Nigel Mansell: with a few self-inflicted incidents, he was largely very very good in 1991, and it’s a shame that Williams unreliability only compounded his own mistakes at the beginning of the year that he didn’t have the chance to really challenge by the end. But I’ll get to that in ROTY later.

- Andrea de Cesaris: consistently took that Jordan to high places every single weekend. One of the most dependable drivers on the grid, and that is from someone “who crashed every race lol”




Reject of the Year awards

My reject of the year for 1991 is none other than:
- Ferrari of COURSE. It was very close, and for a team that officially finished 3rd in the championship, it feels very harsh. But really, like in 2020 they were a complete laughing stock in the paddock. Where do I begin? Well, they couldn't make a car that could finish. They hung out every single piece of dirty laundry in public and had a shouting match with Alain Prost their lead driver on each weekend. Prost then complains about them pre-race EVERY race, then gets fired before the season's even over! Apparently the world's worst management, they then replace the three-time world champion with Gianni Morbidelli (no offence Gianni)! What Schumacher saw in them other than money in 1996 I have no idea.


Onto the other candidates:
- Emanuele Pirro for being the Olivier Grouillard of 1991. I was very close to making him Reject of the Year but thought of doing something different. The only time Emanuele was on screen was when he was infamously annoying frontrunners, usually the frontrunners people wanted to see get past him, like Modena at Monaco. Otherwise he was involved in accidents the entire year and made me scowl every time he came on screen.

- Gerhard Berger for being the limpest number 2 driver I’ve seen since… oof… Frentzen in 97? Even Patrese was consistently 2nd every race that Mansell won, even if his own win count was tiny in 1992. Gerhard Bottas has been nowhere all season and almost handed Williams the constructors. He was in 8th on merit during half of the races. But really he's part of the greatest problem that faced 1991, which is our next candidate:

- Everyone basically handing Senna the championship: Williams unreliability at the beginning of the year is one (Mansell gets a gearbox issue when he could have won in Brazil; Patrese has an issue from the lead in San Marino. Senna wins both races. Mansell doing the balls-up of the century in Canada and letting Piquet of all people win.). Then you have Berger being rubbish as has been mentioned above, and thanks to him Williams almost won the constructors’ championship. Then you have Ferrari being unable to finish a race (Prost was ok, not brilliant, but neither he nor Jean could catch a break during any weekend. I might even bet that there wasn’t a single race both Ferraris finished in 1991 without issues). Then you have the lacklustre Benetton pair, shown up by newbie Michael Schumacher who showed how quickly they could have been going. Every other weekend was “ooh now the championship is really on --- oh wait Senna extends his lead in the championship because nobody else wants to win”.

- DHM: Olivier Grouillard. I gave Grouillard Reject of the Year in 1992, and he was only a little less annoying here. See Pirro for the reason why. Especially when his teammate was so sensational half of the season.




Infinite Improbability Drives of the Year:
- Stefano Modena in 2nd at Monaco
- Lehto at San Marino finishing 3rd
- HM: Eric van de Poele for almost getting a top 4 finish in San Marino before his car died. The absolute ultimate what-if of 1991.
- Schumacher’s first few races just wiping the floor with Piquet.
- Every Lotus driver bar Bartels. Mika, Johnny and Julian were all really good all year, even if their car self-destructed every race.




The most memorable bit of the season for me will definitely be Alain Prost binning it on the formation lap at San Marino and DNSing. That was probably the only time anything was noticeably his fault during the 1991 shenanigans, but damn was it funny to watch. Rob Dylan's pick for Reject Moment of the Year 1991.

See you in 1990 :dance:
Murray Walker at the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix wrote:The other [Stewart] driver, who nobody's been paying attention to, because he's disappointing, is Jan Magnussen.
Felipe Nasr - the least forgettable F1 driver!
Alextrax52
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Alextrax52 »

Premier League rejects from last season

Everton: Spent 140 million in the transfer window yet made a miserable start to the campaign. 2 embarrassing defeats at Anfield, gave Norwich their only away win of the season and limped home in 12th place.

Leicester: So impressive in the first half of the season but being thrashed 4-0 at home to Liverpool set the tone for a dismal 2nd half. They were 14 points clear of Man Utd at the start of February yet still got overhauled. The post-lockdown section of the season was particularly dismal, scoring an 89th minute goal to lead Watford only to then concede a 93rd minute leveller, being thrashed 3-0 at Spurs and the worst of all was away at Bournemouth when they turned a comfortable lead into a 4-1 defeat against a side going down. Absolute bottle jobs.

