Grand Prix Rejects

based on the assumption that, at any moment in time, there is a non-zero probability that even the slowest, most inexperienced and least reliable of underdogs might win the race. That under every rock, there might be a gold nugget. This is the award for that first podium that we all celebrate, for the overtake no-one was expecting, for Ericsson's first win. This is the award, in short, for the driver or team that makes you go "Woah! Where did THAT come from?!".

Just remember: this is a feel-good award, that will focus on nothing but track action.
Usual rules: everyone gets two votes. First vote is worth 10 points, the second 6.

Post your results until April 5 @ 1800 GMT.


My picks;
1st Stoffel Vandoorne
A debutant thrown in the deep end, scoring a point with the boat provided to him by McLaren. It's hard to imagine either Button or Alonso faring any better.

2nd Kevin Magnussen
To come so close to points, having started from the pit-lane in a car that appears to belong to the back of the field along with Sauber and Manor, was an impressive end result.

1. Vandoorne - Drop me in a car I've never driven before on the weekend of the race? No problem, I'll outqualify my team mate and score a point.

2. Grosjean - I was torn between him & Wehrlein, cos I suspect as the season goes on, Grosjean's Haas in 5th won't be the most uncommon of sights, but it's still a very good result for a new team. (Even if the car might be 40% Ferrari)

Hon Mention: Wehrlein.

1. Werhelin
2. Pantorne

1. Stoffel Vandoorne
2. Romain Grosjean

Honourable mentions: Marcus Ericsson Pascal Wehrlein Kevin Magnussen

1) All the young guns - Vandoorne on scoring points, Werhlein on beating both force indias on pace, Magnussen on a stunning fightback from pitlane start, even Verstappen shut up and talked on the track.

2) Grosjean - a track where I did not expect the anomaly from Australia to be repeated, not only repeated, but bettered! Simply superb

Stoffel Vandoorne (10 points)
Worry not, fly me in from Japan and I'll out-qualify my World Champion team-mate and score my team's first point of the season. LOL.

Pascal Wehrlein (6 points)
The man drove the Manor like it was a... Force India maybe? Whatever the lowest-midfielder-to-not-be-a-backmarker car is.

1st choice - Vandoorne for out qualifying button and taking a point on his debut.

2nd choice - wehrlein for challenging for 12th and completely outclassing force India. Give him some downforce and he'll score points.

1. Vandoorne
2. Wehrlein

1. Stoffel Vandoorne: One of the greatest debut races in recent memory. Outqualifying Button was already impressive, but the race was even better: several nice overtakes and a very deserved point. As I said before, this man should be in F1.
2. Romain Grosjean: Another impressive race for the new team. Shame about the failed pit stop, otherwise fourth place could have been his.

Honorable mentions: Kimi Räikkönen, Pascal Wehrlein

1) Pascal Wehrlein: Racing for 12th at the end, on pure merit. Excellent qualifying as well. Pity Haryanto seems to be a bit of a donkey, because Manor look closer to the rest of the pack this year than before.

2) Romain Grosjean: Illustrating that his result last week wasn't just a flash in the pan.

Honourable Mention: Stoffel Vandoorne - Solid result for a rookie.

1. Wehrlein
2. Grosjean

1. Pascal Wehrlein
2. Kimi Raikkonen

1) Stoffel Vandoorne. Given the short-term notice, I didn't think he'd make much of an impression. I certainly did not expect him to outperform Button and score Mclaren's first point of the season! Heres hoping that he gets another race before Alonso come back to the seat.

2) Pascal Wehrlein. Stuck it to Sauber and the midfield all race, just trying to find a way to get in the points. Losing to Ericsson costs them in the constructors standings, but so far Manor looks to have the pace to potentially beat Sauber and maybe Renault on race pace alone!

Honorable Mentions:
Romain Grosjean. Another strong drive by the new Haas team. Moving from the ailing Lotus certainly looks like the smart move now!
Kevin Magnussen. Did a good job trying to sneak into the points. Renault may have a chance to get on the board yet...

1. Vandoorne
2. Wehrlein

HM - Grosjean, Ericsson, Raikkonen

1. Stoffel
2. Grosjean

HM - Nico Rosberg, Carlos Brathwaite, Marlon Samuels, Marcus Ericsson and Wehlrein.

1. Vandoorne - no further comment needed.
2. Wehrlein - faster than the Force Indias!

No HM to Grosjean because it seems that this is the actual performance level of Haas. Still impressive for a new team, but I'm not going to consider 5th and 6th places "improbable" from now on.

1) Stoffel Vandoorne: The new rookie sensation put to shame their more experienced (and WDC) teammates with a solid drive and points for the revitalized McLaren Honda.

2)Pascal Wehrlein: Another rookie sensation that has come to grip with a potential rocket car, getting ahead of seemingly powerful cars.

Honorable mention to Romain Grosjean (On it's way to unrejectify the mighty Haas)

1. Vandoorne not bad
2. Wehrlein - beating force indias! good job!!

1) Wehrlein - I have to agree with the general feeling that was a very impressive performance, especially given the concerns about their tyre wear after their performance in Melbourne. Whether they can keep this performance up is another manner, but if there are a few more races with high attrition this season, might we even see Manor sneak a points finish this season?

2) Vandoorne - as others have said, given the difficult circumstances he faced, he put in a very mature performance and some very bold passing moves on track.

Grosjean definitely deserves an honourable mention for this race - very authoritative and clean passing moves, and I imagine that his credit with other teams in the field must be rising very rapidly now. Perhaps the only reason why I'm not rating him higher is because it is beginning to feel like the VF16 really is that competitive, such that we might be starting to get used to seeing Grosjean that far up the field.

