Reject of the Race - Styria (POLL UP)

[Londoner]

1. George Russell's luck.

2. Daniel Ricciardo. Appalling weekend all round.

[You-Gee-Eee-Day]

RUS - He is literally cursed
RIC - He is literally a curse

[Enforcer]

+1 on Russel's luck / Russel's car. Especially as it looked like "Mr. Saturday" was actually going to do it on Sunday for a change.

Sergio Perez & Valtteri Bottas should also be a consideration given they fell more than a pitstop away from their team mates. If it wasn't for Formula 1.5 they'd have been well down the order.

[pi314159]

George Russell's car has to be ROTR. Honourable mention to Ricciardo and Ocon, who were nowhere, and to the rain, which was nowhere to be seen.

[Aislabie]

1. George Russell's Williams (specifically not Russell himself)

2. Bottas-Perez AWS overtake graphic that predicted an easy overtake four laps from the line

[Fetzie]

George Russell's car - running 8th on merit but his car let him down.

The Merc and RBR number two drivers running in Formula 1.25 - a pit stop down on their team mate, never really looked like they were capable of challenging for more than third.

DHM for Leclerc after collecting pieces of carbon fibre for his collection from half the grid on the first lap.

[Meatwad]

Another vote for Russell's luck. Every time he's about to score points, the car breaks down or something else goes wrong. Dishonorable mention to Williams for the very same reason – the only luck they've had is that Haas is so slow, otherwise they'd be last in the championship by now (and indeed, the only car they got to the finish was behind Schumacher).

[IceG]

(1) Ricciardo - where has it gone?

(2) Russell's car/luck - why?

[mario]

Another vote for Russell's luck. Every time he's about to score points, the car breaks down or something else goes wrong. Dishonorable mention to Williams for the very same reason – the only luck they've had is that Haas is so slow, otherwise they'd be last in the championship by now (and indeed, the only car they got to the finish was behind Schumacher).

To be fair, that was also largely caused by the Leclerc-Gasly clash on the opening lap, with Latifi then having to pit for repairs after Gasly lost control due to suspension damage and ended up clipping Latifi.

I expect Russell's luck to win this, but I do feel that is letting Ricciardo off the hook for what was a fairly uninspiring performance this weekend.

[RAK]

1) Daniel Ricciardo: Definitely not covering himself with glory.

2) The Valterri Bottas/Sergio Perez duumvirate: A big margin from their teammates.

[rachel1990]

1st George Russell's luck. I don't know what to say. The man is cursed...

I can't even be bothered to do another one...

[tBone]

1. George Russell's car. Poor guy.
2. Frank de Boer. What the bathplug was that? Yes, it took place a few hours after the Styrian GP but this was by far the most rejectful thing of this day...

[Alextrax52]

1: George Russell’s car: he’s never scoring a point for Williams is he? Wouldn’t surprise me at all if Latifi ends up breaking the Williams points drought

2: Daniel Ricciardo: And I thought he was dire at Monaco

DHM’s

Bottas/Perez: Giancarlo Fisichella at Renault would have been proud of those gaps between team-mates

Esteban Ocon: Has he already got comfortable with that new contract in his back pocket?

[Ciaran]

1. Williams.
2. Ocon for being anonymous.

[James1978]

I'm going to say

1. F1.5 - all of them LAPPED
2. The rain for coming too late.

[went]

1- Russell's luck. Seriously. I was screaming at the TV.

2 - Latifi, Ricciardo & Ocon. Oh boy. Let's talk about teammates seriously underperforming. Latifi: We know his Williams is bad and there's little to ever expect from him, but his performance was shameful compared to Russell, all weekend long. One was comfortably in the points, the other was fighting with Mazepin for dead last. Admittedly because of an early race incident, but still, his starting position was pretty bad already, and he did nothing to help himself. Then Ricciardo had a power problem in one lap that dropped him like a rock, but then he ended up a minute behind Norris- not exactly the same racecraft as the briton. And then you have Ocon, who was completely anonymous and comprehensively beaten by Alonso all weekend. All in all, a pretty awful trio.

HM: The race itself. There were things happening here and there but otherwise it was a pretty straightforward affair. Pretty bland.

HM2: Bottas's pit lane spin. Seriously.

[Miguel98]

1. George Russell luck - Bloody hell, please go to a witch mate.

2. Daniel Ricciardo - Unlucky engine problem made him drop after a good start but his potential across the weekend was wasted in traffic and miserable strategy.

Honorable mention to Esteban Ocon for getting beaten by Alonso again (and quite comprehensevely so) and Charles Leclerc for that dumb move on Gasly.

[Batty]

Daniel Ricciardo - Eeesh. Qualifying went bad (14th before Seb's time got wiped out) and then was practically nowhere close after good start.

