2015 Australian GP ROTR Thread

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 15 Mar 2015, 17:13

Can I vote for the whole thing? It's totally made me lose interest in F1 I'm afraid. 33 years a fan and I think Bernie's finally managed to erode my enthusiasm completely.

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 15 Mar 2015, 17:27

Leyton House wrote:Monisha Kaltenborn for ruining Sauber.

I wonder how many f**ks she gives whilst the team are sitting third in the championship?

Anyway.

McLaren clearly, I don't recall any of the grandee teams ever doing as badly. Like-for-like Super Aguri would've pissed all over them this weekend.

Manor Marussia for missing out on a race they could've picked up a point or two from. I think you're limping because of the gunshot wound to the foot you just inflicted on yourself.

James1978 · Post by **James1978** » 15 Mar 2015, 17:28

Enforcer wrote:
Valrys wrote:To be fair though, of the no starters, 2 cars were from a team that only existed and took its cars out of storage a handful of weeks before showing up at the track, 1 was a freak injury to a driver at a point where he can't be swapped out, and the other 2 were down to awful reliability which is a common first round thing, and something a lot of fans were keen to see.

People prophesying the death of F1 should be looking elsewhere than the start of the 2015 Aus GP

My ROTR goes to the Sauber Shenanigans

I appreciate I'm being pessimistic, but not only does the sport seem stale to me (which is a personal thing), but I'm genuinely worried about the future of the grid.

That Manor could only arrived with no testing and a car that they eventually couldn't get to function is a symptom of the sport being completely baw-ways economically. As is a max of only 20 cars on the grid this season once Manor get running. There's also the vdG situation and pay-drivers in general, with Sauber clearly willing to breach contract to obtain a higher paying driver, (and I bet that they're not the first team to do it, vdG is just the first driver to fight it so publically) and probably a third to half of the seats this season being paid for.

I know the demise of F1 has been predicted a lot and yet the show goes on anyway, but this frankly batshit state of affairs surely can't continue forever. Ut feels like teams are barely able to keep this going, and if someone does go, it's hard to see where replacements are going to come from. Manor is the only surviving member of the "new" teams from a few years ago, and they're hanging on by a thread. And after that I think you have to go back to 1999 and BAR (which now exist as Mercedes) for a team which entered the sport and actually survived. Toyota came and went. Super Aguri came and went. Caterham & HRT came and went. Other than that we've just had buying and selling.

Really hope Haas can buck the trend.

BAR bought out Tyrrell though so weren't a completely new team, you have to go back another couple of years to Stewart who were the last completely new team to still exist today, as Red Bull through Jaguar. Before that you have Sauber and Jordan now as Force India from the 90s!

My vote for RotR goes to Perez, what a complete and utter mess.

Post by **Ataxia** » 15 Mar 2015, 17:41

If all it takes is one race for some of you to "stop your interest in F1", then I question how big a fan you really are...

I'm sick of the constant whinging. Fine, yes, F1's a bit broken at the moment. Complaining about it isn't going to fix it. Suck it up and deal with it. Watch it if you're still invested in the sport, if not then shut up.

Frentzen127 · Post by **Frentzen127** » 15 Mar 2015, 17:43

Ataxia you always were my favorite neurological condition! Here here!

Ferrarist · Post by **Ferrarist** » 15 Mar 2015, 17:44

The Starting Grid - You have 15 cars taking the green light in the first race of the season. This is bad. Now most of that grid has been the result of bad luck. But still, maybe it was forecast of the future...

Spectoremg · Post by **Spectoremg** » 15 Mar 2015, 17:54

Ataxia wrote:If all it takes is one race for some of you to "stop your interest in F1", then I question how big a fan you really are...

I'm sick of the constant whinging. Fine, yes, F1's a bit broken at the moment. Complaining about it isn't going to fix it. Suck it up and deal with it. Watch it if you're still invested in the sport, if not then shut up.

