Reject of the Race - Brazil 2024

[Londoner]

1. Lance Stroll. The spin on the formation lap was already rejectful, but to then drive into a gravel trap by CHOICE?! Just...what the hell man

2. Race Control. Farcical nonsense all day, dangerously late calls in both qualifying and the race, the abandoned start stupidity, Bearman's insanely harsh 10 second penalty, what were they trying to achieve other than proving that the F1 rulebook is not fit for purpose.

[TomPryce]

SAUBER - Can't get points in that shitshow

STROLL - for obvious reasons.

DHM - RACE CONTROL

[Salamander]

1. Race Control - Legitimately dangerous all weekend, let's be fair. They did not give the slightest inkling that they knew at all what they were doing, or knew how they even got there in the first place.

2. Lance Stroll - LOL.

[golic_2004]

1. Lance Stroll: ‘nuff said

2. Everyone who predicted Alpine wouldn’t score a podium, let alone a double: including me

[rachel1990]

1. Lance Stroll. To go off and beach the car in the formation lap, that is Prost 91 bad. And Lance is not Prost. Absolute waste of time for Aston Martin to put that car back together after Quali.

2. Race Control. What in God's name was going on out there. An absolute fiasco of biblical proportions. Nice to see the Masi legacy carrying on.

Hm Sergio Perez. His teammate does one hell of an epic drive and he can't even get into the top 10 in a race of Chaos. Just fire him now.

[Ciaran]

Race control.

40.
bathplug.
Seconds.

That is all.

[RAK]

1) Lance Stroll: Turfing it off at the start of the race is always reject-worthy.

2) McLaren: Ceded a considerable chance to take the Drivers' Championship by the scruff of the neck to Verstappen.

Dishonourable Mentions: Sergio Perez, Race Control.

[sswishbone]

1) Lance Stroll - Pathetic, hang up the bloody keys

2) Nico Hulkenberg - dropping it and then getting disqualified is pretty rubbish

[mario]

SAUBER - Can't get points in that shitshow

STROLL - for obvious reasons.

DHM - RACE CONTROL

Unfortunately, it seems that some Verstappen fans were seizing on some of the decisions by race control to start shrieking that "the FIA is trying to rig the championship in Norris's favour" with mouth-frothing fury, and using it as an opportunity to stoke some rather mad conspiracy theories.

[satsuki4]

1. Lance Stroll - Obvious.

2. Race Control - Thank you for making this weekend such a shitshow!

[James1978]

Yeah Stroll gets it for comedy factor for me!

[Alextrax52]

Plenty of candidates

Dishonorable Mentions:

Sauber: By far the most chaotic race of the season and yet the only team without a point were still nowhere near the top 10 come the end

Sergio Perez: His team-mate puts in a drive for the ages while he can’t even pass the sister team cars or finish in the points, his time is done.

Lewis Hamilton: He’d have been better off driving Senna’s 1990 McLaren for the whole weekend. Absolutely nowhere yet again and it’s not like the car had no pace as Russell’s performance proved. He should be thanking his lucky stars he had that mid-season purple patch because without that I think he’d be a ROTY contender

Lando Norris: World class bottle job. Lost the start from pole yet again, lost positions on both restarts one of which was because of his own mistake and from looking like he was going to take a big bite out of Verstappen’s lead, instead it’s pretty much game over.

Race Control: I don’t like going in on them but things like the abandoned start make it impossible not to do so, the dangerously late calls for Safety cars and red flags is another carry on from the Masi days.

But it’s got to go to:

Lance Stroll: That’s up there with Wurz’s France 2000 moment in the brainfade stakes. The mistake itself has happened to the best of them, Prost at Imola 91 and Leclerc at this race last year but to then beach himself into the gravel trap when his initial incident was miles away from it was just utterly comical.

[Meatwad]

Williams drivers: Did they bring back Sargeant? Three wrecks in one day.

Dishonorable mention to Stroll.

[Har1MAS1415]

McLaren - Hands down! A great opportunity to close the gap to Max was right there for the taking! Instead, they have practically handed him his 4th title on a platter!

DHM: Sauber, still unable to salvage a point in what may well have been their golden opportunity to do so!

[Ducktanian]

It has to be Lance Stroll really. What a hilariously rejectful moment.

[BabyG]

Haven’t felt compelled to nominate a ROTR for 10 years but today was something special.

