Australian GP 2024 ROTR

[TomPryce]

Mercedes: absolute failure from start to finish.
The Williams Fiasco: I know they are in a period of flux, but Logan did not deserve to sit out the weekend.

EDIT: will keep the nomination, but not for Russell after Alonso got penalised.

[sswishbone]

Williams : sorry but they aren't getting out of their no spare chassis charge

[noiceinmydrink]

Williams: Did the best they could considering the circumstances, but it's circumstances that they should've never been in in the first place.

[dr-baker]

So many:

Williams obviously.

Verstappen's brake failure.

Sauber's pit stops.

Whatever happened between Alonso and Bottas at the end of the Race.

[mario]

I expect Williams will be getting most nominations, so perhaps I'll go for something different.

As things stand, Alonso is currently being interviewed by the stewards over allegations of deliberately brake checking Russell on the final lap, which seems to have helped cause Russell's accident. Certainly, the onboard telemetry does suggest some rather strange behaviour on the brakes before that corner, whilst after that corner, Alonso seems to have been acting rather strangely on the throttle (as if he was trying to fake a problem by suddenly going on and off the throttle).

If he was engaging in brake checking, which the telemetry suggests, it does suggest some dirty driving on his part, particularly if he was then trying to fake a problem afterwards to then claim that "oh, it was a throttle problem".

[Edit] It's now been confirmed that Alonso has been hit with a 20 second penalty for his actions.

[Alextrax52]

Can only be Williams can’t it. Just how do you not have a spare chassis ready for use in this day and age? It’s amateur hour material. Was the decision to hand Sargeant’s car over to Albon the right one? Probably yes going off 2023 evidence but that decision basically told the world that Williams have no confidence in Logan and it makes you wonder why they resigned him for this year especially so late

Mercedes were diabolical again, Remember when they were 1-2 in Friday practice in Bahrain? Yeah me neither. Hamilton looks like he’s just counting down the days till he joins Ferrari and Russell joined the Pastor Maldonado club of crashing at turn 6 on the last lap in Australia when chasing Fernando Alonso

HM’s to Sauber and Alpine who seem to be in a private battle for the wooden spoon and Ricciardo for another tepid performance where he was nowhere near Tsunoda. With Piastri continuing to grow he’s officially Australia’s yesterday man

[Batty]

Kick Sauber - Two shite stops and got fined just now for losing a wheel nut down pitlane.

Pierre Gasly - Got a reprimand for going over the pit lane line during qualifying. Did the same thing in the race. Dude didn't learn from his lesson.

Obvs Williams is a huge thing but I'm going with what happened in durng the race

[rachel1990]

1. Sauber. Another mess at the pistops and on the day when they could have capitalised on the top 5 teams losing 3 cars they failed. Again.

2. Willams. James, its Rachel (me) here. That failed didn't it. To get 11th as well just put the cherry on the cake.

Hm Danny Ric. Tsunoda have been thrashing him this year and at his home race, it just looked a lot worse.

Hm Fernando Alonso. Not a good look
Hm Stewarding. To only give Alonso a 20 second penalty was a bit of a joke. Personally I would have gone for a 10 place grid drop for Japan

Hm the brakes on car number 1. Yes it brought universal joy but they still failed.

[IceG]

(1) Race Control for not throwing an immediate red flag when there is a car upside across the track in the middle of a series of bends and with a driver still in the car. Sure it would have been the same situation as a VSC, except the points would have been awarded for the positions at the end of the previous lap, as the cars would still have had to drive through but it sets something of a precident for spectacle vs. safety. And then the stewards only apply a 20 second penalty - what is this F3?

(2) Alonso for brake-testing Russell and causing a major accident - I believe there is an Aussie word for him but family-friendly forum and all that. Deserved a race ban minimum.

Meanwhile Sauber and Alpine continue their battle for clown cars of the year.

[Enforcer]

Mercedes: Even if we take the Russell incident as being Nando's fault, still not a good race for them.

Williams: As above, not letting them away with that chassis swap. Sargeant screwed over for no points.

Ricciardo: Retire, old man.

[dr-baker]

- I believe there is an Aussie word for him but family-friendly forum and all that.

I assume that the term you're referring to sounds like James Hunt?

[Meatwad]

Mercedes: A nightmare weekend for them – even after bad qualifying performance, I never expected a double DNF.

Dishonorable mentions to Williams (something I'd have expected from Schumacher-era Ferrari, maybe), Sauber (third time in three races!) and Verstappen's car.

[James1978]

Alonso - he should have known better than that. He pulled the same stunt on Coulthard way back at Nurburgring in 2003 (I think!) and it was that incident which made DC realise 5 years later that Michael ramming him up the back at Spa 1998 was really his own fault. Alonso was young and inexperienced then but he certainly isn't now!

