Grand Prix Rejects

Driver - Leclerc was off the boil all weekend, whilst Sargeant looked like he knew his career was over as he sat by the side of the race

Team - Ferrari seemed to not really turn up this weekend. Monza should be fun!

Mercedes seemed unusually scruffy on a rare weekend where they might have had a chance with rain being a great leveller.

AlphaTauri screwing up Tsunoda's strategy was one of the most frustrating mistakes (and he never recovered from it unlike some other drivers), so I'll nominate them.

Russell, Leclerc, Stroll and Alfa Romeo are all decent shouts.

But I have to go with McLaren's Strategists. 2nd quickest car in cool / changeable conditions and they made a bags of it. Particularly gimping Norris at the start by not calling him in.

HM to Alpha Tauri's Strategists for leaving Tsunoda out on no tires.

1) Charles Leclerc: Never really looked like he had the race in his hands at any stage. Was trundling around near the back before his retirement. An ignominous weekend.

2) George Russell: Decent qualifying, but came a cropper in the wet weather come race day.

F1 Strategists - Miguel said it best on the discord, where as soon as rain comes down all the strategists seem to lose their minds.

Leclerc - Failing to properly inform your team that you are about the enter the pits, as the potential great result turns into an ever-increasing nightmare race as time goes on is such a peak reject moment. "Hey, guys I'm entering the pits." "Wait, what?!"
This is especially funny after Leclerc basically telling the team what to do in Qualifying.

1. F1 Strategists- the audience could see the obvious, sky sports commentary could and yet these people who are paid a fortune couldn't? ffs

2nd Leclerc- another day to forget. Dreadful race. Again

1. Leclerc - crash in qualifying and then late information that he's coming in. A small touch which affected his car and eventually probably caused the retirement

2. Mercedes - Bad strategy calls

I might go for one thing that is outside of the usual remit, which is the celebrations by Red Bull's mechanics.

Before the race, the circuit owners apparently went to quite a bit of effort to tell fans that flares had been banned from the circuit, with Imre van Leeuwen, the director of the race, putting out a TV campaign to warn fans not to bring flares to the circuit, telling fans about the potential health risks associated with breathing in the fumes from the flares and warning them that they could be thrown out of the circuit if they let them off.

However, after the race, Red Bull's mechanics decided that they were going to celebrate by letting off the same flares that the organisers had been telling fans not to bring to the circuit. It's completely undermined the message that the circuit organisers were putting out and normalised the use of flares in exactly the way that the organisers did not want fans to do (not to mention there is the question of whether it might actually constitute a criminal act, given that flares are officially a controlled pyrotechnic device).

Loads to choose from this week:

Danny Ric - Literally every kid in karts knows you let go of the wheel. Incredibly amateurish.

George Russell - "Wahhhhhh!!!! I wAs FoReCaSt A pOdIuM!"

Lance Stroll - Maybe those tennis rumors have merit?

Esteban Ocon - Full wets WERE the right choice. Take the L dude.

But my choice is:

Sergio Perez: Be thankful you got "screwed" on pits stops. Because otherwise you would have thrown away a win yourself, instead of just a podium.

Wallio wrote: ↑28 Aug 2023, 16:12 Loads to choose from this week:

Danny Ric - Literally every kid in karts knows you let go of the wheel. Incredibly amateurish.

George Russell - "Wahhhhhh!!!! I wAs FoReCaSt A pOdIuM!"

Lance Stroll - Maybe those tennis rumors have merit?

Esteban Ocon - Full wets WERE the right choice. Take the L dude.

But my choice is:

Sergio Perez: Be thankful you got "screwed" on pits stops. Because otherwise you would have thrown away a win yourself, instead of just a podium.

Not bad, mostly agree. George's line was a bit tone-deaf, but I try to give the benefit of the doubt.

Charles Leclerc: This weekend finally convinced me that’s he’s not a generational talent in the mould of Verstappen. I don’t think he had a clean session all weekend with multiple practice offs, the crash in qualifying and then the collision with Norris which damaged his car and yet another horrible strategic miscommunication which left his team not ready with inters. Champions simply don’t have those weekends where if anything can go wrong it does. Yes the Ferrari wasn’t at the races all weekend but Sainz showed the result that could be achieved with a mature approach.

Mercedes: Normally the masters at being effective from an operational point of view but any hopes of a strong result were effectively over after the first 4 laps by misjudging the rain

Logan Sargeant: Had the pace as proved by his reaching Q3 but undid it all by driving like a hyperactive kitten resulting in 2 crashes

Strategists: I think that’s been discussed to death already

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote: ↑28 Aug 2023, 17:30 Logan Sargeant: Had the pace as proved by his reaching Q3 but undid it all by driving like a hyperactive kitten resulting in 2 crashes

I saw a report on Reddit that Sargeant's race crash was caused by an hydraulic failure so he lost the power steering. But still...

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote: ↑28 Aug 2023, 17:30 Charles Leclerc: This weekend finally convinced me that’s he’s not a generational talent... I don’t think he had a clean session all weekend...

Yep not a great weekend for him, but Max and Lewis have had multiple weekends like this as well. It's just easy to forget after they've piled up multiple championships.