ROTR China 2012

[Warren Hughes]

ROTR = me:

Warren Hughes' Predictions
2012 Chinese Grand Prix:
1. Button
2. Vettel
3. Schumacher
4. Hamilton
5. Webber
6. Alonso
7. Perez
8. Raikkonen
9. Maldonado
10. Hulkenberg

Pole: Schumacher
Fastest lap: Hamilton
First Retirement: Ricciardo
ROTR: Rosberg
IIDOTR: Schumacher
DBTMOTR: Massa
Minor League Premiership: Grosjean
Non-Qualifiers: None

[dr-baker]

The forum server.

Yes, this. If I were not spending so long repeatedly attempting to access this, I would have had more time to work on a university assignment...

[Sublime_FA11C]

I nominate Team Lotus for Raikkonen's race strategy. Specifically not changing their 2-stop to a 3-stop plan and instead trying to desperatley block a huge gaggle of cars for 10-12 laps. That was never going to work and it was stupidly risky with so many drivers on his tail. They let him drop from 2nd to 14th and completely blew a good performance.

[tristan1117]

I nominate Force India because they have really dropped into anonymity with STR and Massa at the tail end of the midfield. Not where they wanted to be.

[Enforcer]

Wheel Guns cost Schumacher his race and robbed us of a potential great scrap to the line between Button and Rosberg, as good as it was to see Rosberg win.

Length of the DRS Zone is another good candidate. It was arguably too easy last year, but this year, there were more trains than during Trulli's Toyota hayday.

Sauber turned a good qualifying performance into 1 point and nearly had the two drivers take each other out into the bargain.

But I have to go Raikkonen and his strategist. I don't think the 2 stop decision was made without any input from the driver, and other drivers, including his team-mate Crashjean, made it work. Being overtaken 7 times in the space of a lap without a mechanical failure is a fairly epic embarassment.

[tristan1117]

ROTR = me:

Warren Hughes' Predictions
2012 Chinese Grand Prix:
1. Button
2. Vettel
3. Schumacher
4. Hamilton
5. Webber
6. Alonso
7. Perez
8. Raikkonen
9. Maldonado
10. Hulkenberg

Pole: Schumacher
Fastest lap: Hamilton
First Retirement: Ricciardo
ROTR: Rosberg
IIDOTR: Schumacher
DBTMOTR: Massa
Minor League Premiership: Grosjean
Non-Qualifiers: None

Don't be too hard on yourself. Wizzie predicted that Rosberg would be ROTR and DBTMOTR.

[Warren Hughes]

ROTR = me:

Warren Hughes' Predictions
2012 Chinese Grand Prix:
1. Button
2. Vettel
3. Schumacher
4. Hamilton
5. Webber
6. Alonso
7. Perez
8. Raikkonen
9. Maldonado
10. Hulkenberg

Pole: Schumacher
Fastest lap: Hamilton
First Retirement: Ricciardo
ROTR: Rosberg
IIDOTR: Schumacher
DBTMOTR: Massa
Minor League Premiership: Grosjean
Non-Qualifiers: None

Don't be too hard on yourself. Wizzie predicted that Rosberg would be ROTR and DBTMOTR.

Maybe we should get a joint award then.

[East Londoner]

F1 Rejects - I think it's time (if he has time) Jamie had a bloody good lookaround and clean-up of the forum software, because it was totally unusable this morning, when I wanted to discuss the race as it unfolded.

Felipe Massa - Just how many cars was he holding up before he pitted?

Kimi Raikkonen - 2nd to 10th in the space of a lap. And finished 14th...

Wheelguns - Cost Schumi and Button dearly.

[James1978]

I was so enthralled I didn't really notice who was really crap. All I can really think of is Raikkonen (even Massa was better than usual!)

[Pamphlet]

Felipe Massa - Just how many cars was he holding up before he pitted?

What? He had badly worn tyres and was on a different strategy. If anything, that's exactly what he should've done. Only finished 5 seconds behind Alonso too.

As for RotR, my vote goes to Eric Boullier for blaming Kimi for their horrendous strategy and horrible pit crew.