Sauber's pit stop woes are becoming a ROTY contender at this point.

Also Williams for what I believe was a completely unfair car swap.

[mario]

Mercedes: Even if we take the Russell incident as being Nando's fault, still not a good race for them.

Williams: As above, not letting them away with that chassis swap. Sargeant screwed over for no points.

Ricciardo: Retire, old man.

Whilst Williams might not have scored points with Albon, the additional 11th place that he scored is technically keeping Williams ahead of Sauber on countback.

Sauber have one 11th place finish, and an equal number of 14th and 15th place finishes to Williams, so if they were tied on one 11th place each, you would eventually count back to Sauber's 17th place finish in Saudi Arabia as being the next highest score of those two teams.

[Ciaran]

1. Sauber, I assume that Stake money has come at the cost of hiring some ketamine-addled sex trafficker fanboys as their pit crew.
2. The FIA. I think Nando was just being his usual Wily Old self with the early lift at T6, it's still Russell's responsibility to be alert to what's going on ahead of him, especially on a street circuit. I'm fed up of seeing them take 20 secs-a minute to decide to bring out the safety car or activate VSC after an incident. Don't get me started on Tsolov's pathetic punishment for behaving like the average Twitch From Temu viewer playing GT7's Sport Mode.

DHM to Ricciardo, I bet he misses the crappy mid-2010s Renault power unit just because it'd have a high chance of ending his misery early.

[Wallio]

Williams - Ok, you gambled on it being a race of attrition, and there being points for the minnows and......there was! Oh, it was Haas and VCARB that scored......whoops. Well at least you didn't ruin your second driver's confidence over it......oh. Well hey, you at least will have a spare chassis next race, right........right?

The whole idea being the swap was that Albon could/would/should finish ahead of Sargent. And while I'm not fan of Logans (he famously made my ROTY list last year) he could have finished P11 here. With how gloom and doom James Vowles was on Saturday, this may have been there one and only shot. P9 in the constructors seems like their landing spot. Haas seems reliable but slow, and the Sauber is faster, it just gets screwed when they have to pit due to those pesky regulations.

Plus penalties will be coming done the line. Albon junked both an engine and a gearbox in that smash, and Williams burned one of their curfew jokers......and you only get two. Plus Vowles is already talking about the cost cap.

[Jarvis]

Williams lack of spare chassis and Sauber's pit stops.

[Har1MAS1415]

1) Mercedes - Only 3 races in and already I am convinced Lewis Hamilton is doing the right thing switching to Ferrari next year. This has been his worst ever start to a season.

2) Williams - No spare car (When was the last time any team found themselves in such a situation? I mean before race day, that is) and just the vote of confidence Logan Sargeant needs and just the kind of impression to make on the American fans, NOT! Still didn't pay off though well done to Albon for coming close at least.

DHM: Max Verstappen's brakes - Sorry Max, but you can't win them all, your luck had to run out eventually.

[James1978]

Thought of a couple more late odd DHM's not mentioned yet:

McLaren - yes that sounds weird given their best combined finish of the year. But if they tactically swapped cars earlier to allow Lando the chance the threaten Charles but couldn't get it done, usually swapping them back is the done thing? In not doing so denied the first ever home podium in Australia, and also it means Lando No-Wins on his own now has the record for most podiums without a win but otherwise he'd have still shared with Mr Slightly Bored. (If they were intending to then the Russell accident stopped them then fair enough though).

Actually maybe wipe that altogether - Oscar probably shouldn't have been ahead in the first place with the undercut.

The new Sky Studio - is that money-saving? Having Natalie, Naomi and Karun stood in there all looking like they were told to be 2 metres apart made me think it was 2020 or 2021 again. It looked bloody stupid. At least they didn't go the whole hog and had to wear face masks.

[Enforcer]

Mercedes: Even if we take the Russell incident as being Nando's fault, still not a good race for them.

Williams: As above, not letting them away with that chassis swap. Sargeant screwed over for no points.

Ricciardo: Retire, old man.

Whilst Williams might not have scored points with Albon, the additional 11th place that he scored is technically keeping Williams ahead of Sauber on countback.

Sauber have one 11th place finish, and an equal number of 14th and 15th place finishes to Williams, so if they were tied on one 11th place each, you would eventually count back to Sauber's 17th place finish in Saudi Arabia as being the next highest score of those two teams.

I would be surprised if that 11th place makes a difference come the end of the season though. The Saubers generally don't seem to be able to live with Albon's pace.

[Rob Dylan]

Reject of the Race is open for the Australian Grand Prix! Vote via the poll at the top of this thread - you have 48 hours to do so.

[noiceinmydrink]

Ideally a joint ROTR/IIDOTR for Max's brakes but Willams should probably win it.