Your Reject of the Race - Bahrain

[Python]

Here are mine

3rd: Williams - Disappointing again. Two retirements. Maldonado for spinning out (did he have something break in the suspension after he spun out that forced him to retire?)
2nd: McLaren - nothing really to write home about at all.
1st: FIA, the leaders in general - now I am not one to mix sports and politics at all, but I feel that this race should have not been held. Others have said it better so I will just say read what others have written.

[RAK]

Anything and everything to do with Bahraini politics: Enough said.

Everybody in the race apart from Red Bull, Lotus and Paul di Resta: There was a lot of reject-worthy performances in the race. Some people capitalised on them, others simply lost out badly.

[DanielPT]

I will go apolitical on this echoing part of the people and media on my country, who reported some of Bernie's and F1 shenanigans and obtained practically no comments on the whole deal. I will risk saying that outside F1 involved countries, this was what happened. I will also do this because I believe that within a brief period of time no one will care about this as nothing much really happened. The last report in one of the most popular paper in Portugal is from the race itself. This is not wishful thinking as was suggested elsewhere on this forum. It is experience. I say this because usually people only remember until the penultimate tragedy or scandal. And because I follow cycling, which is one of the most scandal ridden sports and where sporting truth in results is always doubted. Yet many people still follow and teams still have sponsors and all that, despite more shots on the foot than those I can count. Anyway, my RoTR goes to:

MC Laren - They are so proud of their car that it is now usual to have some sort of ceremony in pit stops each time one of their cars come in.

Nominees: Ricciardo is doing his absolute best to give reason to our esteemed member TMLW. Ecclestone, for saying that nobody cares about 10th or 11th (totally Bahrain unrelated). Hulkenberg, Di Resta is showing him the way. It's now 3-0 on races (that both finished) and 3-1 on qualifying. The Hulk is not looking so incredible now...

[Stramala]

And because I follow cycling, which is one of the most scandal ridden sports and where sporting truth in results is always doubted. Yet many people still follow and teams still have sponsors and all that, despite more shots on the foot than those I can count.

This. As much as I wish Thomas Voeckler's epic performance in the TdF last year was down to absolute determination and improved skill from years past, a small part of me still worries the whole Europcar team was doping - look at Pierre Roland, winning the white jersey to much surprise as well. Yet somehow, people like Vinokourov, Basso, Millar, and now Contador, have no problem finding sponsors...the only exception is Llandis who REALLY shot himself in the foot. But yes, it rarely matters how much controversy appears in sport, it will usually weather the storm and continue. Or in Italian football, Scommessopoli was yet another scandal appearing due to match-fixing, yet it was almost a blip and teams continue mostly unaffected. People can kick up a fuss as much as they like but F1 will not have lost anything through their actions this week.

[DanielPT]

By the way, it is just me or that female clown is kind of hot?

[fjackdaw]

By the way, it is just me or that female clown is kind of hot?

I'm reserving judgement till I find out how old she is.

[AndreaModa]

By the way, it is just me or that female clown is kind of hot?

No no no and no! Particularly as she reminds me of Ronald McDonald!

[dr-baker]

By the way, it is just me or that female clown is kind of hot?

I'm reserving judgement till I find out how old she is.

I think your judgement may be deduced from that. But considering she's taller than Bernie, that means she must be at least.....





12 years old????

[Popi_Larrauri]

4th: Toro Rosso. For becoming increasingly anonymous after dumping a driver pair who were accused, by them, of giving nothing but anonymous results.

3th: McLaren pitstop crew. Already stated here ad nauseam.

Silver: Bahrein GP, Bernie, FOTA and FIA included, except Force India, just for mercy.

Gold: Bahrein rebels, for failing to beat the rearguard of loyalist guarding the GP complex, thus failing to enter with excellent coverage in the middle of the GP and massacrate everybody among the royal family for good... and Bernie and... (was Nick Fry there)?

Seriously, if you are about to go rebel do it the glamour way. And in the event of failing and being defeated the mayham would have, at least, helped HRT closer to 10th.

(Psst: Not orange and green guys, you morons. you should throw molotovs to the ones who have turbans over their head, d'you know? the ones that oppress you that much).


PS: Bahar?