Mauricio Pochettino: Everything came crashing down after Spurs lost to us in the Champions League final. Lost 3-0 to Brighton and at home to Steve Bruce’s Newcastle which leads us nicely onto....

Joelinton: My god he was horrendous. Winner at Spurs aside what did he actually do? 40 million quid he cost remember

Norwich: So refreshing to watch in the early part of the season but when Teemu Pukki’s goals dried up and people realised they weren’t going to change an all out attacking style then all the colour drained out of them. They lost every single game after beating Leicester at home at the end of February and their performance against Southampton after lockdown was a sign they’d thrown the towel in.
Alextrax52
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Alextrax52 »

Having done ROTR’s now it’s time for 2000 CART ROTY’s

Dishonourable Mentions

Jimmy Vasser: The start of the season was strong. 4th in Miami followed by podiums in Long Beach and Rio and he’d have had another at Motegi until the car died. He ended the season strongly too running at the front in the last 4 races, winning Houston and taking a podium at Surfers despite doing the whole race with front wing damage. Everything in between though was disastrous. Between Nazareth and Laguna Seca Vasser could be found frequently qualifying outside the top 10 while Montoya was often putting the other Ganassi on pole and in races he finished no higher than 5th at Road America. Is it a coincidence his form picked up after it was announced he wouldn’t be staying with Ganassi for 2001? I think not

Dario Franchitti: Oh dear what a difference a year makes. Having only lost the title on countback in 99 a winless 2000 was not what he wanted. Admittedly not all of it was his fault as both he and Paul Tracy had a lot of mechanical woes particularly with the gearbox but that said he blew his best chance of winning at Vancouver when he stalled in the pit lane and he also spun in the pit lane at Rio and hit the wall on his own at Houston. To go from 2nd to 13th in one year deserves a bit of stick

Michael Andretti: Was top of the pile with 8 races to go but once he announced his departure from Newman/Haas at the end of the year it was like anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. In the last 8 races he finished no higher than 8th which is also where he slumped to in the standings. Not all it was on him (A dominant drive at St Louis went unrewarded with engine failure) but aside from that he hardly figured near the front after Chicago anyway.

Mercedes engines: Easily the weakest in the field. Usually the bottom placed cars in qualifying and while the other 3 engine manufacturers (Ford, Honda and Toyota) all won at least 5 races the only highlight Mercedes enjoyed was Mauricio Gugelmin finishing 2nd at Nazareth. Gugelmin was also their highest placed driver overall in 17th

Takuya Kurosawa: it may seem harsh to nominate Taku as he didn’t complete the season with a back issue. That said Alex Barron replaced him for the last quarter of the year and came within 5 minutes of a podium at Surfers and a few laps of one at Fontana. In Taku’s hands it scored just one point at Detroit and bar a brief spell in the lead at Long Beach was often in the bottom 2-3 positions in races. Even Detroit was soured when already 2 laps down he decided blue flags no longer applied to him and held people up as long as possible before CART slapped him with a black flag. It does make me wonder what Barron could have done with that car over a full season

3rd: Alex Tagliani: I know it was his rookie year and he did have some great performances getting 4 top 6’s and only missed the podium at Fontana when the engine blew on the penultimate lap. But for me these were overshadowed by too many mistakes and it led to me giving him 3 ROTR awards. At Miami he led until he was given a penalty for misjudging the line on when to pass the pace car. At Rio he dominated until he accidentally pressed the pit limiter. Later he threw a possible win away with 2 spins. After that came a string of anonymous races until Michigan which ended the same way as Rio. But it’s his performance at Vancouver that cemented a place on this podium. He took his own team-mate and Mark Blundell out in one accident and then Tarso Marques and Mauricio Gugelmin out in another. He then proceeded to have not one but TWO incidents under caution, first a spin then he hit a tire barrier. The speed was there at times but racecraft was another matter

2nd: Luiz Garcia Jr: Unbelievably slow. He made Kurosawa look like Fangio. He’d frequently qualify bog last and all he did was get in the way of race leaders (the worst examples were Miami and Toronto) or been seen retiring with mechanical woes. His 6 points came pretty much because over half the field were decimated in the race. What business did he have being here?