Lance Stroll’s body language told you that even he was aware that his off would do nothing to silence his critics. It’s hard to make a case that he deserves a place on the grid after that.

Lando Noris He couldn’t have asked for a better outcome to qualifying if he’d picked the grid himself. This was the race to get the big point swing that he needed to make the championship a realistic prospect. But in the end it was Verstappen who got the point swing. You’ve got to do your homework and know the rules so there was no excuse for his mistake on the aborted start. Okay so the timing of the red flag was outside of his control but two poor starts just show that he’s some way off being a world champion and that almost certainly won’t happen this year now. I’m sure he’ll look back at this race as the moment that ended his season. Time to focus on guaranteeing the CC for McLaren.

[Wallio]

Lando Norris - Pulled another Webber on the start and then choked away the race and followed it up by claiming Max's run from P17 to P1 was "all luck no talent" in the interview pen. Oh dear.

Williams - Another absolutely embarrassing display. Albon finally got his karma for Japan though.

Stroll - Spinning in the rain? Totally understandable. Driving it straight into the gravel at low speed and getting stuck? What the hell?

HM to Most of the British Press for skipping the podium interviews. As Max said, they all had planes to catch.

[IceG]

Been waiting for the outcomes of the stewards' investigations before commenting.

RoTR for me is undoubtedly Race Control and the Stewards.

(1) Russell, Norris and Tsunoda should have received AT LEAST 10 second penalties for leaving the grid when the aborted start sign came up. Not only did they break a procedure that the rest of the grid managed to follow, their actions resulted in cars driving round in the wet whilst a car was being recovered. I was expecting an exclusion for both Russell and Norris - once they had gone it was inevitable that everyone would have to go round again.

(2) I was expecting a proper penalty for the tyre pressure thing on the second grid for both Russell and Hamilton. Once again other teams got it correct so why be lenient on Mercedes? I assume the TD is to prevent shenanigans with heating or cooling brakes or topping up fluids so clearly related to safety and performance, and thus worthy of punishment.

It was a great race and a great spectacle. Such punishments would not have impacted the podiums nor the performances which made things great so there was not even an "entertainment" get-out clause.

Presumably the rule makers are now off "clarifying" the various documents...

[Salamander]

A late dishonourable mention for me goes to NASCAR. If you know, you know - if you don't, do yourself a favour and just take my word for it. It was Bad.

[tBone]

Lance Stroll is a slamdunk ROTR for me.

A very, very dishonorable mention for stewarding: starting with Johnny Herbert making some remarks in the media which suggests he would be anything but unbiased, and ending with extremely low penalties for the safety hazard of starting a lap while the start has been aborted.

[Ciaran]

What kind of leverage does Johnny Herbert have to still get appointed as a steward? How often do you see other 3-time GP winners Fisichella, Frentzen or Boutsen officiating?

[Row Man Gross-Gene]

I'm probably in the minority here (and I can be convinced otherwise) but I think fines were a sufficient punishment for the people who violated the starting grid rules in this instance. Beyond that I'm not sure what all Race Control and the stewards might have done to deserve ROTR. It seemed pretty standard to me.

For me, Stroll beaching it is a good, old-fashioned ROTR slam-dunk. One thing I'm curious about is whether the replay of him beaching was ever played, I didn't see it anywhere, but what a colossal bathplug that would have to have been, after him being shown pointing the wrong way but still on the tarmac.

[Salamander]

I'm probably in the minority here (and I can be convinced otherwise) but I think fines were a sufficient punishment for the people who violated the starting grid rules in this instance. Beyond that I'm not sure what all Race Control and the stewards might have done to deserve ROTR. It seemed pretty standard to me.

Well, nobody seemed to have any clue what was going on at the start, which is complete failure on their part to communicate what should be happening. Besides that, the severe delays to bring out red flags during qualifying when cars crashed was inexcusable.

[Row Man Gross-Gene]

I'm probably in the minority here (and I can be convinced otherwise) but I think fines were a sufficient punishment for the people who violated the starting grid rules in this instance. Beyond that I'm not sure what all Race Control and the stewards might have done to deserve ROTR. It seemed pretty standard to me.

Well, nobody seemed to have any clue what was going on at the start, which is complete failure on their part to communicate what should be happening. Besides that, the severe delays to bring out red flags during qualifying when cars crashed was inexcusable.