[eurobrun]

And because I follow cycling, which is one of the most scandal ridden sports and where sporting truth in results is always doubted. Yet many people still follow and teams still have sponsors and all that, despite more shots on the foot than those I can count.

This. As much as I wish Thomas Voeckler's epic performance in the TdF last year was down to absolute determination and improved skill from years past, a small part of me still worries the whole Europcar team was doping - look at Pierre Roland, winning the white jersey to much surprise as well. Yet somehow, people like Vinokourov, Basso, Millar, and now Contador, have no problem finding sponsors...the only exception is Llandis who REALLY shot himself in the foot. But yes, it rarely matters how much controversy appears in sport, it will usually weather the storm and continue. Or in Italian football, Scommessopoli was yet another scandal appearing due to match-fixing, yet it was almost a blip and teams continue mostly unaffected. People can kick up a fuss as much as they like but F1 will not have lost anything through their actions this week.

Voeckler did the same thing (having the yellow jersey for almost half the tour) way back in 2004? so I doubt he would be cheating.


And as for what DanielPT said, OH HELL NAW

[Peter]

Here are mine

3rd: Williams - Disappointing again. Two retirements. Maldonado for spinning out (did he have something break in the suspension after he spun out that forced him to retire?)

I don't know what happened to Senna, but Maldonado's spin looked a lot more like the tyre shredded itself apart suddenly from riding the kerb so hard. The car just snapped away from him so suddenly, and immediately after, you see a tyre half attached to the wheel.

[tzerof1]

I say the Bahrain stewards/ Nico Rosberg because Nico pushed not one, but two of his rivals wide at a spot where there was a section of armco jutting perilously close to them and the stewards for not enforcing the section of the Sporting Regulations brought in specifically to prohibit such behaviour, then justifying their decision with some bollocks about "speed delta differences". Don't think speed deltas were all that significant if Nico felt that despite being faster (according to the stewards) he still felt the need to push his rivals perilously close to that bit of armco.

[Cowboy stilt_bop]

hey guys the girl clown is 23 and called lauren to verify it. she was with a group of 9 of us who all went to work there. was awesome!!!! hope we get the gig every year!!

[DanielPT]

hey guys the girl clown is 23 and called lauren to verify it. she was with a group of 9 of us who all went to work there. was awesome!!!! hope we get the gig every year!!

Knew it!

Have you guys more pictures from the gig? And was that terrifying working in Bahrain?

Oh, and welcome!

[fjackdaw]

hey guys the girl clown is 23 and called lauren to verify it. she was with a group of 9 of us who all went to work there. was awesome!!!! hope we get the gig every year!!

That sounds fun! Did you get to meet anyone cool? ...Other than Bernie, I mean.

[Sublime_FA11C]

...I don't know what happened to Senna...

Old news by now, but Senna felt some vibrations in his brake pedal that got steadily worse. Team called him in for fear of brake failure.

[nome66]

my ROTR::
the FIA. pretty straight forward. how about an race in Arbil, Iraq? or northern Israel?

[Stramala]

Voeckler did the same thing (having the yellow jersey for almost half the tour) way back in 2004? so I doubt he would be cheating.

That was completely different, he was nowhere near the pace of the GC contenders that year, whereas in 2011 he surprised everyone by being as quick as Schleck/Contador/Evans etc for long periods of time. That's what makes me afraid, it didn't make sense how he suddenly became almsot as fast as that group of elite GC riders...

[eurobrun]

Voeckler did the same thing (having the yellow jersey for almost half the tour) way back in 2004? so I doubt he would be cheating.

That was completely different, he was nowhere near the pace of the GC contenders that year, whereas in 2011 he surprised everyone by being as quick as Schleck/Contador/Evans etc for long periods of time. That's what makes me afraid, it didn't make sense how he suddenly became almsot as fast as that group of elite GC riders...

It will be interesting to see how fast he is compared to everyone else.

[tristan1117]

my ROTR::
the FIA. pretty straight forward. how about an race in Arbil, Iraq? or northern Israel?

We should definitely have a North Korean Grand Prix! We can use dinizintheoven's hologram machine to bring back 19-time World Champion Kim Jong-Il and show the world that he was the greatest driver of all time! He did win Korean F1 Idol...