1st: Chip Ganassi Racing: The champions of the last 4 years really should have been celebrating a 5th this season. Juan Pablo Montoya took the most pole positions, most fastest laps, the joint most amount of wins and led twice as many laps as any other driver in the field and yet he only finished 9th in the points. Why was this the case? Well it’s because he only finished 8/20 races and most of the 12 retirements were because the Ganassi cars seemed to be made of tissue paper. I count 8 of Montoya’s 12 DNF’s as a mechanical problem with the only 2 I can put on him being both occasions where he ran out of fuel. The worst ones being Detroit and Chicago which were both total domination until the driveshaft failed. In addition to the DNF’s there was also an easy 1-2 disappearing in Motegi when Vasser’s car died and the team accidentally knocked a turbo valve off Montoya’s car at his last stop and at Laguna where the front jack failed demoting Montoya to 6th. It was a scruffy season and ultimately a “what might have been” for Chip’s boys.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by 1993DonningtonNo1Mk2 »

2000 International F3000: Stephanie Sarrazin, seems anyone associated with Prost was destined to have a disastrous season that year. Mind you, the McLaren Junior/MySAP.com team must have been disappointed to go from dominant champions with Heidfeld in 1999 to just one win all season. At least they scored a 1-2 for the first and only time after Tomas Scheckter replaced Sarrazin.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Alextrax52 »

Ok now for CART 2001 ROTY

DHM’s

Paul Tracy: While I didn’t think this season was anywhere near as bad as his catastrophic 1998 it still goes down as one of the worst of his career. 2001 at least started well with 2 podiums and a 4th place in the opening 3 rounds putting him top of the championship. However from the moment his gearbox broke when contending for victory at Motegi his season lurched from disaster to disaster as that retirement started a run of 5 in a row. Notable incidents included 2 crashes with other drivers in pit lane (Portland, Laguna Seca), 2 retirements from top 5 positions on the last lap (Detroit, Surfers). Also he didn’t lead a lap until the last race in Fontana when even in 1998 he led 88 of them and at no stage did he look like winning all year. The only good thing he did after Nazareth was speak his mind on Chris Kniefel.

Nicolas Minassian: A horribly below average spell in the Ganassi. Finishing 5 laps down at Nazareth with seemingly no delays was the worst of it. What gets him a mention though is the fact that his replacement Memo Gidley would have won just his second race in the car had Cleveland gone on a lap longer.

Michel Jourdain Jr: Yes he picked up his first podium at Michigan but in too many races he either made at least one mistake (Nazareth, Portland) or got involved in other people’s accidents (Detroit, Laguna Seca, Houston). And then there was that awful showing in the race after his podium in Chicago where he managed to spin coming out of pit lane after one of many off the pace drives he had.

Christian Fittipaldi: Completely outclassed by new teammate Da Matta all year. A 3rd place at the chaos of Portland being his only podium of the season while Da Matta won 3 races and with better luck would have been a championship contender. The only thing that stood out about Fittipaldi was the striking blue livery on his car.

3rd: Tora Takagi: Similar to Jourdain really but the reason he gets 3rd here is because when he had a disaster he really did have a disaster. There was the inexplicable decision to collide with Jimmy Vasser at Milwaukee when a lap down which got him disqualified. Then there was his horrendous performance at Toronto when he crashed into anything that moved at turn 3 for which CART slapped him with probation. A strong drive to 4th at Houston was the only plus of a difficult season.

2nd: Chip Ganassi Racing: Had the entry below not happened then chances are I’d have given Ganassi a 2nd straight ROTY. At least in 2000 the cars were still very quick but in 2001 the inexperience of the drivers made for a tough season. Bruno Junqueira for instance crashed on lap 1 twice and had the ridiculous pit crash at Cleveland where he seemingly forgot to use his brake pedal. The only win they achieved was at Road America and that was only because Michael Andretti got involved in a collision. Cleveland was the only race Ganassi deserved to win on merit and the highest ranked driver was Junqueira in 16th overall.

In spite of all the underperformers above there really was only one contender for ROTY who outdid them all:

1st: CART itself: Where do you start here?