Red flags being delayed could be a serious issue, fair enough. Unfortunately I fell asleep about 3 minutes into qualifying so I never saw those instances. When it comes to the start issues, I wonder if the teams were really more at fault for not knowing the procedures than Race control for not making them known? I mean, multiple drivers on the grid knew they shouldn't be leaving, how did they know what the right procedure was? That said, it was a mess that didn't make F1 look terribly good, but nothing like some very stupid past shenanigans.

Still for me, Stroll is the most rejectful in the old-fashioned Jamie and Enoch way.

[BabyG]

For me, Stroll beaching it is a good, old-fashioned ROTR slam-dunk. One thing I'm curious about is whether the replay of him beaching was ever played, I didn't see it anywhere, but what a colossal bathplug that would have to have been, after him being shown pointing the wrong way but still on the tarmac.

There’s a couple of videos filmed from the stands floating about online and it really is as bad as you might have imagined. He seems to think about it for a long time and then proceeds to attempt to take the long way through the gravel trap. There really was only ever going to be one outcome!

What else could he have done? I don’t think he had enough room to swing it round to the right but it looks like there is a runoff area or service road that runs around the gravel trap that he could have followed round. Maybe? Does anyone know that runoff area well enough to go through his options.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/D9Yq93nioUY

[Row Man Gross-Gene]

For me, Stroll beaching it is a good, old-fashioned ROTR slam-dunk. One thing I'm curious about is whether the replay of him beaching was ever played, I didn't see it anywhere, but what a colossal bathplug that would have to have been, after him being shown pointing the wrong way but still on the tarmac.

There’s a couple of videos filmed from the stands floating about online and it really is as bad as you might have imagined. He seems to think about it for a long time and then proceeds to attempt to take the long way through the gravel trap. There really was only ever going to be one outcome!

What else could he have done? I don’t think he had enough room to swing it round to the right but it looks like there is a runoff area or service road that runs around the gravel trap that he could have followed round. Maybe? Does anyone know that runoff area well enough to go through his options.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/D9Yq93nioUY

Thanks for the link! I can't say for sure, but it looks to me like going through the gravel wasn't his only option. Yes, ROTR for me.

[takagi_for_the_win]

For me, Stroll beaching it is a good, old-fashioned ROTR slam-dunk. One thing I'm curious about is whether the replay of him beaching was ever played, I didn't see it anywhere, but what a colossal bathplug that would have to have been, after him being shown pointing the wrong way but still on the tarmac.

There’s a couple of videos filmed from the stands floating about online and it really is as bad as you might have imagined. He seems to think about it for a long time and then proceeds to attempt to take the long way through the gravel trap. There really was only ever going to be one outcome!

What else could he have done? I don’t think he had enough room to swing it round to the right but it looks like there is a runoff area or service road that runs around the gravel trap that he could have followed round. Maybe? Does anyone know that runoff area well enough to go through his options.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/D9Yq93nioUY

Easy peasy, ding ding ding, slam dunk winner right here. Can't look beyond someone who retired because they spun off on the warm-up lap before intentionally driving into a gravel trap and getting beached. Our benevolent Jenoch overlords would be proud.

[mario]

I'm probably in the minority here (and I can be convinced otherwise) but I think fines were a sufficient punishment for the people who violated the starting grid rules in this instance. Beyond that I'm not sure what all Race Control and the stewards might have done to deserve ROTR. It seemed pretty standard to me.

Well, nobody seemed to have any clue what was going on at the start, which is complete failure on their part to communicate what should be happening. Besides that, the severe delays to bring out red flags during qualifying when cars crashed was inexcusable.

Red flags being delayed could be a serious issue, fair enough. Unfortunately I fell asleep about 3 minutes into qualifying so I never saw those instances. When it comes to the start issues, I wonder if the teams were really more at fault for not knowing the procedures than Race control for not making them known? I mean, multiple drivers on the grid knew they shouldn't be leaving, how did they know what the right procedure was? That said, it was a mess that didn't make F1 look terribly good, but nothing like some very stupid past shenanigans.

Still for me, Stroll is the most rejectful in the old-fashioned Jamie and Enoch way.