I'm optimistic, what with all those well funded teams lining up to join in

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 15 Mar 2015, 18:29

Ataxia wrote:If all it takes is one race for some of you to "stop your interest in F1", then I question how big a fan you really are...

I'm sick of the constant whinging. Fine, yes, F1's a bit broken at the moment. Complaining about it isn't going to fix it. Suck it up and deal with it. Watch it if you're still invested in the sport, if not then shut up.

As I mentioned, I've been watching the sport for about 35 years and would consider myself a 'fan' for 33 of those. And at no point before, however much one team has dominated or for any other reason (because it's not all about that even) have I felt so utterly fed up with it all. It's nothing to do with wanting it to be like it was in the 80s as I know that won't happen. It just doesn't excite me any more and all the shenanigans with Marussia, Caterham, Sauber etc make football look like a really well governed sport.

And I think that I have every right to complain about it thank you very much, since I'm paying Sky Sports essentially for the F1 (though I do watch some cricket and footy too) and it's not cheap.

Spectoremg · Post by **Spectoremg** » 15 Mar 2015, 18:36

Barbazza wrote:
Ataxia wrote:If all it takes is one race for some of you to "stop your interest in F1", then I question how big a fan you really are...

I'm sick of the constant whinging. Fine, yes, F1's a bit broken at the moment. Complaining about it isn't going to fix it. Suck it up and deal with it. Watch it if you're still invested in the sport, if not then shut up.

As I mentioned, I've been watching the sport for about 35 years and would consider myself a 'fan' for 33 of those. And at no point before, however much one team has dominated or for any other reason (because it's not all about that even) have I felt so utterly fed up with it all. It's nothing to do with wanting it to be like it was in the 80s as I know that won't happen. It just doesn't excite me any more and all the shenanigans with Marussia, Caterham, Sauber etc make football look like a really well governed sport.

And I think that I have every right to complain about it thank you very much, since I'm paying Sky Sports essentially for the F1 (though I do watch some cricket and footy too) and it's not cheap.

And Barbazza, you're entitled to your opinion which happens to agree with mine and therefore is the right opinion!

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 15 Mar 2015, 19:00

You can't really be surprised that your Sky subscription is a rip-off surely? Did you think buying it would in some way help F1? Pay per view is just one factor that's killing F1 so as a valued Sky customer you're doing your bit to kill the sport.

Ironic eh?

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 15 Mar 2015, 19:29

James1978 wrote:BAR bought out Tyrrell though so weren't a completely new team, you have to go back another couple of years to Stewart who were the last completely new team to still exist today, as Red Bull through Jaguar. Before that you have Sauber and Jordan now as Force India from the 90s!

Yeah, I got BAR & Stewart crossways.

Ataxia wrote:If all it takes is one race for some of you to "stop your interest in F1", then I question how big a fan you really are...

I'm sick of the constant whinging. Fine, yes, F1's a bit broken at the moment. Complaining about it isn't going to fix it. Suck it up and deal with it. Watch it if you're still invested in the sport, if not then shut up.

Heaven forbid someone might want to express their opinion about something they love turning into an arse sandwich. How dare they! Are we only ever supposed to say nice things about F1 on here or something?

Stop trying to pretend you're better than other people. If you don't like "constant" whinging, you're not obliged to read any of it.

Post by **Ataxia** » 15 Mar 2015, 19:32

Enforcer wrote:If you don't like "constant" whinging, you're not obliged to read any of it.

That would leave me with nothing to read...

MorbidelliObese · Post by **MorbidelliObese** » 15 Mar 2015, 19:39

I can only vote for the size of the starting grid. What happened to Bottas can happen, likewise Kvyat and Magnussen, but it's hardly in the mists of time when that would have meant 23 cars starting...

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 15 Mar 2015, 19:43

Enforcer wrote:Stop trying to pretend you're better than other people.

I'm not pretending.

