Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

F1 moves closer to approving point for fastest lap

2019 F1 season

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Formula 1 is moving closer to approving a new rule which would award a point to the driver who sets fastest lap during a race this year.

With the first practice session for the 2019 F1 season just one week away, the new rule was debated by the FIA World Motor Sport Council yesterday. RaceFans has learned the WMSC gave its conditional support to the plan to award a bonus point for the fastest lap of the race.

In order for the rule to be introduced this year it requires the majority backing of the F1 Strategy Group and the unanimous support of the F1 Commission. A deadline of Monday has been set for both to submit electronic votes on the rule. RaceFans understands the FIA has told members it is “keen” for the rule to be formally approved before the start of the new season.

The draft text of the proposed addition to article 6.4 of the Sporting Regulations indicates a point for fastest lap will only be awarded if the driver who sets the fastest lap finishes in the top 10.

“One point will be awarded to the driver who achieved the fastest lap of the race and to the constructor whose car they were driving, providing that the lap time was achieved without incurring a penalty and the driver was in the top 10 positions of the final race classification,” a document seen by RaceFans states.

“No point will be awarded if the fastest lap is achieved by a driver who was classified outside the top 10.”

A similar proposal to award a point for pole position was considered but rejected at an earlier stage.

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101 comments on “F1 moves closer to approving point for fastest lap”

  1. Good – I’m looking forward to it :)

    1. Agreed. It will create more interest and competition with no additional cost to anyone. A smart move.

  2. Ah, so they’re limiting it to only those drivers already in point scoring positions? Still gimmicky, I say.

    1. @phylyp in yesterday’s article @keithcollantine explains the reason behind it

      1. The reason was that those drivers could supposedly stop without risking too much. But that could also be said for the slowest car of the top 3 teams (normally at least 30s ahead).

        If you want to stop drivers to pit late just for the FL point, then they should have adjusted the rule that the point is not awarded if the driver did the FL after pitting in the last 5-10 laps.

        1. if the driver did the FL after pitting in the last 5-10 laps.

          That’s a good amendment – we already have the 90% rule for classified finishers, they could use the same 90% to award the FLAP.

          1. Too convoluted. It would be far better not to award the point at all.

          2. @estesark – that’s my first preference as well, but seeing as that isn’t happening…

  3. I was gonna just write BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    But instead I think if it does go ahead, it should be the absolute duty of any driver outside the top 10 who cares about F1 to go hell for leather and deny anyone in the top 10 the satisfaction of this stupid point.

    I’m looking for an “If I can’t have this point, no one will!” attitude.

    1. @eurobrun Bet it’s Magnussen.

      1. My bet, it’s going to be mostly between McLaren boys and Kimi.

      2. @tonyyeb oddly, Kevin was the only one outside the usual suspects to score a fastest lap in 2018

        1. @m-bagattini Yeah but I was more meaning the attitude rather than the ability, ha!

        2. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
          8th March 2019, 10:23

          Hope so. Hopefully this isn’t the end of drivers going for fastest lap solely for rhe record books, like Haas and Alonso have done in recent years

    2. You raise a good point that a top car that is stricken can possibly deny a top team a point….

  4. cool picture. I think without the disproportionately wide front wing it would be approaching a decent look for F1.

    1. @frood19 Yeah I’ve been looking for an excuse to use that one :-)

  5. I wonder how many more ‘no gimmicks’ gimmicks will be introduced?

    1. Is this a gimmick @johnrkh? I mean, if they decide to change from 10 to 8 places awarded with points, is that a gimmick? I think it’s more a matter of sporting regulation. DRS, cumulative points quali and side-track sprinklers are gimmicks in my opinion (although I’m not native English speaker so maybe something is getting lost in translation).

      1. @m-bagattini To me, a gimmick is something that is not related to the goal of the sport but merely to spice up the show. The goal of F1 is to finish as high as possible, so changing the points system based on the place you finished is not a gimmick to me. A point for fastest lap is. Driving the fastest lap has little to do with maximising your result. Drivers like Fangio, Lauda and Prost often drove as slow as possible to win. It wasn’t spectacular but it gave them maximum result. Driving a fastest lap in a glory run has nothing to do that.