1. The Flemish guy
2. That French guy again

1. Pascal Wehrlein - He is the real deal alright. Really looking forward to see what he can do at a power circuit like Monza, that car is, in the words of Kevin Magnussen, "a rocketship"

2. Stoffel Vandoorne - I really hope this isn't the only time we see him in F1.

Honourable mentions to Marcus Ericsson and Haas F1

1. Wehrlein
2. Vandoorne

1. Haas Backed up that debut 6th place and then some and they didn't even need to benefit from a red flag this time. As they seem to be able to mix it with Red Bull and Williams, I now believe they have a genuine chance at the top 5 in the constructors, which of course would make them the first debut team to achieve that since Jordan in 1991.

2. Stoffel Vandoorne Just sign him up for 2017 already.

Honurable mention to Pascal Werhlein for a feisty effort, beating Nasr and nearly Ericsson on merit. I'm not including the Force Indias since they screwed up today.

1. Manor is like a rocket on the straights!
2. Stoffel

1. Romain Grosjean - even if it's just that the Haas is a decent midfield car that performs exactly to its ability in Romain Grosjean's hands, he's still outperforming his team mate handily.
2. Stoffel Vandoorne - the only McLaren driver to have a point this season, decent debut.

1. Stoffel Vandoorne: turns up on Friday from Japan, jumps into the McLaren, and drives with purpose. It would be easy for him to take it steady and get used to an F1 weekend, but he wasn't afraid to roll up his sleeves. Very, very impressive.

2. Pascal Wehrlein: When was the last time you saw a Manor fighting cars from other teams? Like Vandoorne, Wehrlein looks like a future star.

HM: Romain Grosjean, for going one better than Melbourne. I'm so happy he's in a car that he just seems to have a bond with.

1. Romain Grosjean

2. Stoffel Vandoorne

1. Vandoorne
2. Wehrlein

Vandoorne - Out qualified Button and had strong race to take the Mclaren to a points finish.

Wehrlein - Had the measure of the Force India's, The Manor does seem to be a quick car can see them scoring points this season.

HM
Ericsson - Had a strong race comfortably ahead of Nasr
Haas - How many expected them to start the season the way they have

1. Vandoorne. Stunning. I suspect a few drivers will be checking the timescale on their contracts this evening.
2. Grosjean. Very pleased for the guy.

HM. Manor - they've got their act together.

1. Grosjean
Proved Oz wasn't a fluke with another cracking clean drive, and Haas are a breath of fresh air going for a really racy strategy which he capitalised on unlike some teams *ahem Williams*, Maranello called , they'd like their good engines back.

2. Weirlien
Getting Manor more TV time Manor gets all season normally not counting being lapped, made Force India look like HRT.

For Vandoorne to hop into the woefully powered Mclaren under the pressure of filling Alonso''s shoes, out qualify Button AND score the teams first points is simply remarkable. Good on him.

1st: Stoffel Vandoorne - The Belgian Waffle had to high-tail it out of Japan during Super Formula testing and jump into the McHonda. Then he outqualifies Button (albeit by a few hundredths of a second) and brings the car home in the points on debut without much issue. That should give McHonda something to feel happy about after Button's ICE (not ERS) failed.

2nd: Pascal Wehrlein - Performed rather handily in the MRT car. Demolished (somewhat expectedly) his teammate, but then proceeds to give Force India (who were having a woeful race) some headaches. This guy should be the one to give MRT their first points very soon.

I'll give Romain Grosjean an honorable mention. The 6th at Melbourne wasn't a complete fluke, and it seems that Haas made a very respectable package for their first season. Although I don't expect it the nice results to last if those reports of the car being "almost done" turn out to be true.

1. Rio Haryanto - as if I have to say why
2. Haas F1 Team - it was improbable in my opinion that they'd actually be as consistently capable as they are, therefore I'm giving them 2nd.


Honourable mention to laps 1 and 2 - the rest of the race couldn't possibly live up to that, but it was worth watching the race for those first laps alone.

1. Stoffel Vandoorne - impressive debut, outqualifying Button and managing to hold on to a point.
2. Romain Grosjean - Haas's getting way faster than we thought on the way to unrejectifying themselves.

I think we've already got a slam-dunk winner. But ever so I'll give the number one award to Stoffel Vandoorne, though I reserve the right to also give him ROTY in Super Formula if he doesn't blitz the field.

Second place goes - again - to Rrrrrrmmmnnn Grrrrjjjjnnnn who's unrejectified himself for the season in an all-new team. Tony Fernandes must be crying into his... whatever it is they drink in Malaysia, and I'll bet Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen aren't too happy either.

18 points for Haas now after two races - McLaren managed a mere 27 in the whole of last season...

1 - Wehrlein
2 - Vandoorne

Because merit.

I also go with 1- Wehrlein as he did light up the grand prix weekend. Great Performance from him, and 2- Vandoorne because scoring his team first points when two former WDC use to drive for the team is awesome. He was also less anonymous than his team-mates usually are, but that might have been due to his debut.

1. The Stoff - because he has no time at all to prepare and brought it home in the points, beating Button for pace too
2. Romain Grosjean - 6th on the unique Albert Park circuit was great. 5th on the more normal Bahrain circuit was excellent.

HMs - Pascal Wehrlein - Could easily have picked him, best showing of a Manor since Jules Bianchi's drives, Daniil Kvyat - drive a good race to finish 7th from a crumby starting position

I'm going to go for Grosjean for 10pts simply because I'm a homer and because I was genuinely surprised that he finished 5th. He won't get my vote in china though even if he finishes 5th again, unless he does it from the back of the grid. I still have to believe that the Haas will be falling back to earth soon though. They just can't keep it up, can they?

6pts for Wehrlein. Anytime a manor driver impresses, he deserves some credit even if it isn't the worst car this year.