Your Reject of the Race - Australia

[Captain Hammer]

First of all, this isn't an attempt at swaying or influencing the decision as to who gets the dubious honour of winning this award in the race write-ups. Rather, it's an attempt at discussing who was the most worthy of being dubbed Reject of the Race, because as the Australian Grand Pix proved, there were half a dozen candidates:

Heikki Kovalainen - began the season in the traditional way, with a first-corner accident.
Sebastian Bourdais - upstaged by rookie team-mate all weekend.
Jarno Trulli - threw away podium and commanding second place in Constructors' Championship for Toyota with foolish pass under the safety car.
Giancarlo Fisichella - missed his pitbox, claimed he was used to it being further back up pit lane (in the opposite direction to which he was going).
Kazuki Nakajima - inexperience is the great equaliser.
Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica - didn't give each other any room.
Ferrari - two Australian Grands Prix, two double-DNFs.
Force India - overzealous Sutil and Fisichella nearly took each other out for no reason at all.
Red Bull, Ferrari and Renault - "Spirit of the Rules" a thinly-veiled attempt at getting other cars thrown out to make themselves more competitive.
The Australian Commentators - played up Webber's chances all weekend and assured the Australian public he would take his maiden victory.
Last Year's "Reject of the Year" Awards - wait, who's that guy out front again?

Right now, I think I'm going to give my award to Red Bull, Ferrari and Renault. As I outlined in the thread on the diffusers, this "Spirit of the Rules" bullsh*t is a kick in the pants. They're trying to get the Brawn, Williams and Toyota parts declared illegal to make themselves more competitive and then dressing it up as being some altruistic move on their behalf. If those parts are illegal, then yes: they should be banned. But Red Bull, Ferrari and Renault can't go about claiming they're doing it for the benefit of the sport when they clearly have a lot more to gain than the sport itself does by having those parts banned. In fact, I'd say Formula One as a whole loses if the competition is culled off by teams running to the stewards because somebody was cleverer than them. Suck it up, you three (four if you count BMW, who didn't lodge their protest properly).

So ... who gets your Reject of the Race?

[Bort]

I think it should be awarded to the race stewards for their extremely unbalanced rulings.
No punishment for the opening corner crash, yet harsh penalties against Vettel.

(Neither incident warranted penalties in my view, before you all assume I think someone should be punished for the opening action.)

[thehemogoblin]

I'm going with the guys in red here. That's about the most egregious violation of Ferrarism ever. Last time they did double DNF consecutive years at a GP was 1996 and 1997 in Britain.

[wombat]

would have to be kimi when he dropped his Finlandia in the cockpit, looked down to find it and crashed into the wall

any good pilot can steer with a beer in one hand - why not with a bottle of vodka

or was he just practicing for his next rally

[TomWazzleshaw]

In my opinion Nakajima should only get a honourable mention at best. Then again he did run across the Turn 4 exit kerb which is a big no-no.
So my pick for ROTR would be Ferrari. Simply because not only was it a Double DNF again it's actually the 3rd time in 4 years that neither Ferrari has finished at Albert Park.

[Salamander]

This is a pretty difficult choice, but I'm going to go with Bourdais here. To be upstaged by a rookie teammate all weekend who no-one thought was going to do very well at all was bad enough. But to give such a lame excuse as, 'The sun was in my eyes' after qualifying, that was true rejectdom.

[uh_clem]

Vettel and Kubica. For being a couple of boneheads.

[Nin13]

FORCELESS INDIA!!!!!!!!!!!

[Henrique]

This is a pretty difficult choice, but I'm going to go with Bourdais here. To be upstaged by a rookie teammate all weekend who no-one thought was going to do very well at all was bad enough. But to give such a lame excuse as, 'The sun was in my eyes' after qualifying, that was true rejectdom.

Agreed. Double touché

[Debaser]

Richard Branson gets my reject of the race for forcing the TV cameras to look at his stupid face constantly in and around the Brawn garage. Just because Brawn have a new sponsor doen't mean we have to cut to him every 10 minutes.

[Lainey]

My vote is for the safety car.

Took way too long to come out after Nakajima went off and stayed out there forever so we got a nice long parade.

Then having to come out for the end of the race (wasn't really anybodies fault but Vettel and Kubica though), but still, I don't want to see races end under caution.

[FerrariStu]

Eddie Jordan (sorry for those who don't get to see BBC coverage - at least you don't have to listen to the EJit).

