ROTR Australia 2012

[WIDD]

Actually, just want to give an honorable mention to Kimi for thinking the blue flags were for him.

[Pointrox]

I'm torn between Maldonado and Massa.
Maldonado's drive was impressive for all those 57.5 laps, whereas Massa only managed to ridicule himself even more, so it kinda narrows it down.
I'd like to mention Greatjohn - what an utter waste of a valuable position, buried completely by The Reverend.

[Ferrim]

“The car looked good today. Our pace was quick and consistent and we were looking competitive right up until the moment I had on the last lap, which is very important. Unfortunately, I just lost the back of the car while pushing Alonso and I had nowhere to go.”

That's all you've got to say, Reverend? I know it's a press release and all that, but I was expecting something along the lines of "I want to thank the team for putting such a nice car at my disposal and apologise to them for my mistake, which has costed us some valuable points". If I were him I would be absolutely pissed with myself, but it looks like he's just thinking "this is racing, these things do happen".

[James1978]

Williams for not keeping on Rubens who would have at least brought the thing home without crashing.

Oh and Massa too.

[QuickYoda41]

Caterham.

So the steering issues wasn't just Trulli being sour. This isn't how you start a season with high expectations. You would think their testing would fix these kind of issues, because HRT had similar issues with their power steering but had NO testing at all! But hey, little bit of benefit of the doubt for Fondmetal Team Malaysia, although I bet Glock is laughing down another pint of Wine with these persistent issues.

This.

[Enforcer]

Mercedes
What should've been a great points haul ruined by a mechanical failure for Schumacher and poor race pace for Rosberg (did he have a gremlin as well?).

[stupot94]

Mercedes

All that expectation. All the hope. Let down by the little things

[tristan1117]

Maldonado: Did an OK job (despite taking out GRRSSJJJNN and other various antics) until he crashed on the last lap of the race. At least the Williams looks good so he'll be up there again.

Honorable Mentions:

Massa: Pointless for him, literally and figuratively, as he just wasn't on the pace. He wore out his tyres in the opening stint, then fell back like a rock. Then he put that fairly stupid move on Senna which knocked his countryman out of the race. It was basically a tie between these two, but Maldonado takes it because it is far more rejectful to crash on the last lap.

As for the other reject antics, Raikkonen forgetting what blue flags meant was hilarious, Caterham disappointed mightily, Mercedes underperformed again (especially Rosberg; I still don't know why he dropped back at the end) and Bruno Senna was unlucky to have been taken out in two separate accidents.

[Nuppiz]

Maldonado: completely stupid move on the last lap, binning a sensational finish.

Honorary mention to Massa for trundling around at the back while his team mate was 5th, and eventually ended it in a Brazilian Civil War with Bruno Nephew-of-a-legend.

[Shadaza]

1 Williams Drivers
Both of them ruined the teams race in what could be the best Williams since 2005! Plus Maldonado took out Grosjean

2 Felipe Massa
He will be lucky to even reach the Europe leg at this rate, I let him off the number 1 spot because his car is woeful.

[Popi_Larrauri]

3. Maldonado: Really, why were you pushing so hard on last lap? What orders did you receive from your team? Had to be on last lap or nothing?

2. Massa: an unmitigated disaster. Now matter in which perspective you see it. It's sad. It's not your fault. Sometimes drivers who come back after serious accidents (Wendllinger, for example) simply loose their touch. It happened to you and, even worse, you are in a team who has very little moral dilemma in destroying your equal status, your confidence and your career. Yo should leave Maranello, maybe retire, maybe have a vacation a-la Raoikonnen. O maybe switch to a smaller team, where they could concentrate on you on a different basis. In this order of probabilities. Or maybe this still has a solution... Felipe: if you give 100 U$d I'll deny you were in Australia this weekend.


1. And New teams. That's all. No hoppers. No matter what they change, drivers, engines, gearboxes, CFD, steering... They are doomed to be in such a different universe were time goes really much faster than on this one, therefore their time sheet.
HRT in particular proved to be so drastically out of pace, that made Minardi feel a NASA project.

All of them made no significant progress on any subject you may think about. They are still behind 1 sec minimum from last established teams (being very, VERY, generous), including two pay drivers teams, teams whose drivers try to crash their car every lap, teams that changed their stock holders, or they entire line-up, or their engine supplier, or the gearbox supplier; teams that have drivers in comma, or drivers who returned from comma, or drivers under trial in China; ailing finances or their development program going stagnant, or that development simply leads to a disaster, teams who bet on diffusers installed 180° the wrong way or any.other.damn.shenanigan.