Massa ney sayers. He actually drove a very good race and had he been a little luckier would have scored a good haul of points, the Sky commentators kept nagging him for holding up cars but he was ahead of them on merit, had Vettel or Webber needed to pit again (like it looked like they would of had to at one stage) they would of been behind him, yet the commentators missed this. (Sure it's a rant but I needed a 2nd nomination somewhere.)

Honorable mention to this.

[Sunshine_Baby_[IT]]

Schumacher's pitstop.

[Shizuka]

It has to be Schumacher's pitstop... causing Michael to be the ONLY retirement of the race!
Also Räikkönen's strategy, seems like Lotus is not kind on tires... and then, Sauber only scored one single point.

[Ataxia]

F1 Rejects Because a) the site wouldn't work this morning, and b) we jinxed Kobayashi.
Wheelguns Forced the Merc mechanic to look like he was conducting an orchestra.
Jarno Trulli Even though he's not there any more, there was a Trulli train the length of Michael Winner's bill at a restaurant.

[Shadaza]

Schumacher's pit stop. Genuinely felt sorry for Michael Schumacher for once, would of been interesting to see where he would of ended up.
Massa ney sayers. He actually drove a very good race and had he been a little luckier would have scored a good haul of points, the Sky commentators kept nagging him for holding up cars but he was ahead of them on merit, had Vettel or Webber needed to pit again (like it looked like they would of had to at one stage) they would of been behind him, yet the commentators missed this. (Sure it's a rant but I needed a 2nd nomination somewhere.)

Honourable mention F1 Rejects Forum for being virus ridden.

[Stramala]

1st // F1Rejects.com // A pathetic showing by the website today, incredibly slow and crash-prone, really living up to its name.
2nd // Jean Todt // He has been practising how to dodge tricky questions from a very badly written guidebook.

[AdrianSutil]

1. F1rejects forum. I always look forward to race day, especially discussing the race as it's actually going on. From 7am till now I've been trying to log in every half hour or so. Once I managed it, before posting quickly and being cut off. Of all the times this forum had to crash, it happened during a race

2. Schumacher's pitstop. As soon as he pulled away I knew a wheel wasn't fastened correctly. I doubt he wouldve won, but he might have sneaked a podium. Merc mechanic gets eight weeks in "ze cooler".

[F1 Adam]

Kimi's strategy for me, that really was a horrendous lap or two. Special mention for Eddie Jordan trying to blame Raikkonen rather than the tyres.

I was particularly happy to see Massa in the lead for 3/4s of a lap!

[mario]

Schumacher's botched pit stop takes the award for me - the chief mechanics haste in sending Schumacher out cost them dearly, as I suspect that Schumacher might well have been able to get his car onto the podium as well. It could well have been a 1-2 for Mercedes in the circumstances, which would have put them into 3rd in the WCC - the team might come to rue those lost points at the end of the season...

Enforcer, though, makes a good point about Sauber - we were all talking about Kobayashi's chances, only for him to fall back to 10th place and play a minor role in the evolution of the race, whilst Perez also lost ground and ended up failing to score any points at all. Neither driver could really get their strategies to work, even though Sauber tried covering its rivals by stopping Kamui three times and Perez twice - before the squabbling between Perez and Kobayashi very nearly cost Sauber the one point it got for 10th.

As for Kimi, it looks like the team were trying to be a bit too clever for its own good by switching Kimi from what looked like a planned three stop to a two stop strategy. That said, whilst it may have been asking a lot for Kimi to manage his tyres for 28 laps, Grosjean managed to keep his tyres together for 24 laps and still kept pumping in 1m41's right up to, and including, the very last lap, so you have to wonder whether Kimi's driving style played its part (the commentators did note that he was spinning his rear tyres in the slower corners, and the current tyres do tend to overheat and break down more rapidly if you spin them up too much).

[WeirdKerr]

1 The wheel gun guy on Micheal's pit stop...

appart from that it was a good race...

(and myself for sleeping in and missing qually yesterday...)

[Pamphlet]

Schumacher's botched pit stop takes the award for me - the chief mechanics haste in sending Schumacher out cost them dearly, as I suspect that Schumacher might well have been able to get his car onto the podium as well. It could well have been a 1-2 for Mercedes in the circumstances, which would have put them into 3rd in the WCC - the team might come to rue those lost points at the end of the season...

