Donkey of the Race - Malaysia

[steveaki13]

I went out after the race, but I always enjoy a donkey thread :love:

[steveaki13]

Hard to choose a Donkey.

I suppose Bianchi must be up there, for launching into turn 4 on lap 1 and wiping out Maldonado.

Other than that

Red Bull pit crew and maybe Saubers car

[dj_bytedisaster]

donkey: FIA for making 100s of changes just to make F1 the same ol' snoozefest but with ungly cars, wonky sensors and shit sound.

[steveaki13]

You do have this feeling F1 really is striding on its way to no where in particular. soul seems lost to me.

Every year changes and nothing which improves F1 or makes it any more of a proper motorsport.

[Doc Austin]

Every year changes and nothing which improves F1 or makes it any more of a proper motorsport.

Yeah, but we're green now, and look how much energy and money we are saving.

Oh, wait.

It seems like every time we have a decent car that the FIA has to chuck it and start over with something completely different. You might ask one of the teams how much money that saves them when they have to trash bin everything they own and start completely over.

Having said that, I am starting to like the new cars. They could improve the appearance of the noses a bit, but Mercedes and McLaren have pretty decent looking cars. I don't really care about the sound, but I know there are people who do. I've been watching Indycars all my life so I'm used to the muted turbo sound.

[truefan72]

donkey for me are the stewards who handed Ricciardo a 10 place grid penalty for "unsafe release" for the next reace, despite that incident,m ruining his race and him serving a drive through penalty for it already. in the past was that not a simple financial penalty?
to say that was harsh would be an understatement
(lol I can;t believe I am defending RBR 2 weeks in a row)

[Zico]

donkey for me are the stewards who handed Ricciardo a 10 place grid penalty for "unsafe release" for the next reace, despite that incident,m ruining his race and him serving a drive through penalty for it already. in the past was that not a simple financial penalty?
to say that was harsh would be an understatement
(lol I can;t believe I am defending RBR 2 weeks in a row)

+1.

Rules are rules which if applied squarely across the board are fair... but I do think they do need to look at infringements on an individual basis and be less heavy handed in applying them.
RBR do deserve a punishment for an unsafe release but only one that does not also affect Dani, he did nothing wrong and should actually be given credit for stopping and ensuring an errant wheel did not become a dangerous hazard.. that's way too harsh for Dani to also be handed a 10 place grid penalty.

The FIA really do seem to have it in for RBR for the Fuel regulator fiasco. :/

[jens]

The double penalty for Ricciardo is indeed confusing. I must have missed something.

Gutted for Dan though. So much promise shown and now he has a third consective compromised weekend, this time by having to start from the midfield. But his turn of great results ought to come one day!

[Mia 01]

Kevin who ruined Kimis race for me!

[jens]

Kevin who ruined Kimis race for me!

Yeah a rookie mistake. I am still unsure, what to make of Magnussen. He shows great promise, but I get the impression he still has some rough edges in his driving, which causes trouble from time-to-time. At Melbourne he almost wiped out another car at the start by diving across the straight.

We remember, what happened to Grosjean in 2012. Many start crashes, so he had a lot of improvement to do. We haven't seen anything going too badly wrong with Magnussen yet, but I think the possibility/danger is there for some further miscalculations-accidents. So other drivers ought to take it into account.

But it is not bashing him. He is a rookie, only 21 years of age. He will learn from all of it. BUT he is likely to have further setbacks/problems/accidents this season and then we have to be careful in how we judge him.

[Whyzars]

...to say that was harsh would be an understatement...


I think this means RB are going to win the appeal.

[TheFamousEccles]

FIA for the double punishment of DR3 gets my vote - a heavy handed crock o' shite. Very unhappy :(

[N4D13]

I believe that Ricciardo's grid penalty isn't due to the unsafe release itself but rather to the fact that, apparently, one of the mechanics was not wearing a helmet at some time. So it's not just the tyre thing after all. ;)

Red Bull has to take the donkey award IMHO - the tyre thing was passable and it happens some times, but also having a wing self-destruct (perhaps it was due to it being lifted carelessly?) and also giving their second driver another penalty because one of their members wasn't wearing a helmet. That is extremely poor for a WCC-winning team.

Edit: I'm unsure about whether there is a separate penalty for the unsafe release and one for the missing helmet or if the two penalties are given out as a whole. However, it's obvious that this was worse than your average unsafe release scenario.

[anfield5]

The RBR pit crew, for forgetting to do up Ricciardo's wheel nut. Williams for instructing Bo77as not attack Massa until Massa had gone past Button, then watching Massa follow Button for lap after lap after lap when Bo77as might very well have been able to get past the McLaren

[longisland]

RBR for the pit bungle & FIA on a witch hunt against RBR. IMHO, it should be a 5-second penalty. The other Donkey imho would be Williams for the team order. Bottas wasn't 1 second a lap faster than Massa or Button so it was over optimistic or perhaps naive on Williams part to believe Bottas was able to overtake Button in 2 laps. This call will have a repercussion in Williams' garage for the rest of the season.

[Storm]

Williams

I did not expect this from a team like FW. They might have thought Bottas was quicker and "might" have passed Button, but I don't think it was that easy to be honest. Bottas might have stuffed up and crashed out passing Button even if Massa had let him go (or just had to follow like Massa did)

[steveaki13]

Williams very rarely used to call for team orders. I remember a few Montoya & R. Schumacher calls mostly when Ralf couldn't pass his brother, but normally Williams let them race.

Hope its not all down to Claire Williams.

[Donney]

Massa was the Donkey forme unable to fiht Button and too proud to let Bottas have a go. That's not the way, I think, to establish hierarchy within the team.

[N. Jones]

Lotus and maldonado for making me think they might of had a race car instead of a pace (safety) car....

[N4D13]

Regarding all the flak that the FIA are getting, it needs to be said that the teams agreed with the FIA to penalize any unsafe release (http://thejudge13.com/2014/03/31/daily-f1-news-and-comment-monday-31st-march-2014/) with a 10-grid penalty for the next race, since teams weren't too sympathetic to the idea of loose tyres strolling down the pitlane. So as much as we like to blame the FIA, this one has been brought by the teams upon themselves.

[kfzmeister]

DOR=Ricciardo's pitcrew for the left front wheel faux pas!