        1. You must be knowledgeable of the 1950s where a point was awarded for fastest lap, so tell us how many points fangio got for fastest lap, or was he driving slow like you claim? I personally see too many drivers in f1 saving fuel and tyres, so this will be an added little bonus for fans

        2. Driving the fastest lap has little to do with maximising your result. Drivers like Fangio, Lauda and Prost often drove as slow as possible to win. It wasn’t spectacular but it gave them maximum result. – Strange examples then, because all of these 3 drivers were known for setting a lot of FLs, with 2 of them having held the record for about 25 years between them.

        3. @matthijs – You are right to feel that way (something not related to the goal of the sport is a gimmick) because that is exactly what the word ‘gimmick’ means.

          The only remaining argument as to whether this is a gimmick or not (@m-bagattini) seems to be whether fastest laps are a goal of the sport or should be part of the calculus of winning a championship. I personally think not. They are an interesting stat to track but why not points for pole, and leading most laps, or fractions for every lap led, or fastest pit stop, etc.? In my opinion, you shouldn’t award points for anything beyond finishing position because the other things already provide a benefit.

          If you secure pole position, being ahead and in clean air is a benefit. If you are leading the race, same thing. If you do a blistering lap, the benefit is gaining time to those behind and cutting time to those ahead. And the benefits help you do what? Finish higher up the order. There is already a motivation to move up the order, and that is finishing points. And since this will only benefit the top 10, they have points.

          Does F1 really want the top 10 teams just risking engines and making borderline strategy calls to secure the point? Keep working on 1) allowing cars to be near each other over longer stretches and through corners—that will allow for more options to make a move; 2) better tires allowing for more and sustained pushes; and, 3) tightening the field. You want to see more late race pushes for points? Let’s get better competition outside of the front 2 teams and I imagine people will take more risks.

          @kpcart – Just because it was around at the start of formal F1 racing, doesn’t mean it is either necessary or should be in the sport. But if its mere existence as part of F1 is important to you, please note that it has been removed from the rules far, far longer than the time it was in the rules.

          1. Your reply.. I got bored half way through and didn’t read the reat.. Drunk or stoned? It reads like know matter a reply from me, you will be correct– ‘in your own mind’

          2. Apologies for my spelling

          3. @kpcart – I’d love to hear a thought out argument for fast lap points. I haven’t seen one yet. I’ve seen people who like it, but why? Just because it is different? That’s fine if that is one’s opinion but major rules changes should rest on more than one’s opinion, I think.

            And this is why bad ideas make it into F1. No one wants to think about the consequences and “got bored” when someone wanted to discuss them. Hello, knock out qualifying. My job is about looking at consequences (intended and unintended), so that is what I have tried to do here. If it was too verbose for you, or you disagree, feel free to disregard. I will do the same.

  6. robinsonf1 (@)
    8th March 2019, 9:56

    I’m OK with it, though I’m surprised they went for this rather than for a point for pole position.

    1. This makes more sense than awarding pole position with a championship point. In that case a championship could be decided on a saturday, which is not what we want of course..

    2. I think they should award a pint for pole position. It’s a nice complement to the champagne for winning the race.

    3. Point for pole + this would have been ok. 2 extra points up for grab.

      Whats next a 1 point for fastest pit stop?

  7. I’d like to hear an analysis of how limiting the possibility of scoring the point to the top 10 finishers will affect this rule in reality. I guess it’s better than having carte blanche across the whole grid? Is it still the stupid idea I think it is or does this top 10 rule change things? I have no idea about such things, so I need your help to understand the implications!

    1. I believe it is to prevent some teams from being tempted to pit near the end for tires just for the sake of this point. The runners in the top ten are less likely to put themselves out of position with a pit stop for fresh tires just for the sake of the point. My take is that it keeps the achievement more ‘real’ by having it go to a driver/car who was genuinely quick near the ends of races without the luxury of pitting and going for it just to showboat.

      1. Drivers are still going to go for it if they’re in the top 10 and have a big enough gap behind them, as Keith explained yesterday.

        1. Yeah of course that is possible too, but at least less likely. I think also even less likely come 2021 when theoretically the teams will be closer to each other and the drivers able to race more closely nose to tail. But yeah for sure there will likely be some times when it is a driver/team fairly high up within the top 10 who has 30 seconds on the car behind him who might go for it. They’ll have to weigh the risk/benefit, depending on their points standing and depending on the performance of other cars on track and the number of other ones pitting for the tires and the point.