[dinizintheoven]

My hologram machine? That's Dr Rimmer's, me old mucker, and there are probably about five people, maximum, in the F1RMGP paddock who are ever brave enough to speak to her. She has not smiled in 30 years, communicates only in withering put-downs and is known to chase intruders out of her computer lab with a cricket bat with nine inch nails hammered into it (both actual nails and shards of shattered NIN CDs, most of them copies of The Fragile, Fixed or Further Down The Spiral).

She and The Dear Leader would get on like a house on fire, which is probably what's going to happen to my house if I don't boot this comment back to the PMcC forum where it would otherwise have come from...

[Cowboy stilt_bop]

hey guys the girl clown is 23 and called lauren to verify it. she was with a group of 9 of us who all went to work there. was awesome!!!! hope we get the gig every year!!

That sounds fun! Did you get to meet anyone cool? ...Other than Bernie, I mean.

Met vettel briefly but wasnt really allowed to mingle much. The Bernie pic was a fluke. Not scary in Bahrain at all, none of us saw anything bad really was well organised and the police dont mess about there.

[FMecha]

Official decision?

[Ed24]

There's no need to be impatient, I'm sure Enoch will post it when he has time.

[Python]

Here are mine

3rd: Williams - Disappointing again. Two retirements. Maldonado for spinning out (did he have something break in the suspension after he spun out that forced him to retire?)

I don't know what happened to Senna, but Maldonado's spin looked a lot more like the tyre shredded itself apart suddenly from riding the kerb so hard. The car just snapped away from him so suddenly, and immediately after, you see a tyre half attached to the wheel.

Speed's broadcast must have not shown that or I just do not remember seeing it. My dad had the sound system muted when Senna was in garage so I did not not hear if the commentators said anything about that.

[eytl]

Right-oh, I've had a week to stew on this one. It was a tricky decision in the end.

I see many of you nominated something to do with the Bahrain GP, or the fact that it was held - hence all the nominations for Bernie, the FIA, Bahrain, Formula One in general etc. etc.

I guess my difficulty with agreeing is that, for me, as with many things in this world, nothing is ever black and white. (Which is ironic I should say that, because one of the former residents of Bahrain was, indeed, Michael Jackson. But I digress.) The reality is that everyone involved had some kind of hidden agenda. Obviously the Bahrain government did, to try to use the Grand Prix as a propaganda vehicle - but if the world media hadn't kicked up a fuss about the dreadful "UniF1ed" slogan, the outside world would have hardly known about it, rendering it a pretty hopeless propaganda exercise. Protesters obviously had an agenda, to exploit the media spotlight. Frankly, I don't pretend to know enough about the dynamics of the situation in Bahrain to decide whether their agenda was right or wrong, whether it was worthy or not.

Much has also been said about the hidden (read "financial") agenda for Bernie, FOM and the FIA. But were they exploiting Bahrain, or was Bahrain exploiting them? It's hard to doubt that some of the teams, especially McLaren, also had a hidden agenda given the importance of Middle Eastern or Bahraini investment. And then there was the media; it's sad that all forms of media are becoming increasingly sensationalist, and there's little balanced reporting these days. The way the press portrayed the situation certainly contributed to whipping up a bit of a frenzy, when, in my view, more sensitive analysis of some very tricky and multi-faceted issues.

In the end, my problem with choosing any of these factors for ROTR is that it's impossible to say who's in the right, who's in the wrong. Arguably, everyone was partly in the right, and partly in the wrong. So rather than take sides, I prefer to choose ROTR from the race itself, and here too there were multiple candidates.

But in the end the stand-out for me has to be Daniel Ricciardo. It's one thing to make costly errors (or have costly problems) like the McLaren pit crew. It's one thing to do something a bit naughty like Nico Rosberg. But it's truly daft ROTR material to start 6th on the grid and, without having spluttered at the start, end up 17th at the end of the first lap. Unfortunately, it seems to sum up my concern about the next great Aussie hope. Almost the exact opposite of Mark Webber, Dan just doesn't seem to have any mongrel. He may be very fast over one lap - and let's face it, qualifying 6th in that Toro Rosso was nothing short of stunning - but he needs a bit more fight on race day, when it really counts. Ricciardo lucked into points in Australia when Jean-Eric Vergne should have beaten him, only passing the Frenchman on the last lap. In the other three races Vergne has had his measure - even when JEV has proven hopeless over one lap. When Dan has shockers like this first lap in Bahrain, it's not hard to see why.