All of them where comprehensibly ahead of new teams without exceptions along 2 years already, and there's no damn hope this will change this year neither. On the contrary, they are deemed to start establishing themselves around race n° 4 (therefore reducing 8 second gaps (wow!) to be just 4 behind Toro Rossos or any driver who had hit the wall twice and changed tires in their fastest lap. And by the mid season they will be loosing ground again. Even between them there's not much to say about it. Since the other two seems to fall in even lower rings of the Dante's inferno. Hell, its like if they all would have syndicated under the leadership of Enzo Osella!

[Priceless]

Here goes...
3rd: Caterham F1 - were doing OK until both drivers retired within a few laps of each other with reliability issues that, as some have pointed out, should have been fixed in testing... as was well said, that's not how you cause a good impression.
2nd: Bruno Senna - Exactly as in some of the races he did for Renault, the reason why he dropped back was no fault of his own, but he seemed to accept it and just faded into anonymity.
1st: Felipe Massa - saddens me, as well, to nominate him like this, but one can't deny facts. While Alonso made a superb effort of taking that horrid Ferrari to 5th place, he couldn't quite get to grips with it, and that collision with Bruno sealed it for him, in my opinion.

you are in a team who has very little moral dilemma in destroying your equal status, your confidence and your career. Yo should leave Maranello, maybe retire, maybe have a vacation a-la Raoikonnen. O maybe switch to a smaller team, where they could concentrate on you on a different basis.

I agree, sad as it may be... taking a sabbatical might help his form, or maybe go into a smaller team, as you said... I think Kovalainen, for instance, is performing much better as a driver for Caterham than when he had a race-winning McLaren on his hands. Who knows...?

[Dan B]

Caterham F1: Not only are their cars slow but now those cars are trying to kill their drivers. Weren't they supposed to be a midfield team this year?
Maldonado: Sad really as I wanted him to pass Alonso (or at least finish behind him) but that was a boneheaded move. That, and you took out another driver at the start. I'm surprised the FIA didn't investigate it either.
Mercedes: This might be a fluke result as their cars were generally strong all weekend. However one car retiring and one finishing in 12th (without a nose supposedly!) is not the way to go.
Hamilton: Stop whining, will you?
Massa: That has to be the most bizarre accident I have seen in F1 (though that pitlane brouhaha in Hungary 2010 comes close). Plus, plugging along in the back of the field doesn't do you wonders. Sad to say this as I am a Massa fan but I think it is time to move on to another team. Force India or Sauber perhaps?

[Ubik]

1: Massa....clock's ticking.

2: Maldonado....although as far as I can tell he was very unlucky.

3: Hamilton....cheer up you miserable get.

[big_sly_doc]

Big Sly's ROTR for Australia 2012

1st - Felipe Massa - totally outclassed, rubbish pace, stupid accident, not the way to start your must perform season - Also undoubtedly dead beat team-mate of the race too!
2nd - Team Caterham - no where near where I was expecting them to be and double mechanical failure. A step up is really required. Also robbed McLaren of a probably 1-2.
3rd - Mercedes - Great in quali, but Rosberg looses it on the last lap and Schuey robbed on a big points haul and a chance of a podium by reliability issues[/b]

Mentioned in dispatches...
Bruno Senna (faded and again involved in too many incidents) - Pastor Maldonado (lost concentration for just two moments, but those too moments cost both himself and Grosjean any chance of points) - HRT (terrible performance totally expected, but it was just shockingly bad).

[F1 Adam]

Sad to say this as I am a Massa fan but I think it is time to move on to another team. Force India or Sauber perhaps?

Give him a few more races, but possibly swap Massa for Perez?

Massa might be happier at his old team, he might be more inspired to beat Kobayashi rather than Alonso. Perez wouldn't be under too much pressure against Alonso either to begin with, he can just learn at his own speed and put in some good results.

Of course if the Ferrari really is as horrific as it looks Perez might not want to bother.

[JeremyMcClean]

First off:
My PVR for saying the race didn't record (keep in mind the race started at 2am where I live!) then finding out it did record, only to cut off part of the first lap. Oh well.

On a more serious note:
HRT - For not qualifying for the race
Caterham - For remaining completely anonymous throughout the entire race
Vitaly Petrov - If he knew there was a problem with the car, why did he park the car in the middle of the road?

[dr-baker]

Vitaly Petrov - If he knew there was a problem with the car, why did he park the car in the middle of the road?

Maybe he did not want to bang the car door against the pit wall?

[CoopsII]

Massa. He was probably horrified to see what Alonso managed to do with his car. He'd been perhaps thinking "OK, this is poor but we know the car's poor, we've told everyone the car's poor so what else could I have done?" Alonsos performance suggested the car was a bit off the pace but by no means as bad as testing suggested.

He needs to get a grip or he wont see out the season in red overalls.

[AdrianSutil]

Felipe Massa: Im sorry, but sort your life out mate. There's about 10 drivers in today's field that could do a better job. His fault for the Senna-Massa crash too.

