F1 Rejects

Formula One Rejects (F1 Rejects) is a Formula One website dedicated to the least successful drivers and teams in Formula One history. It features over 100 driver profiles and over 15 teams who set standards for mediocrity in F1 with their results, although it is at pains to emphasise that their poor performance was not necessarily the result of a lack of talent. In order to escape eligibility from being an "F1 Reject", a driver has to:

• Score a 1st through 4th place finish, or
• One 5th and another top-6 result, or
• Three or more 6th places.

There is also an "un-written rule" where drivers who lost their lives while driving a Formula One car are exempt from reject status. This was addressed in the "Off-season" podcast, January 21 2007, where a listener of F1 Rejects asked why such drivers as Roger Williamson and Tony Brise were not listed on the "Rejects drivers" page. This also explains why Roland Ratzenberger's article is in the site's general commentary section ("Reject Centrale").

The site was created in 1999 by Australians Jamie McGregor, the site's webmaster, and Enoch Law, the "Senior Grand Prix Analyst", who is the author of most of the material on the site.

Focus on Current F1

The site features a page called Reject Centrale, which is home to the reviews of the last Grand Prix held and every Grand Prix held since the beginning of the 2000 season. There are also feature articles, which either the site author or webmaster has created. Later on the page there are submitted articles from readers of the website.

At the beginning and end of the year, F1 Rejects write an F1 season PREview and review. The season preview is a team-by-team synopsis of their predictions for the season, while the season review offers thoughts and driver-by-driver summaries, with the bottom three-ranked drivers completing that year's "Reject Podium".

Reject of the Race

This award was created after the 2000 French Grand Prix. On the last corner of the circuit, Benetton driver Alexander Wurz made a move on the inside of Jean Alesi's Prost, and ran out of track into the gravel trap. His maneuver led to the birth of "Reject of the Race".

This "award" has been given out to many drivers, teams, tyres, even engines (2006 Japanese Grand Prix - Schumacher's engine and 2005_Brazilian_Grand_Prix - Tiago Monteiro's engine), inanimate objects, the latter happening at the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix or abstract things (2007 British Grand Prix - British "Lewisteria" with the great start of season of the rookie Lewis Hamilton), the entire field (except Lewis Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld, Alexander Wurz and Robert Kubica) in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, and the ITV commentary team in the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix for being "biased and deluded" by 'Lewisteria'.

Reject of the Year

In each year's season review, the three bottom-ranked drivers complete the Reject Podium. The driver who, by a combination of poor results, a lack of outright speed, and failure to meet expectations will likely be crowned that year's Reject of the Year. Since 2006, the F1 teams can be eligible for this "award". In 2007, the FIA was runner-up for the honor.

F1 Rejects Podcasts

Since August 4, 2005, F1 Rejects have been broadcasting podcasts, where McGregor and Law sit down and had a chat about the latest Grand Prix. Topics of discussion have included the latest news in F1, "Great Moments in F1 Punditry", where a clip of some "reject-worthy" moment is played, the most popular being quotes from James Hunt, and a bit of history about the Grand Prix. Jamie and Enoch regularly read emails from listeners. As a formula, Jamie identifies the emailer and where he/she is from, and Enoch greets the emailer with a hearty "G'day".

Another feature of F1 Rejects' podcasts are their 'campaigns' for lost causes. They have attempted to drum up support for the return of Hungarian driver Zsolt Baumgartner to F1, mentioning him as often as possible, to the point where they now refer to him only as 'HWNSNBM' ('He Whose Name Shall Not Be Mentioned'). Throughout 2006, they also extensively lobbied for a Grand Prix to take place in the tiny island of Vanuatu.

The podcasts also feature the "publicocrapometer", an imaginary machine that alerts people to 'publicocrap', the F1 Rejects term for media statements from drivers and teams which are overblown and publicity-seeking. The machine notably failed in 2006 when, after repeatedly flagging Honda Racing F1 for claiming that they would win a Grand Prix, Honda's Jenson Button came first in the Hungarian Grand Prix of that year.

Praise and Criticisms

F1 Rejects is well known within the online Formula 1 universe. The site has been praised for its humorous and critical profiling of drivers, while assessing their "rejects" in a tongue-in-cheek, and often fairly sympathetic manner.

Many drivers and teams with short careers in the sport have profiles on the site. Profiles are very informative, and contain facts about the driver or teams career prior to F1, and after (if known). The site has been praised for its high level of knowledge and research employed to assess otherwise obscure drivers.

At the A1 Grand Prix meeting at Eastern Creek, Australia in November 2005, the site managed to arrange an interview with "rejects" Andrea Montermini and Alex Yoong.

The site has been accused of Schadenfreude by some critics. However, supporters of the site dispute this, stating that F1 Rejects has defended drivers maligned by other fans of the sport, one prime example of this being Alex Yoong, who whilst being considerably slower than teammates Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber and being in F1 purely down to financial backing, has been giving a sympathetic hearing from F1 Rejects due to his circumstances with Minardi during this period.

Similarly, F1 Rejects have been accused of several driver biases, notably against Juan Pablo Montoya, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Ralf Schumacher. However, supporters state that these so-called "biases" are merely reflecting their disappointment on the driver underperforming, rather than being motivated by a malicious agenda. In their podcast for the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, both Jamie and Enoch decided to respond to these criticisms by highlighting some of Ralf Schumacher's best races, such as the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix. Similarly, the site authors nominated themselves for their "Reject of the Race" award after Giancarlo Fisichella's impressive drive to third in the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix, reflecting the good natured humour both authors contain.

External links

• F1 Rejects website