Grand Prix Rejects

Put your votes up!

1. Whoever has an influence. The safety has been sorted but there's no contingency for racing in the wet.
2. Suzuka. Sort those puddles out.

1. The "Schrödinger's WDC" situation. Probably the easiest thing to get right today and the FIA managed to make a mess of it.
2. George Russell wasn't having a good time this weekend, was he?

1. The FIA. Absolute omnishambles from start to finish. Get these clowns away from any form of motorsport before the next Bianchi happens. F1 dodged another huge bullet today.

2. Sky Sports. Eagerly bootlicking for the FIA when discussing the Gasly tractor incident. I'm especially disappointed in Karun Chandhok joining in too, really thought he was better than that.

1. FIA - Threatening with another Spa 2021 nonsense, ending up with a timed race when it could have gone until sundown at least and several laps longer (when did the 4 hour window became a 3 hour window?) and finally miscalculating the points so nobody knows if Verstappen actually needed that one extra point to become WDC. And most people thought the points for >50% but <75% distance would apply yet that wasn't the case. A complete clown show even NASCAR would be ashamed of.

1) The FIA: A typical clownshoes moment which made the WDC declaration completely underwhelming and which I'd interpret as inconsistent with previous precedent on rain-shortened races.

2) George Russell: Not a good weekend and underwhelming against his teammate who was battling for higher places.

FIA: What the bathplug was that? The ridiculous points decision just crowns a pathetic day (apart from the few actual racing laps we got). Thankfully Verstappen was dominant this season, otherwise it would be another year of huge controversy (and this could still have an effect on things like 4th in the WCC). Investigating Gasly after a dangerous error by race control is also ridiculous.

The FIA for both the tractor on the track situation and the ambiguous points situation.

Londoner wrote: ↑09 Oct 2022, 08:24 1. The FIA. Absolute omnishambles from start to finish. Get these clowns away from any form of motorsport before the next Bianchi happens. F1 dodged another huge bullet today.

Not only that, but the statements that they've been putting out suggest that they're probably looking to dump the blame on Gasly and say that it was his problem, rather than acknowledge that they sent a crane out onto the track without informing any of the drivers that they were doing so and in the sort of poor weather conditions that caused Bianchi's accident. As you note, for now it just looks like a farce, but that level of mismanagement will turn into tragedy if they keep doing things like that again and again without learning from their mistakes.

Looks like "safety failures" has got a strong campaign in this year's race for the "Reject of the Year" award. First the hard wall without any tire barrier or other barrier whatsoever in front of it in Miami, now the tractor on track at the same time as there still are race cars out there as well, at Suzuka of all places. And let's not forget the warzone in Jeddah.
Does Liberty Media care enough about safety to get the FIA to step up their game considerably and immediately? I wish I was certain about answering that with a yes.

The FIA - No ifs, ands or buts. 8 years on, has nothing been learned from the Bianchi tragedy? What a travesty! A travesty of the worst possible kind! How I am still following F1, I have no idea but this is beyond unacceptable!

The FIA: We don’t even need a vote for this one. Blaming Gasly when practically every driver was disgusted at the recovery truck being thrown was the final straw for me. All this on the circuit where we lost Bianchi in similar circumstances. The cherry on the cake was the “is he or isn’t he?” championship shambles. It was such a shame because the action we did get was actually really good

HM: Haas strategists: Leaving Schumacher out on wets way too long when he had a chance of points

HM: Mercedes straight line speed: Wet or dry they hemorrhaged it all weekend. Watching Ocon v Hamilton and the Merc was brilliant in cornering and traction but absolutely mullered on the straights. Doesn’t bode well for the remaining circuits which all have at least 2 long straights.

HM: TV Director: Vettel and Alonso were separated by 0.011 and we didn’t see a second of it

(Don’t know what Milkweed is, damn autocorrect)

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote: ↑09 Oct 2022, 09:08 The FIA: We don’t even need a vote for this one. Blaming Gasly when practically every driver was disgusted at the recovery truck being thrown was the final straw for me. All this on the circuit where we lost Bianchi in similar circumstances. The cherry on the cake was the “is he or isn’t he?” championship shambles. It was such a shame because the action we did get was actually really good

HM: Haas strategists: Leaving Schumacher out on wets way too long when he had a chance of points

HM: Mercedes straight line speed: Wet or dry they hemorrhaged it all weekend. Watching Ocon v Hamilton and the Merc was brilliant in cornering and traction but absolutely milkweed on the straights. Doesn’t bode well for the remaining circuits which all have at least 2 long straights.

HM: TV Director: Vettel and Alonso were separated by 0.011 and we didn’t see a second of it

All the above

Don't even run the poll.

Whatever tit forgot what happened to Bianchi and authorised a recovery vehicle on the track whilst cars were still on it
should win.

The huge, heavy, pointy, spiky lump of solid metal that some genius decided was a great idea to park on the track.

I know we are a family-friendly site so will not express my opinion in native Anglo-Saxon terms but I believe our heritage phrase is "What the bathplug?"

IceG wrote: ↑09 Oct 2022, 11:26 ... so will not express my opinion in native Anglo-Saxon terms...

Funny thing about that phrase is that the only contemporaneous writers of Anglo Saxon were monks...

1. FIA: Can't decide when to start a race, a drying track and great racing is stifled by an idiotic 3-hour time limit, and a confusing points system that had everyone wondering whether or not the world champion was actually a world champion.

2. The rogue truck: Guys, they are bathplugging Formula 1 cars, they are going to go fast. Don't put a transport truck on the circuit in whiteout conditions.

1. FIA - The last time these bathpluggers put a big heavy vehicle on the track…
2. Haas - Horrible day for K-Mag and Mick who stayed out way too long, and lost a points opportunity in the process.

Hot contest between;

Race Control / Marshalls communication

FIA for the whole WDC situation

There should be another mention for the TV coverage missing this moment below, and then even the FIA tweeting fan footage rather than official TV coverage…

The whole points thing is on the TV presenters and amazingly, the team principals. The rule is clear as day, the line "and cannot be resumed" is right there in black and white. This race WAS resumed, and it finished under the green flag due to the 3-hour rule. But the very letter of the points rules, they would never have applied here. I'm not sure why there was so much commotion over it.

Gasly's situation is more complicated. Should the truck have been out there that quickly? Of course not. But, go to any racing school, run in any junior series, and they beat into your head (and rightly so) the red flag rules. Pierre hit over 250kph multiple times before AND AFTER the red flag was out, and telemetry showed he made up over 10 SECONDS on the car in 17th while under a red flag. Completely unacceptable. No, the truck should not have been out there, but marshalls often are. And if you can't see a truck, you sure as hell won't see a guy in a hi-vee vest. What if Carlos' car was on fire? Should it just burn until everyone is off track? Of course not. Two wrongs don't make a right here, but both sides were just as guilty.



So with all that being said, the only real choice is George Russell: The one trick pony can't even qualify well anymore, and he's moaned about everyone and everything these past two weeks. He thankfully didn't wreck anyone this week, but praising your own pass over the radio is so tacky.

Both of them are sucked hard for this race so I have given the vote to FIA