Honourable mentions:

Caterham. Oh dear, double DNF when Ma-ha-harussia score a 14th. Gonna need luck now to jump them.
Charles Pic: Was he 4 laps down at the end? What happened?!

[FullMetalJack]

Felipe Massa: Im sorry, but sort your life out mate. There's about 10 drivers in today's field that could do a better job. His fault for the Senna-Massa crash too.

Honourable mentions:

Caterham. Oh dear, double DNF when Ma-ha-harussia score a 14th. Gonna need luck now to jump them.
Charles Pic: Was he 4 laps down at the end? What happened?!

He retired with a few laps to go.

[JeremyMcClean]

Vitaly Petrov - If he knew there was a problem with the car, why did he park the car in the middle of the road?

Maybe he did not want to bang the car door against the pit wall?

What door?

[Warren Hughes]

The tradition of ROTR is that it's generally awarded for moments of craziness, when such things occur, rather than general poor performance. For that reason, I think there's only one possible nominee.

[mario]

On reflection, I have to agree with the popular consensus and say that Massa takes the award here.

Right from the beginning of the race weekend his pace has been terrible, having only narrowly escaped going out in Q1 thanks to confusion between Kimi and his pit wall crew and failing to get within a second of Alonso in Q2 despite Alonso spending most of that session in a gravel trap and out of action. In the race itself his pace was dire - in the final few laps before he made his first stop, Massa was losing about half a second a lap to Kovalainen and Petrov and was the third slowest driver on track.
Say what you like about the collision with Bruno Senna - the stewards may well have more to day later - but Massa should not have been in a position where he is fighting Bruno on track in the first place given that Bruno himself was further down the grid than he should have been. And although the car might be difficult to drive, whilst Alonso probably flattered the car quite a bit and got a much higher position than even he expected, Massa spent much of the weekend criticising the team - so both on and off track he is giving ammunition to his critics within and outside of the team.

On another note, Mercedes are a runner up here - Schumacher was setting OK times in the opening laps before his gearbox failure, whilst Rosberg showed some flashes of aggression but was struggling with tyre wear (showing that Mercedes don't seem to have ironed out that problem yet). OK, he was unlucky to lose so much time in the last lap - to lose 25 seconds in a single lap suggests he might have picked up a puncture from the wreckage of Maldonado's car - but he probably would have picked up 6th at best, and still finished the best part of half a minute behind Button, which is further back than pre-season testing suggested they would have been.

Felipe Massa: Im sorry, but sort your life out mate. There's about 10 drivers in today's field that could do a better job. His fault for the Senna-Massa crash too.

Honourable mentions:

Caterham. Oh dear, double DNF when Ma-ha-harussia score a 14th. Gonna need luck now to jump them.
Charles Pic: Was he 4 laps down at the end? What happened?!

He retired with a few laps to go.

That's correct - Pic picked up an oil pressure problem in the closing laps of the race, and the team decided that it would be best if he retired the car to avoid the engine being damaged rather than try to make it to the flag (besides, he was guaranteed 15th and Glock was guaranteed at least 14th, so there was little to gain from leaving him on track).

[BlindCaveSalamander]

3. Pastor Maldonado - How the hell did you lose it there!? Silly, silly mistake.
2. Mercedes - Weren't they supposed to be really competitive? Schumacher was quick at the start but his car failed, and Rosberg never seemed comfortable in the car all weekend.
1. Felipe Massa - Already a contender for ROTY in my mind. I'm hoping Ferrari are just keeping him there until Kubica has recovered and they can give him a shot.

Honourable mentions to Hamilton; he really should've won this race IMO. I think his mind's still not in the right place.

[RAK]

Felipe Massa: Oh dear. Struggling near the back, a clumsy crash against Senna and all the while, Alonso muscling his Ferrari near the front. Hardly a fitting performance.

Bruno Senna: At least Maldonado was gunning for it. Senna just faded into the background.

Pastor Maldonado: And so close to an IIDOTR-winning drive.

[This]

3 Caterham
2 HRT
1 Massa

[Barbazza]

I can't nominate Maldonado as he'd been so good up to the last lap mistake that I'm going to forgive him.

1) Massa - Absolutely terrible. I like Felipe, but he really has to do better than this very soon.
2) Grosjean - Plenty of time to get feisty in the race later on, so don't blow it early by not giving way when you should
3) Caterham - Are you Marussia in disguise?

[CoopsII]

I can't nominate Maldonado as he'd been so good up to the last lap mistake that I'm going to forgive him.

Absolutely. The margins between success and failure are minute in F1, at least thats what Brundle says each race weekend. I hope its the start of a career revival for Maldonado, although it wont stop him being without question the ugliest driver on the grid by some margin.