  8. How long ago did Chase Carey say they did not want to introduce gimmicks to F1?

    If it goes ahead it is another punch in the face for the “rest” if only the top teams can get an extra point. It is significant in that it could have given a mid or back grid team a point, which they might otherwise not have got. This then reflects in the prize money share and that single point could be worth a lot to rear grid team.

    I once had a weird fun idea to give each fastest driver a point during qualifying. Thus the first driver out would almost definitely get one unless he was overtaken on track. This would work by following the timing board, and giving a point to each driver at the top of it. Only one point per driver. In this way if the slower teams get out first (as they usually do) they would get some reward. Also some of the mid and top drivers would miss out depending on when the fastest lap was set.
    The current points system give an unfair advantage to the top teams. If the points awarded per finishing position were close together, we would have a much fairer competition. The points gap between the leaders and the “rest” would be smaller and it would be possible to win championships with consistency and good tactics rather than just “money power.”

    1. The current points system give an unfair advantage – Agreed.
      If the points awarded per finishing position were close together, we would have a much fairer competition. – Agreed.
      The points gap between the leaders and the “rest” would be smaller – Indeed.

  9. So it’s a gimmick with a class system.

  10. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    8th March 2019, 10:42

    If this was used last year, the top 5 would look slightly different.

    Hamilton: 411
    Vettel: 323
    Bottas: 254
    Kimi: 252
    Verstappen: 251

    Interesting how this could change positions in the championship by 2 positions. However, as Bottas was robbed of 7 points at Sochi due to team orders, I wouldn’t say getting 3rd in the championship wasn’t deserved. That said, he could still have managed 3rd even with his bad luck if he didn’t let it hit him so hard.

    1. @thegianthogweed And if he hadn’t driven so bad in the 2nd half of the season.. Also Bottas set all of his fastest laps because he didn’t have decent pace or track position, so he went for a pit stop because ‘why not set a fastest lap?’

      1. False. Of his 7 FLs, only the last two, Mexico and Brazil, were set because the team made him make an extra, free pit stop. Not to do a FL necessarily, but because his tyres were shot.
        Also the only reasons why VER got his 2 FLs, were:
        1) Because in Monaco he was totally out of position and therefore pitted late on the hypers AND he wasn’t affected by the slow pace of race leader RIC with his MGU-K, gearbox and brake failures. To exemplify: Grosjean and even the 2 slowest cars, driven by Stroll and Sirotkin, all set faster laps than every other driver, including the 5 other members of the top-6.
        2) His FL in Canada purely stood because of an administrative rule after a blunder with the checkered flag. In both lap 69 and 70 Ricciardo had set new benchmarks.

        And yes, @thegianthogweed, the Bottas-Mercedes combi was the 3rd strongest of the year, so in that respect getting 3rd in the WDC, with 1-4 wins, would’ve been deserved.

      2. @jesperfey13

        Also Bottas set all of his fastest laps because he didn’t have decent pace or track position, so he went for a pit stop because ‘why not set a fastest lap?’

        Just no.
        – He set the fastest laps in Bahrain and Baku while fighting for the win.
        – He set the fastest lap in Le Castellet thanks to a late but inevitable pit stop (having already pitted on lap 1 after Vettel crashed into him). He had been in 6th place before the pit stop and went on to finish 7th. So, definitely not a ‘why not’ kind of pit stop.
        – He set the fastest lap in Spa thanks to a late but inevitable pit stop after another first-lap incident (his own fault this time) forced him to pit and try a somewhat different strategy to the front-runners, racing for position right till the end.
        – He set the fastest lap in Sochi near the end of the race after moving over for Hamilton. Same strategy as the other front-runners, his tyres were even slightly older than Hamilton’s or Vettel’s. He probably wasn’t even trying to set the fastest lap, as he was simply following Hamilton at a constant pace (whose lap time at that stage was virtually identical) and had Vettel behind him (whose lap time was just a tenth slower).
        – The only race where Bottas arguably made a ‘why not’ pit stop was in Mexico, where he pitted for fresh Hypersoft tyres 8 laps from the end without sacrificing his track position.
        – His situation in Brazil was similar: A relatively late additional pit stop enabled him to set the fastest lap. But again, this was no ‘why not’ pit stop, but an inevitable one. He needed to pit as he was unable to make his tyres last, and lost 4th place to Ricciardo in the process.