Peteroli34 · Post by **Peteroli34** » 15 Mar 2015, 20:31

1. Sergio Perez - spent most of the race struggling to pass Buttons Mclaren which has an engine not running to its full potential
2.Renault - seem to be struggling seem to have worse engine then Mercedes and Ferrari and seem to have made no progress

Having 15 cars start the race its going to be a one off, there are still 10 teams and formula one manged with ten teams before,its not like only 15 car are entered for the season. You can blame the sport and its cost for Manor's issues but its hardly its not the sports fault if a car breaks down or a driver is injured those things have always happened. not unless Bernie Ecclestone has a magic switch allowing him to make a car beak down

Backmarker · Post by **Backmarker** » 15 Mar 2015, 21:39

1. McLaren-Honda. The engine has problems, and I suspect that its woes are covering for a dog of a chassis. Their drivers, who are very talented, had no chance this weekend.
2. Sergio Pérez. Only beat the worst car on the grid, kept making mistakes.

Dan B · Post by **Dan B** » 15 Mar 2015, 22:26

Well, several nominations to go around; really anyone except Mercedes would fit here, but I should go into further detail.

3rd: Ferrari, for that failure of a pitstop which ultimately cost Raikkonen his race. It's a good thing the wheel didn't fall off otherwise I'd think they would be in a deep mess if it had.

2nd: Sauber; yes, I know the drivers finished well (especially Nasr) but I can't shake the feeling that Van de Garde was supposed to be driving. The whole situation of it dragged on for too long and I still feel that we aren't going to see the end of it. Which is sad because it does look like they have a good package (finally) and that their drivers are quick. If only they had hired the correct number of drivers, of course.

1st: McLaren-Honda: The engine is crap and the car is crap; it was a minor miracle that Button managed to finish but I don't think they'll see points for a long while. The car itself seems to have its own issues that are now covered by the bad engine, and with no sponsors the team seems to be heading downhill. I'm not saying it's going to be like Arrows-Porsche all over again, but if this keeps up, it might.

Dishonorable Mentions:
- Perez: The tangle with Button was 50/50; yes Perez did appear to run wide but by the way the TV camera was positioned it seemed Button turned into Perez. Otherwise Perez should've been higher, but then again there was that dodgy pitstop. Can't really rate him for ROTR but he should've been higher.

- Lotus: Not really the drivers' fault for not finishing; Maldonado got punted into the barrier and Grosjean's car failed on the starting line. Still a black mark for the team which seemed to be in high spirits coming into the season.

A Very Coolman · Post by **A Very Coolman** » 15 Mar 2015, 23:46

Tonight's 3 picks are brought to you by another Mercedes pick...

3rd: Botched Pit Stops - Saved by my forgiving "At least it's the first race and not in Abby Dabby"

2nd: Renault - How to put a teenage boy's dream in smoke? Put him in a Renault-powered F1 car with the current engine Formula. Not to mention the horrid reliability with the other cars...

1st: Current State of F1 MERCWINSLOL, Backmarkers in trouble with funding, many teams with trouble (Looking at you, Sauber and Manor). It's tough to watch, but got to tank it out I suppose. It's hard to judge based off of one 2015 race, but it felt like more of the same at the front.

watka · Post by **watka** » 15 Mar 2015, 23:56

What a farce of a GP weekend. But I loved it (apart from the Mercedes running away at the front)!

Monisha Kaltenborn has to be the ROTR (btw, in my humble opinion the "award" should consider the whole GP weekend, not just the race) as anything that results in the threat of prison time is truly rejectworthy. All this from someone with experience in contract law. Sauber are not the first team to offer multiple race contracts I'm sure, but they were in the best position to know better.

Running Monisha close were Sergio Perez, McLaren and the starting grid. McLaren has produced an absolute plum pudding of a car and their pace was a joke. Perez then made a tit of himself by struggling with Button for most of the race in a car that has by far the best engine on the grid. And the grid itself, with 15 starters was an indication of the health of the sport. I was kind of willing for there to be 9 or less finishers to have the situation of unawarded points!