Enforcer, though, makes a good point about Sauber - we were all talking about Kobayashi's chances, only for him to fall back to 10th place and play a minor role in the evolution of the race, whilst Perez also lost ground and ended up failing to score any points at all. Neither driver could really get their strategies to work, even though Sauber tried covering its rivals by stopping Kamui three times and Perez twice - before the squabbling between Perez and Kobayashi very nearly cost Sauber the one point it got for 10th.

As for Kimi, it looks like the team were trying to be a bit too clever for its own good by switching Kimi from what looked like a planned three stop to a two stop strategy. That said, whilst it may have been asking a lot for Kimi to manage his tyres for 28 laps, Grosjean managed to keep his tyres together for 24 laps and still kept pumping in 1m41's right up to, and including, the very last lap, so you have to wonder whether Kimi's driving style played its part (the commentators did note that he was spinning his rear tyres in the slower corners, and the current tyres do tend to overheat and break down more rapidly if you spin them up too much).

As a note, it's been confirmed by multiple sources - Kimi, Boullier, other people at Lotus etc - that the plan was for a 2-stop strategy. Kimi pitted early, had problems with Massa and the marbles sealed the deal.

Although this brings up the question of how the team expected him to survive for 28 laps with used mediums...

[Nuppiz]

Räikkönen's strategy, and the current tyres that lose just about all of the grip very suddenly

Honourable mention to whoever botched Schumi's pitstop.

[Minardi Man]

1) Pitstops, both Schumachers and Buttons.

2) Whoever told Raikonen to stay out.

Honourary mention to BBC anouncing a completely wrong constructors leaderboard at the end of the race, looked like it was just an old one to be fair (Red Bull on 100 odd points ) but still, that's rejectfull enough in my books.

[Paul Hayes]

Definitely has to be whoever released Schumacher from his stop without the right-front wheel man signalling he was clear.

[Pedestrian]

Kimi Raikkonen for providing the most graphic exemple of what it means for tyres to 'go off a cliff' I have ever seen.

Honourable mentions for Kobayashi and Schumacher (courtesy of his pit crew) for wasting good starting positions.
And McLaren once again managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Bleu]

Räikkönen's strategist.

[Yannick]

Well, having missed the planned interruption of my motorsport fandom retirement due to necessary sleep in the morning hours of today, I may have missed a good race but I'm happy I have not missed an epic one.

As ROTR awards go, if there is only one retirement for the whole race, and especially if it's a good race which this one surely was, the prestigious prize of this site has often been awarded by default to an entity with a connection to that retirement.

So this time, it's the Mercedes pit crew for certain. They took out what used to be Takuma Sato's ride a few years ago completely by themselves. That's sad for Schumacher especially since Rosberg might be able to challenge for the championship later this year, now that he has established himself as the #1 driver within the team.

[Peter]

I nominate Force India because they have really dropped into anonymity with STR and Massa at the tail end of the midfield. Not where they wanted to be.

Force India are on their first performance decline in their existence. I think it's because of their driver lineup, or more specifically, the lack of Sutil. What they had in him was an excellent development driver and team leader. He deserves a lot of credit for why they went from the back to the front of the midfield in 2 years. It was a terrible decision to drop him.

[fjackdaw]

Definitely has to be whoever released Schumacher from his stop without the right-front wheel man signalling he was clear.

It seems to have been another traffic light flub, rather than human error.

[mario]

I nominate Force India because they have really dropped into anonymity with STR and Massa at the tail end of the midfield. Not where they wanted to be.

Force India are on their first performance decline in their existence. I think it's because of their driver lineup, or more specifically, the lack of Sutil. What they had in him was an excellent development driver and team leader. He deserves a lot of credit for why they went from the back to the front of the midfield in 2 years. It was a terrible decision to drop him.