        Conclusion:
        Out of 7 fastest laps set by Bottas in 2018, 5 were set in races where the sole purpose of his pit strategy was to achieve the best possible result. 1 race featured an additional late pit stop that was due to excessive tyre wear. And only one race saw him make a late pit stop that served no other purpose than having fresh tyres at the end of the race.

        In other words, your statement is valid for exactly 1 of the 7 races you’ve mentioned. Kindly check your facts before you end up saying things that make a mockery of the truth.

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          8th March 2019, 15:02

          There were plenty of races where drivers had the race tied up so they turned everything down and cruised. Potentially, they may have gone for a fastest lap instead….

      3. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        8th March 2019, 11:56

        Me mentioning that he let the bad luck hit him so hard was meant to basically imply that he let it get to him and effected his performance. I admit he wasn’t very good in the 2nd half. But given how great Hamilton was I wouldn’t call his driving “so bad”.

        And saying all of his fastest laps were because he didn’t have pace or track position is a bit much. In Bahrain he was very close to winning, he didn’t pit near the end and get a fast lap there. In Baku, Bottas set fastest lap on lap 37. That was on the tyres he started the race on. And he was was in 1st position at the time, but was almost certainly going to finish 2nd. He may have been classified 12th, but that was incredibly unlucky.

        Russia certainly isn’t one that should be counted against him. He got fastest lap and could have won it.

        Even Belgium and France were not down to him that he got a different strategy that resulted in fastest lap. The only 2 races where him being to slow resulted in a late pit stop and fastest laps were Mexico and Brazil.

        So yes, he would have got 6 points and not 7 if this thing was used. But that still is interesting how close is would have made things. Bottas, Kimi and Verstappen just 1 number apart in that order.

        1. That’s the main question of 2018 that will never be answered.. Was Hamilton that good or was Bottas that bad?
          I would say the second one, but that’s my view..

          1. Or both, @jesperfey13.
            But only for the 2nd part of the season: initially, Hamilton wasn’t that special, and Bottas had some good/fair races.

    2. Slight rectification: Bottas would have only gotten 6 points as one of his fastest laps was outside of top ten. So 253 in the end. Still gains him 2 places on final standings.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        8th March 2019, 11:37

        Yes, was incorrect there.

  11. Gasly and Bottas will get a lot of them I think

  12. I am a bit disappointed that one has to figure in the 10 first places. It would have been nice to have some damaged cars repaired and going for a glory run.

  13. I was just curious to see how this would technically have changed the Final Driver Championship standings these last ten years. Thought I would share for those who are as curious for unrelevant stuff as I am:

    2018:

    1. — Lewis Hamilton 408 + 3 = 411
    2. — Sebastian Vettel 320 + 3 = 323
    3. +2 Valtteri Bottas 247 + 6 = 253
    4. -1 Kimi Räikkönen 251 + 1 = 252
    5. -1 Max Verstappen 249 + 2 = 251
    6. — Daniel Ricciardo 170 + 4 = 174
    7. — Nico Hülkenberg 69
    8. — Sergio Pérez 62
    9. — Kevin Magnussen 56 + 1 = 57

    2017:

    Doesn’t change anything.

    2016:

    Doesn’t change anything.

    2015:

    1. — Lewis Hamilton 381 + 8 = 389
    2. — Nico Rosberg 322 + 5 = 327
    3. — Sebastian Vettel 278 + 1 = 279
    4. — Kimi Räikkönen 150 + 2 = 152
    5. — Valtteri Bottas 136
    6. — Felipe Massa 121
    7. +1 Daniel Ricciardo 92 + 3 = 95 (1x 2nd 1x 3rd)
    8. -1 Daniil Kvyat 95 (1x 2nd)

    2014:

    Doesn’t change anything.

    2013:

    Doesn’t change anything.

    2012:

    Doesn’t change anything.

    2011:

    Doesn’t change anything.

    2010:

    Doesn’t change anything.