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 16 Mar 2015, 00:13

watka wrote:And the grid itself, with 15 starters was an indication of the health of the sport. I was kind of willing for there to be 9 or less finishers to have the situation of unawarded points!

I didn't want that since it would've made Manor's DNEverything really depressing.

Aguaman · Post by **Aguaman** » 17 Mar 2015, 05:59

I don't get into F1 politics much or politics of sport full stop.

So for me

1. Red Bull - So much expectation, so much went downhill - Seems like STR were like the top team

2. Button - I felt that K-Mag and Alonso were a better pairing. Jense seems like a driver that needs everything clicking. It didn't click.

To those that boo hoo the grid. I mean we would have had more cars if Lotus didn't have their 1st lap issue, Bottas didn't get injured, K-Mag and Kyvat didn't have their issues on the formation lap or the out lap. So I doubt these things will happen a lot.

Scrap Thistlethwayte · Post by **Scrap Thistlethwayte** » 17 Mar 2015, 11:31

ROTR - Mercedes for their reliability, performance and Lewis Hamilton's big gold chain.

We seem to have forgotten that we are here to celebrate rejectfulness. Best race ever.

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 17 Mar 2015, 12:43

It's probably the first time so few cars start a Formula 1 race without anyone actually boycotting it. (See Indianapolis 2005 or Imola 1982.)
Therefore I find the race weekend as a whole should be awarded the ROTR title.

LeytonHouse · Post by **LeytonHouse** » 18 Mar 2015, 11:33

McLaren Honda - I was genuinely excited when I heard the famous combination would be making a return to the sport in 2015 but every aspect of their Melbourne weekend was utterly rejectful. No Alonso, no power, last on the grid, last in the race, all topped off by a bland livery with no title sponsor. Hopefully, now they’ve hit rock bottom, things can only get better…

Renault - Riccardo’s start showed the drivability and power of the engine, it’s worse than last year.

pi314159 · Post by **pi314159** » 18 Mar 2015, 16:04

novitopoli wrote:It's probably the first time so few cars start a Formula 1 race without anyone actually boycotting it. (See Indianapolis 2005 or Imola 1982.)
Therefore I find the race weekend as a whole should be awarded the ROTR title.

It's not, but you have to go back to the 1950s and 1960s for that. One example is here.

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 18 Mar 2015, 16:28

pi314159 wrote:
novitopoli wrote:It's probably the first time so few cars start a Formula 1 race without anyone actually boycotting it. (See Indianapolis 2005 or Imola 1982.)
Therefore I find the race weekend as a whole should be awarded the ROTR title.

It's not, but you have to go back to the 1950s and 1960s for that. One example is here.

Oh right! Well I wasn't sure at all about that era of World Championship racing. I find it hard, though, to make a comparison between those times and the current era, as races were then still conceived (if I'm not wrong) as somehow "independent entities", more than as parts of a single championship...

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 21 Mar 2015, 17:41

I've been thinking long and hard about this one, given how many candidates there were at play. Do you give it to the most obvious candidate of all, McLaren, for their sharp tumble down to the absolute rear of the grid? To power units in general for being unreliable and/or woefully underpowered? Perhaps Monisha Kaltenborn for her mismanagement of the van der Garde situation, almost costing Sauber its shot at redemption?

Instead of coming up with a left field option, I'm going to play it straight and simple and hand ROTR to Sergio Perez. Clearly the Force India was not a great car last weekend, but he was the only strong ROTR candidate that made purely unforced errors. Every other candidate, were it to be Sauber for their pre-race shenanigans, McLaren, Honda, Red Bull, and Renault for their woeful performances, can be put down to a complicated series of events, ones with multiple factors contributing to their situation. Perez meanwhile had trouble dealing with the slowest car on the circuit, and simply didn't drive well in Melbourne.

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 21 Mar 2015, 19:20

Well, it's... official???

Jan Magnussen · Post by **Rob Dylan** » 21 Mar 2015, 20:28

Is Biscione our new leader? Long live the king, I guess...

roblo97 · Post by **roblo97** » 21 Mar 2015, 20:42

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:Well, it's... official???