[Shadaza]

I can't nominate Maldonado as he'd been so good up to the last lap mistake that I'm going to forgive him.

Absolutely. The margins between success and failure are minute in F1, at least thats what Brundle says each race weekend. I hope its the start of a career revival for Maldonado, although it wont stop him being without question the ugliest driver on the grid by some margin.

At least he does not look like the troll face...

[Pamphlet]

3. Bruno Senna

Very bad weekend for him, culminating in a collision with the ROTR himself (and I really don't think it's 100% Massa's fault). Pastor destroyed him.

2. Caterham

What the hell? I thought you were supposed to challenge the midfield teams this year and not have both your drivers battle car problems and then retire.

1. Felipe Massa

As a major fan of his, it's really hard to remain hopeful during these dark times. Felipe, get your act together. Please.

Honorable mentions: Mercedes, Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton.

[Ferrim]

The thing with Maldonado is that he looks like he's an accident waiting to happen. He's fast, VERY fast -remember he dragged last years' Williams into Q3, three times. Not a small feat. But whenever they show his onboard camera he looks so close to going off track that I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

I thought this year he would retain his speed but become more consistant, a bit like Petrov last year. For now it's not the case.

[Dj_bereta]

Maldonado for ROTR. Crashing in last lap after a brillant race is bad enough for a ROTR.

Maldonado for IIDOTR. Brillant race, pressuring Alonso until the end.

[Peter]

2nd: Bruno Senna - Exactly as in some of the races he did for Renault, the reason why he dropped back was no fault of his own, but he seemed to accept it and just faded into anonymity.

Any misfortune this race was no fault of Senna. He got a good start, but got launched by a Torro Rosso, and spun around. Considering how high he went in the air, he must have had some sort of damage somewhere on the car. It really put him out of contention, and there wasn't much more he could do after that. Was making a decent drive back up the grid, until Massa decided to use his car to help him make the corner. Maldonado's brilliant drive makes Senna look bad, though, but I think that Bruno could've been on for points as well if it wasn't for turn 1.

[AndreaModa]

Massa's race was completely woeful. Ferrari would be better off putting Gene in the car for crying out loud.

And a note on why Rosberg dropped down the order like a stone on the last lap - he ran over the turn 11 bollard, damaging his suspension, and his slow crawl to the line resulted in the field bunching around the Saubers and Toro Rossos. Despite that, they were still pretty poor considering the hype pre-race.

Maldonado's incident had me screaming at my laptop screen, I couldn't believe it. Kept telling him to just bring the car home and leave Alonso alone when he first closed up on him. I knew he'd bin it if he pushed hard to try and get past.

[Stramala]

Felipe Massa
Luca di Montezemolo, hire Kamui Kobayashi ASAP. Massa is beyond useless these days. Absolutely woeful performance capped off by a stupid argy-bargy moment with Senna that was 100% his own fault for letting the red mist descend on his driving.

[This]

Felipe Massa
Luca di Montezemolo, hire Kamui Kobayashi ASAP. Massa is beyond useless these days. Absolutely woeful performance capped off by a stupid argy-bargy moment with Senna that was 100% his own fault for letting the red mist descend on his driving.

No, Kobayashi diserves much better.
Bring Barichello back! (just for the irony)

[Dan B]

I can't nominate Maldonado as he'd been so good up to the last lap mistake that I'm going to forgive him.

Absolutely. The margins between success and failure are minute in F1, at least thats what Brundle says each race weekend. I hope its the start of a career revival for Maldonado, although it wont stop him being without question the ugliest driver on the grid by some margin.

I thought the ugliest driver was Gaston Mazzacane.

[AdrianSutil]

I can't nominate Maldonado as he'd been so good up to the last lap mistake that I'm going to forgive him.

Absolutely. The margins between success and failure are minute in F1, at least thats what Brundle says each race weekend. I hope its the start of a career revival for Maldonado, although it wont stop him being without question the ugliest driver on the grid by some margin.

I thought the ugliest driver was Gaston Mazzacane.

Sebastian Buemi anyone?

[Boomstick]

2nd: Bruno Senna - Exactly as in some of the races he did for Renault, the reason why he dropped back was no fault of his own, but he seemed to accept it and just faded into anonymity.

Any misfortune this race was no fault of Senna. He got a good start, but got launched by a Torro Rosso, and spun around. Considering how high he went in the air, he must have had some sort of damage somewhere on the car. It really put him out of contention, and there wasn't much more he could do after that. Was making a decent drive back up the grid, until Massa decided to use his car to help him make the corner. Maldonado's brilliant drive makes Senna look bad, though, but I think that Bruno could've been on for points as well if it wasn't for turn 1.

Exactly, I'm pretty sure it was Daniel Ricciardo that punted him off. Not to take anything away from Daniel's recovery drive, but it has to be taken into account!