After the race, they handed "back to the Studio" for sound only and the first thing he said was ... "When I was growing up in Ireland all those years ago........"

- he is the "hole in the head" that you just don't need in F1 coverage

Fab you have your own forum now guys - The Oz podcasts were A1 (not A1GP thank heavens)

[guugoo]

hamilton. and for the rest of the season as well. just because.

[Frentzen127]

In my opinion at least, Eddie Jordan is WIN.
No matter what he does or what he says.
Except courtrooms. If he's in court you just KNOW he's going to lose.

[BB01]

ROTR should be Brawn GP - one race in and already can't have a reject profile

[FerrariStu]

In my opinion at least, Eddie Jordan is WIN.
No matter what he does or what he says.
Except courtrooms. If he's in court you just KNOW he's going to lose.

[Captain Hammer]

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new challenger! It's none other than the reigning World Champion himself, Mr. Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton, who has quite literally just been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix for what the stewards describe as "providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards at the hearing on 29 March". In other words, he lied. When he let Trulli past, Hamilton had been instructed to do so by his team, but he later claimed to the race officials that he had been distracted by a message on his readout.

This just begs the question ... why, Lewis? Was gaining one extra championship point really worth it? All I can say is tht you reap what you sow, because now you have nothing. Indeed, you're considered to have come last in the race ...

[FerrariStu]

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new challenger! It's none other than the reigning World Champion himself, Mr. Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton, who has quite literally just been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix for what the stewards describe as "providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards at the hearing on 29 March". In other words, he lied. When he let Trulli past, Hamilton had been instructed to do so by his team, but he later claimed to the race officials that he had been distracted by a message on his readout.

This just begs the question ... why, Lewis? Was gaining one extra championship point really worth it? All I can say is tht you reap what you sow, because now you have nothing. Indeed, you're considered to have come last in the race ...

...... and to think they'd just finished airbrushing Jarno out of the podium pictures as well.

Mr Hamilton, will you ever learn to keep Schtum?

[runningboots]

My reject is Raikonnen. Unless he had a mechanical problem, spinning off was unforgivable.

If it was mechanical, then Nakajima gets it for spinning after touching a kerb when there is an acre of concret on the other side he could have used.

[CarlosFerreira]

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new challenger! It's none other than the reigning World Champion himself, Mr. Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton, who has quite literally just been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix for what the stewards describe as "providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards at the hearing on 29 March". In other words, he lied. When he let Trulli past, Hamilton had been instructed to do so by his team, but he later claimed to the race officials that he had been distracted by a message on his readout.

This just begs the question ... why, Lewis? Was gaining one extra championship point really worth it? All I can say is tht you reap what you sow, because now you have nothing. Indeed, you're considered to have come last in the race ...

Bourdais was in for it, in my opinion, until this came along. I'm voting for McLaren: produced an awful car and then cooked up some way to put its pilot in 3rd by disqualifying the guy in front - when they should have been happy to collect some points. Very unsportsmanlike, and Lewis Hamilton gets away with a tarnished rep as well.

[LukeB]

McLaren arn't very good at this "honesty" thing.

[thehemogoblin]

Lewis Hamilton gets ROTR now... undisputedly.

[midgrid]

Reject of the Stewards' Room, perhaps?

[CarlosFerreira]

Lewis Hamilton gets ROTR now... undisputedly.

I'll still go for McLaren. They probably messed up so much because they were desperate for any points they could gather, so uncompetitive is the car.

[Cynon]

Here's a more subtle point...

Ferrari -- Failing to score a point in the season opener for the first time since 1992.

[kb9vrg]

I gotta say Lewis / McLaren there - especially with the whole "oh, I don't remember that" bit with the stewards.

[Gumby]

Hi Everyone

My reject for this year's Aussie GP is definitely..... Bernie !!

Why - Because he was responsible for us wasting a beautiful, clear and sunny Melbourne afternoon WAITING until 5pm for the GP to start !!!!!

I'm definitely "old school" when it comes to F1 and i believe GP's should start at 2pm sharp. Prime daylight and viewing time for the supporter's who hand over their hard earned $$$ to attend their favourite sport each year. Not to mention prime "racing time" for the drivers themselves. No setting sun glare issues at that time of a Sunday arvo...

So Bernie(Bring on the European TV audiences bucks) it is

Cheers G