The main complaint came from those questioning whether the red flags should have been deployed sooner for Stroll's accident in qualifying and complaining that race control was quicker to deploy them for other accidents. Some were claiming that, for Sainz, the red flag came out 27 seconds after the crash, whilst for Stroll it apparently took 52 seconds, with some deeming that to be too long to react.

Following Q2, Verstappen was then complaining about how long it took for the red flags to be shown, which resulted in a number of fans pushing the conspiracy theory that the red flag was delayed in Q2 to enable other drivers to set a better time in Q2 than Verstappen and thus ensure that he would go out.

Now, the conspiracy theory falls apart as soon as you look at the timing data - Leclerc knocked Verstappen out of Q2 within 2 seconds of Stroll's crash, so even a relatively quick decision to bring out the red flag wouldn't have saved Verstappen. However, whilst there may be some legitimate criticisms of race control, there does also seem to have been a deliberate fanning of the flames by some parties to push a particular agenda towards the FIA and to exaggerate the criticism of them.

Been waiting for the outcomes of the stewards' investigations before commenting.

RoTR for me is undoubtedly Race Control and the Stewards.

(1) Russell, Norris and Tsunoda should have received AT LEAST 10 second penalties for leaving the grid when the aborted start sign came up. Not only did they break a procedure that the rest of the grid managed to follow, their actions resulted in cars driving round in the wet whilst a car was being recovered. I was expecting an exclusion for both Russell and Norris - once they had gone it was inevitable that everyone would have to go round again.

With respect to the confusion over Norris mistakenly thinking that race control had asked for an additional formation lap, rather than aborting the start - it's been pointed out that, during the 2023 Italian GP, Carlos Sainz made the same mistake and pulled away from the grid on an additional formation lap when the race director showed the "aborted start" signal on the lighting gantry after Tsunoda broke down on the formation lap.

In that particular case, race control then ordered the drivers to proceed round on another formation lap, but once they returned to the grid, race control then switched back to following the procedures for an aborted start instead. In that instance, Sainz received no penalty for his actions and race control did not even investigate him for incorrectly pulling away and making the field do another formation lap instead.

It's therefore quite possible that Norris, Russell and Tsunoda all mistakenly thought that, by copying what Sainz did the last time there was an aborted start, they were doing the right thing.

[Row Man Gross-Gene]

I agree with your conclusions directly above Mario.

I'm happy to get on race control to always work to be better than they are, while acknowledging that perfection is likely impossible. Same with the stewards, though by that explanation, they're being pretty consistent (and I'm not aware that there are definite prescribed penalties at all for what Norris et al did).

I felt like the race weekend went smooth enough, considering how bad the weather was.

[IceG]

I'm not aware that there are definite prescribed penalties at all for what Norris et al did.

They failed to follow the race director's instructions. For which there are a range of specified penalties.

The fact that this has happened before (I forgot about Sainz' tribulations) might be a mitigation but (i) it was wet, (ii) there were marshals on track, and (iii) there was equipment on track - a known tragic combination.

One would hope after the previous mistakes, there would/should have been clarifications and tightened procedures. Seventeen (or eighteen - not sure about the Tsunoda situation) other drivers seem to have known what to do.

The next driver's briefing must surely cover this?

[mario]

I'm not aware that there are definite prescribed penalties at all for what Norris et al did.

They failed to follow the race director's instructions. For which there are a range of specified penalties.

The fact that this has happened before (I forgot about Sainz' tribulations) might be a mitigation but (i) it was wet, (ii) there were marshals on track, and (iii) there was equipment on track - a known tragic combination.

One would hope after the previous mistakes, there would/should have been clarifications and tightened procedures. Seventeen (or eighteen - not sure about the Tsunoda situation) other drivers seem to have known what to do.

The next driver's briefing must surely cover this?

It seems a few of the other drivers on the grid weren't entirely sure what was happening or whether they were expected to do another formation lap or not. It seems part of the problem was a reliance on the gantry lights, which some drivers found were unclear in those weather conditions, with no supplementary instructions from race control over the radio to the drivers.

Folowing the case of Sainz, there doesn't appear to have been any change in instructions issued to the drivers during their briefings or any follow-up actions by the FIA to review what might have gone wrong. It seems that the issue was therefore not addressed previously and thus probably did contribute to the failings in procedure in Brazil.

[Jarvis]

Lance Stroll: I don't think I need to give any reason because everyone already knows about it.