Rio cancelled before the season even started,

The Texas debacle where CART refused to listen to concerns about the high g forces and were made to look like rank amateurs

The pop off valve controversy where CART introduced it at Detroit at a time when only Toyota tested it which annoyed Honda and Ford. CART then decided to go naturally aspirated for 2003 and it didn’t even come to fruition

The disastrous tour of Europe where Lausitz went ahead during the emotion of 9/11 and Alex Zanardi’s sickening crash

The premiere of Driven which is one of the worst sports films you’ll ever see

It was a mess of seismic proportions as no one really seemed to agree on anything and it felt like a gang of circus clowns were running the show. Eventually Roger Penske saw enough and pulled his team over to the IRL which started a mass exodus of Teams, Drivers, Engines and Tracks from CART in the seasons that followed. This was the season that the power really shifted to the IRL.
Har1MAS1415
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Har1MAS1415 »

The Maserati Bi-Turbo would be a guaranteed ROTY for every touring car series it competed in. The one time it appeared on the 1988 BTCC review, it got passed by a Class D Toyota Corolla, it was supposed to be a Class A entry. Now there's a lemon for you.
Har1MAS1415
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Har1MAS1415 »

BTCC 2010 would be Uniq (pardon the pun) for leaving Triple 8 high and dry after the first meeting at Thruxton. I reckon Fabrizio Giovanardi could have been an outside contender for the title had he been able to do the whole season.
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by dr-baker »

Har1MAS1415 wrote: 22 Jul 2022, 14:21 BTCC 2010 would be Uniq (pardon the pun) for leaving Triple 8 high and dry after the first meeting at Thruxton. I reckon Fabrizio Giovanardi could have been an outside contender for the title had he been able to do the whole season.
I believe that they withdrew the sponsorship because they could not keep up with order demand following that first round. The sponsorship deal was too successful, too quickly.
watka wrote:I find it amusing that whilst you're one of the more openly Christian guys here, you are still first and foremost associated with an eye for the ladies!
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Har1MAS1415
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Har1MAS1415 »

dr-baker wrote: 22 Jul 2022, 21:08
Har1MAS1415 wrote: 22 Jul 2022, 14:21 BTCC 2010 would be Uniq (pardon the pun) for leaving Triple 8 high and dry after the first meeting at Thruxton. I reckon Fabrizio Giovanardi could have been an outside contender for the title had he been able to do the whole season.
I believe that they withdrew the sponsorship because they could not keep up with order demand following that first round. The sponsorship deal was too successful, too quickly.
I know but still....

If not Uniq then probably Forster Motorsport. Granted they were running two rookie drivers but they were each driving a BMW 320si for Heaven's sake.

Or even Andy Neate for only scoring 6 points...IN A WSR BMW!
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dr-baker
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by dr-baker »

Har1MAS1415 wrote: 22 Jul 2022, 22:19
dr-baker wrote: 22 Jul 2022, 21:08
Har1MAS1415 wrote: 22 Jul 2022, 14:21 BTCC 2010 would be Uniq (pardon the pun) for leaving Triple 8 high and dry after the first meeting at Thruxton. I reckon Fabrizio Giovanardi could have been an outside contender for the title had he been able to do the whole season.
I believe that they withdrew the sponsorship because they could not keep up with order demand following that first round. The sponsorship deal was too successful, too quickly.
I know but still....

If not Uniq then probably Forster Motorsport. Granted they were running two rookie drivers but they were each driving a BMW 320si for Heaven's sake.

Or even Andy Neate for only scoring 6 points...IN A WSR BMW!
I was making that point mostly for others who didn't know the story behind it.

And I am glad that Andy Neate isn't around this year. It has probably meant fewer skirmishes for Jade Edwards...
watka wrote:I find it amusing that whilst you're one of the more openly Christian guys here, you are still first and foremost associated with an eye for the ladies!
dinizintheoven wrote:GOOD CHRISTIANS do not go to jail. EVERYONE ON FORMULA ONE REJECTS should be in jail.
MCard LOLA
Har1MAS1415
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Har1MAS1415 »

dr-baker wrote: 23 Jul 2022, 12:22
Har1MAS1415 wrote: 22 Jul 2022, 22:19
dr-baker wrote: 22 Jul 2022, 21:08

I believe that they withdrew the sponsorship because they could not keep up with order demand following that first round. The sponsorship deal was too successful, too quickly.
I know but still....

If not Uniq then probably Forster Motorsport. Granted they were running two rookie drivers but they were each driving a BMW 320si for Heaven's sake.

Or even Andy Neate for only scoring 6 points...IN A WSR BMW!
I was making that point mostly for others who didn't know the story behind it.

And I am glad that Andy Neate isn't around this year. It has probably meant fewer skirmishes for Jade Edwards...
I get it about Uniq.

I don't miss Andy Neate either.
Har1MAS1415
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Re: ROTY for Motorsports/Non Motorsports

Post by Har1MAS1415 »

Qatar in the 2022 World Cup. Earliest exit ever for a host nation.
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