Yeah, I think it is.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 21 Mar 2015, 20:49

Rob Dylan wrote:Is Biscione our new leader? Long live the king, I guess...

Excuse me? Biscione is god-emperor. (and an absolute adonis) :twisted:

Jan Magnussen · Post by **Rob Dylan** » 21 Mar 2015, 21:33

Tbh I don't know whose side I stand on come this revolution. The attempted coup-d'état by Captain Hammer of control of the ROTY rankings caused the whole website to go down for weeks! Officially I would like to point out that I do not believe Captain Hammer to be responsible for the shutdown of the F1Rejects forum (God rest its soul) but it's shutdown probably prevented a full-scale intra-forum war that would have occurred had it not have gone down. As it did we got an effective demilitarised zone in F1Fanatic where we could just remind ourselves that there are worse and more powerful enemies... Maybe I should create my own fraction parallel series where we judge the "least-good" driver of the race, or the LGDOTR. and the "driver or event that you didn't expect to be nearly as good as he/she/it was" of the race, or the DOETYDETBNAGAH/S/IWOTR.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 21 Mar 2015, 21:55

Well, Biscione and Nuppiz are the new site masters, having been given the reins by Jamie and Enoch. So they do have the responsibility for this decision now. Unlike the Captain, who is not a site master. Or a forum moderator...

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 21 Mar 2015, 22:27

This wrote:
Rob Dylan wrote:Is Biscione our new leader? Long live the king, I guess...

Excuse me? Biscione is god-emperor. (and an absolute adonis)

Good boy. *pats head*

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 21 Mar 2015, 23:09

Biscione wrote:
This wrote:
Rob Dylan wrote:Is Biscione our new leader? Long live the king, I guess...

Excuse me? Biscione is god-emperor. (and an absolute adonis)

Good boy. *pats head*

You dissapoint me master! Next time, call me princess!

But yeah, these guys are now webmasters and accepted by the majority of the forum, so i consider it as legit. Just like Dr Bakers taste of women is considered legit and the official forum truth.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 21 Mar 2015, 23:36

This wrote:But yeah, these guys are now webmasters and accepted by the majority of the forum, so i consider it as legit. Just like Dr Bakers taste of women is considered legit and the official forum truth.

Not to mention it's now on the main page, so that should suppress any opposition to the new regime.

Long live the king!

Jan Magnussen · Post by **Rob Dylan** » 22 Mar 2015, 00:27

Simtek wrote:
This wrote:But yeah, these guys are now webmasters and accepted by the majority of the forum, so i consider it as legit. Just like Dr Bakers taste of women is considered legit and the official forum truth.

Not to mention it's now on the main page, so that should suppress any opposition to the new regime.

Long live the king!

Your propaganda can't keep me down! Wake up sheeple, you're victims of the Biscionean dictatorship! All he's interested in is pushing forward his anti-Perez biases. Do you not see how he makes Sergio the enemy on our great forum?

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 22 Mar 2015, 03:24

Hmm... well, it's on the site, so it is non-jokingly official, but did Nuppiz enter into this?

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 22 Mar 2015, 10:42

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:Hmm... well, it's on the site, so it is non-jokingly official, but did Nuppiz enter into this?

Did Jamie ever enter the discussion before Enoch selected the ROTR? New regime, new rules. I would let our glorious overlords of benevolence sort out between themselves how they decide the ROTR award.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 22 Mar 2015, 11:44

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:Hmm... well, it's on the site, so it is non-jokingly official, but did Nuppiz enter into this?

Nuppiz's main job is keeping you nutjobs on the forum in check! He banhammers people who have been naughty - I leave the policing up to him and the team of other moderators. I focus instead on running the bits and bobs at the backend, making sure the site runs well enough and doesn't look like a bomb site, or end up infested with viruses like years gone by.

But Rob is spot on - you're now all being crushed under the iron fist of my rule