HM - George Russell's luck. Dude ain't meant to score at Williams it seems.

[Aerond]

George's Russell luck - No lucky no party

Leclerc - Despite his performance, his first lap was Leclerc pls then destroyed Raikkonen's front wing.

[UncreativeUsername37]

Leclerc because taking Gasly out made me sad
The left-handers for keeping everyone apart despite the track being 35 or 40% DRS zone

[yannicksamlad]

The left-handers for keeping everyone apart despite the track being 35 or 40% DRS zone

But if you took out the left-handers ...(an endangered species in Austria already ) ....you're left with that silly Bahrain outer loop track ....aaaaargh .
Or maybe you had another cunning plan ?

[CaptainGetz12]

1) George Russell's car. Heartbreaking for him, that car was on track to scrape a few points.

2) The race itself. I barely remember this one, pretty lackluster.

(Dis)Honourable Mentions:
Daniel Ricciardo (Slow and unimpressive all weekend)
Red Bull Strategists (Should have stuck with Perez on the one-stop, they knew you get screwed by lap traffic here because of how short the Red Bull Ring is)

[Vassago]

1. Daniel Ricciardo - massive lack of pace on both Saturday & Sunday when his teammate was the best of the rest again. Guess Paul Ricard was a dead cat bounce?

Honorable Mention:

Esteban Ocon - continues to keep pole position for Mr. Anonymous Award - and that says a lot with Antonio Giovinazzi in the field.

[UncreativeUsername37]

The left-handers for keeping everyone apart despite the track being 35 or 40% DRS zone

But if you took out the left-handers ...(an endangered species in Austria already ) ....you're left with that silly Bahrain outer loop track ....aaaaargh .
Or maybe you had another cunning plan ?

I was thinking they'd be tightened. The track would be like Bahrain, but the inner part.
I mean, I wouldn't actually want that to happen, it's just fun to think about

[Wallio]

1.) Danny Ric - This season feels worse than his start to 2019, which was pretty awful. Mclaren is 3rd in WCC on merit, essentially running one car. Especially glaring when most people (myself included to be fair) thought he would easily blow Lando away.


2.) Leclerc - Old "Chuck The Chair" hit a quarter of the field, killed AT hopes and dreams, received no penalties, and still won driver of the day somehow. Can something be both awesome and rejectful?

[mario]

Red Bull Strategists (Should have stuck with Perez on the one-stop, they knew you get screwed by lap traffic here because of how short the Red Bull Ring is)

I think that I have to disagree with you there and that it was worthwhile for Red Bull to gamble on that strategy.

Bottas had been holding Perez off for quite some time, who seemed to be getting stuck in a position roughly a couple of seconds behind Bottas. His tyres were a lap older than Bottas's were, and although it looked like both Mercedes cars were a little hampered by rear traction, it didn't look like Perez really had enough of a pace advantage to be able to try and close up enough on Bottas to attempt a move, or even really to pressure him that closely.

If you sit there and just copy Bottas, then it's hard to see how Perez would pass Bottas on the same strategy. The second stop did make sense as a gamble to try something different - you're probably going to end up with the same 4th place finish at worst, and at best it might have been enough of a difference for Perez to have snatched 3rd from Bottas near the end.

[dinizintheoven]

Lest Valtteri forget.

I've had a non-stop weekend so I've only just watched the qualifying and the race back to back. The above incident is what ROTR is supposed to be about, right? Even though it didn't happen in the race itself this time...

[CaptainGetz12]

Red Bull Strategists (Should have stuck with Perez on the one-stop, they knew you get screwed by lap traffic here because of how short the Red Bull Ring is)

I think that I have to disagree with you there and that it was worthwhile for Red Bull to gamble on that strategy.

Bottas had been holding Perez off for quite some time, who seemed to be getting stuck in a position roughly a couple of seconds behind Bottas. His tyres were a lap older than Bottas's were, and although it looked like both Mercedes cars were a little hampered by rear traction, it didn't look like Perez really had enough of a pace advantage to be able to try and close up enough on Bottas to attempt a move, or even really to pressure him that closely.

If you sit there and just copy Bottas, then it's hard to see how Perez would pass Bottas on the same strategy. The second stop did make sense as a gamble to try something different - you're probably going to end up with the same 4th place finish at worst, and at best it might have been enough of a difference for Perez to have snatched 3rd from Bottas near the end.

Even with the gamble, it likely wasn't a good shot due to being placed right in the middle of traffic. If RB knew the Mercs had trouble with corner exit they should have pressured Bottas to make a mistake, or perhaps force him to pit.

[Rob Dylan]

Poll at the top of this thread.

There are four very juicy picks for Reject of the Race after Styria. You have 48 hours to get your vote in