That would be strange since one of the major criticisms of Sutil was that he wasn't actually a particularly good development driver - at the very least I don't recall the team praising his development skills during the time that he was there.
Now, I'll admit that I might be biased in this direction, but to my mind the problems at Force India are rooted in the technical decisions the team made about their car - Andrew Green, the Technical Director, did say that the exhausts were designed to be relatively aerodynamically neutral, which meant that the team was prepared to sacrifice some downforce in return for a car that behaved more consistently through the corners. It isn't that the car is necessarily bad, just that the team seem to have gone for a slightly conservative approach - perhaps being uncertain where exactly the FIA would draw the line on certain developments in the off season - that his hurting them right now.

[Barbazza]

Sauber for me - don't they usually get the strategies correct?!

Toro Rosso would be my runners up. Apparently they were in the race as Ben Edwards mentioned Vergne briefly getting a fastest lap, but can't say I really noticed.

[Taki Inoue fanboy]

I'm probably stating the obvious here, so:
Lotus for coming with the ridiculess idea that Raikkonen would achieve a high/podium position whilst using 3 sets of tyres throughout the entire race
Mercedes pit crew for using a system long proven to be flawed, which cost Schumachers race on a humiliating note
Sauber for being a mere shadow of their performance in Malaysia (then again, it did piss it down that week)

[FullMetalJack]

Toro Rosso - I barely remembered they were in the race. I saw more of Marussia.

[Cynon]

The entire pitlane.

Unnecessarily dangerous drag race between Raikkonen and Hamilton, Button and Schumacher's pit lane flubs...

[This]

Raikkonen and his stategist. If he just made an extra pitstop, it at least wouldn't be so embarassing.

Also strong candidate are Mercedes pit crew, but i guess it's too much to wish for both mercedes-cars fulfilling their potential...

and did i feel some overconfidence at Sauber? That's new!

[AdrianSutil]

The entire pitlane.

Unnecessarily dangerous drag race between Raikkonen and Hamilton, Button and Schumacher's pit lane flubs...

The pitlane drag race wasn't that bad. The pits themselves are wide enough to accommodate two cars. As soon as they got to the exit, Raikkonen lifted a little as he knew he'd lost the position. I've seen worse.

[Priceless]

Time for the reject podium...
3rd: Toro Rosso - Toro who? Completely anonymous.
2nd: McLaren pit crew - These things happen, but that slight mistake came at a critical moment of the race, and took down Button's chance of attacking Rosberg for the win... and he had the car performance for that.
1st: Mercedes pit crew - Another pit stop error on the list. This one cost Michael Schumacher's race, which was promising up to that point, and on top of that it was the only DNF... that's why I put it on 1st place.

Dishonorable mention:
Sauber F1 - The car's good, but something there didn't quite work. Kobayashi had a terrible start and got stuck in the midfield, while Pérez was fighting something in the car as well as the opponents behind - he was locking the front wheels a lot.

[Cynon]

The entire pitlane.

Unnecessarily dangerous drag race between Raikkonen and Hamilton, Button and Schumacher's pit lane flubs...

The pitlane drag race wasn't that bad. The pits themselves are wide enough to accommodate two cars. As soon as they got to the exit, Raikkonen lifted a little as he knew he'd lost the position. I've seen worse.

I'd still say that was a little too dangerous especially since F1 doesn't have a pit wall like they do in the states.

[Wizzie]

My nominations:

ONE HD - The muppets have outdone themselves. They now have an entire segment dedicated to AUSTRALIA'S Mark Webber
Sauber - Qualifying heros, race zeros
F1 Rejects - Jamie, please get a proper server for the website
Schumacher's and Button's pit crews - Ruined a potential three-way scrap for the win

But my ROTR is:

Toro Rosso - For a car that's supposedly upper-midfield, they did absolutely sod all for the entire weekend.

[JeremyMcClean]

Toro Rosso - For a car that's supposedly upper-midfield, they did absolutely sod all for the entire weekend.

Good point there. I change my nomination from Ferrari to Toro Rosso.

[Popi_Larrauri]

No one in particular. Maybe some pit crew, making mistakes any other day would have been overlooked.

Indeed, it was a specacular race, considering there was no rain or whatsoever.

Maybe, there were to second chance of trajectory from Hamilton (defending from Vettel and Webber) and Perez (from Kobayashi) that weren't addressed by the stewards. Thus the Stewards.

Or wheelnuts... but again: Spectacular race, someone had to be last, someone had to under perform.