Poll Top of the strops

Who is top of the strops?

  • Schumacher fails to see red and blames DC

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Senna runs out of road and runs out of town

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Mansell can't even retire properly

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hamilton retires from press conferences

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lauda gets bored and doesn't need the money, yet

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hamilton accuses Massa of touching him inappropriately

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (please write about it below)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    9

cider_and_toast

Exulted Lord High Moderator of the Apex
Staff Member
Valued Member
This season has seen an unusually high number of stroppy incidents perhaps reaching a peak with the finest radio message ever broadcast. Vettel's message to Charlie will go down in F1 folklore.

On a team basis I would suggest that Mercedes set new standards in stroppiness at a level not seen since Mansell v Piquet in 88.

The question in this poll however is what would you see as F1's stroppiest moment?

You could pick one of mine or feel free to nominate your own.

My nominations are:

Piquet v. Salazar 1982 German GP - After a clumsy coming together Piquet decided to punch and kick poor Eliseo Salazar to show him how stroppy he was. The sound of Murray Walker trying to explain the rumpus is comical. Its made even funnier by the fact that Piquet is trying to punch Salazar who still has his helmet on.

Schumacher v Coulthard 1998 Belgian GP - That race was nothing if not eventful but many will recall the sight of a furious Schui barging his way down the pitlane on a mission to reshape David Coulthards jaw. Schui accused DC of brake testing him. The rest of the world saw Schui plough into the back of DC's McLaren in very wet conditions.

Senna v Irvine 1993 Japanese GP - Irvine, in a Jordan Yamaha unlapped himself by overtaking Senna. Senna decided that was against his rules and, after the race, went into the Jordan pit and informed Irvine of this. Irvine rightly disagreed so Senna punched him in the face.

Senna v a Monaco armco 1988 Monaco GP - This was the race where Senna claimed he had an out of body experience in qualifying to sit on pole by 1.4 seconds. This was the race where Senna lead by a country mile, going faster and faster. This was the race where Senna lost it on lap 66, crashed, threw a strop, went back to his apartment and stayed there for the rest of the day.

Mansell v his career 1990 British GP - After leading the British GP in his Ferrari, Mansell's gearbox let the side down. First allowing his team mate Alain Prost to get by and then ultimately failing. This staggeringly massive disaster caused Mansell to bung his gloves into the crowd and announce his F1 career was over at the end of the season. Williams offered him a seat for 91 and the retirement was put on hold until he made himself look a massive plonker at McLaren.

Vettel v Charlie 2016 Mexican GP - Seb's now legendary message to Charlie needs no further introduction. Sadly, history does not record exactly what Charlie's response was.

Hamilton v The Press 2016 Japanese GP - Apparently, disrespecting a racing driver is a bad, bad thing to do in this day and age. If a driver wants to snapchat in the middle of a press conference then he should be able to. Hamilton stormed out of his Mercedes, post qualifying press conference after more or less making the points above.

So which gets your vote?
 
The sexual attraction that so clearly existed between the cars of Hamilton and Massa in 2011. Their drivers just couldn't keep these cars apart throughout the season.
 
While the Massa / Hamilton will they, won't they, car crash relationship was amusing, I'm struggling to recall a definitive stroppy moment.
 
Quite frankly there are way too many to mention. There was also Mansell going after Senna in the Lotus garage after their collision at Spa in 1987 that gave rise to all sorts of wild rumours about the state of Nigel' s mental health. The papers were full of it at the time, some of them alleging that he was full of steroids and what have you...
 
I think to make it a really good strop, the reaction should be disproportional to the incident and its all the better if the recipient of the stroppy outburst didn't actually do much wrong.

Remember, from the many to pick from, we're looking for the best.

I would say Kimi's response was normal for Kimi.
 
Trulli and Sutil at Brazil 2009 comes to mind. Jarno even brought photographs to the next presser.

Or maybe Sutil's champagne flute attack on Eric Lux?
 
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