[Ed24]

Yes, fair call there. I guess if you combined Ricciardo's qualifying with Vergne's race pace you'd have a decent driver!

[Sublime_FA11C]

...it's sad that all forms of media are becoming increasingly sensationalist, and there's little balanced reporting these days...

They have to. If they don't, they drop in ratings and sell fewer newspapers/magazines. Sizeable drops not insignificant ones. People generaly want shocking scandals and illinformed gossip. Give them substance and class and they turn on you. And then people loose jobs... mostly journalists and editors though.

It's not sad, it's evolving in that direction to survive. If there weren't so many morons out there, most of us would be out of work.

[DanielPT]

...it's sad that all forms of media are becoming increasingly sensationalist, and there's little balanced reporting these days...

They have to. If they don't, they drop in ratings and sell fewer newspapers/magazines. Sizeable drops not insignificant ones. People generaly want shocking scandals and illinformed gossip. Give them substance and class and they turn on you. And then people loose jobs... mostly journalists and editors though.

It's not sad, it's evolving in that direction to survive. If there weren't so many morons out there, most of us would be out of work.

This. Just looking at the Portuguese context, which mirrors the rest of the western world, I think, I can see that we have the best selling newspapers being a fair ground on the sensationalist side and the others have a bit of increase now and then when they publish a more sensationalist piece. People want to see that. It is what they can sell the most these days. People read this and jump on usually irate conclusions. It is almost like people are getting dumber each passing generation...

[Klon]

It is almost like people are getting dumber each passing generation...

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't even get started with that nonsense!

People today are not dumber than the people were before them and most likely not dumber than the ones that will follow them. The only difference between back then and now is the fact that we now know everyone is an idiot whereas back then we just did not have that much access to information, leading us to both ignorantly believe that people in the earlier days were smarter and people today to think they are intelligent. Your average old Egyptians were probably just as braindead as your average voter, however papyrus is not quite as patient as Facebook and therefore we don't have hieroglyphs of Eygptian teenage girls scratching "I Love Imenhotep The Singer" in their arms.

[DanielPT]

It is almost like people are getting dumber each passing generation...

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't even get started with that nonsense!

People today are not dumber than the people were before them and most likely not dumber than the ones that will follow them. The only difference between back then and now is the fact that we now know everyone is an idiot whereas back then we just did not have that much access to information, leading us to both ignorantly believe that people in the earlier days were smarter and people today to think they are intelligent. Your average old Egyptians were probably just as braindead as your average voter, however papyrus is not quite as patient as Facebook and therefore we don't have hieroglyphs of Eygptian teenage girls scratching "I Love Imenhotep The Singer" in their arms.

Whence I used "almost like" in that sentence. The link was just because I found that theory quite hilarious and remembered to plug it in! Anyway, in the past (and excluding luck) the smart ones tended to survive more time than the braindead ones. And you had less people because the many averages (and the not so averages) were sent to war to die for their homeland instead of having a dull moment to be able to scratch "I Love Imenhotep The Singer" in their arms.

[Sublime_FA11C]

A smartass is just as likely to bite the dust as a dumbass.

[Peter]

Is it just me, or is Red Bull feeling the karma for dumping Buemi and Alguersuari now? They had 2 drivers before who were decent qualifiers and racers, but now they have these two, rather incomplete drivers. Ricciardo and Verne have yet to impress me the way that the other lads did. Makes me feel all the more sorry for both of them.

[DanielPT]

Is it just me, or is Red Bull feeling the karma for dumping Buemi and Alguersuari now? They had 2 drivers before who were decent qualifiers and racers, but now they have these two, rather incomplete drivers. Racceyardo and Verme have yet to impress me the way that the other lads did. Makes me feel all the more sorry for both of them.

Fixed.

[Ed24]

Is it just me, or is Red Bull feeling the karma for dumping Buemi and Alguersuari now? They had 2 drivers before who were decent qualifiers and racers, but now they have these two, rather incomplete drivers. Ricciardo and Verne have yet to impress me the way that the other lads did. Makes me feel all the more sorry for both of them.

Well Buemi and Alguersuari were quite incomplete also. I guess if Red Bull had mixed the old and new, maybe Alguersuari and Ricciardo, they could've got a better read.