    2009:


    15. — Giancarlo Fisichella 8
    16. +1 Adrian Sutil 5 + 1 = 6 (Best 4th)
    17. -1 Sébastien Buemi 6 (Best 7th)
    18. — Kamui Kobayashi 3

    1. @tryneplague – thank you for working this out and showing it clearly, it makes for interesting reading/what-if scenario playing.

    2. @tryneplague Wow you are obviously bored today hahah. Free tip for you: F1’s new series just came out today, it’s on netflix.

      Nah just kidding dude. thanks for the analysis!

    3. @tryneplague Thank you for the post, good information.

    4. Although, they were setting fastest race lap without a point available, with a point available, maybe Hamilton and Mercedes will score all fastest lap points in a season, so it might change things, no point looking back historically.

      1. @kpcart Was going to say the same. Simply plugging in the potential new system of a point for fastest lap into previous years does not necessarily translate. Given how teams, especially ones under a bit of a microscope for making an early season team order decision, will defend that decision by claiming Championships can come down to one point in the end, they will likely now go for fastest lap in a much different light, and approach things differently than previously. And just look how close Max and Kimi and Valtteri were last year. Perhaps this point will take some of the cruise-to-conserve out of the closing stages of races when the top drivers’ posiitons are not likely to change due to their distance apart yet there is still an addition point to race for. Imagine (the unlikely scenario of) one driver getting all the fastest laps through the season. That’s nearly a race win worth.

        1. I can imagine qualifying party mode being used in the race now.. Or has it already with ‘hammer time?’, but with fuel onboard, hammer time might be last 2 laps of race when in the lead to get extra point.

        2. I know, I know :)
          That’s why I added “unrelevant” to my post. Had nothing else to do..

    5. To people who are saying, you can’t just retrospectively apply changes because mindset may have been different if they had the rules, fair point. However, what I think @tryneplague ‘s analysis does show is that the impact is likely to be minimal.

      There will probably be a few ‘no brainer’ instances where, because of track position relative to nearby rivals, a driver has a free pit stop and might as well go for the point. But I think most likely we will see the fast laps scattered through the top drivers, like we see already, and the extra points being inconsequential. But there is the possibility that they could become the difference if a close year happens. So, again in my opinion, the best case is an unnecessary rule skews points for a few years and then gets dropped. And worst case is that drivers lose positions at the end of the year because of a few fast laps.

      If you are okay with that possibility—a championship decided by fast laps rather than just finishing position—then I guess I understand your support. I’m not interested in that, and think this is a foolish attempt at a “new” idea to excite people. You know what is exciting? Close races.

  14. And I move closer to finding a new hobby…

    I think the 2021 rule changes will be a serious make-or-break event for F1 – if it falls flat on it’s face, or worse, causes a rift in the paddock between certain teams and the owners, it could finally see that breakaway series come to fruition.

    …Especially if old Bernie see’s an opening.

    1. it could finally see that breakaway series come to fruition …Especially if old Bernie see’s an opening.

      I agree re. 2021 being make-or-break even for fans, but the quoted bit above might be the one thing that keeps me with Liberty’s F1, out of sheer principle! :)

    2. @joeypropane I will not heap the pressure on Liberty of getting everything perfect for 2021, for that is impossible as there are several versions of what perfect would be depending on who you were to ask. But otherwise, given the direction Liberty has talked about going, addressing all aspects of the entity, and all imho with the right sentiment at heart, I cannot see anything other than at least some degree of improvement to F1 if not a big improvement. Or said another way, what change have they talked about for 2021 that would see them fall flat on their faces? And I’m not talking about tweaks like the wing changes for this season that are just them dealing with cars they inherited from the BE era that are too clean air dependent.

    3. Finding a new hobby? Give motogp a try, it is insane what those drivers do, and the 60 degree lean angles at massive speed. Or build guitars for a hobby like I do.

      1. You build guitars? Electric or acoustic? That is so cool. My brother, for whom carpentry is one of his hobbies, had started the process of building a violin a number of years ago. That starts with building some custom tools that will be needed first. He seemed to set that aside quite a while back but in these last few years has beautifully refurbished a ukulele and is now much of the way through building one from scratch.

        Lol just to keep it a bit more on topic, yeah MotoGP is amazing.

        1. I fo classical/flamenco since the last 5 years. I’ve followed f1 since 1993, but not as much now, Mercedes/Hamilton dominance in a boring era of one team dominance in modern times has dulled the sport for me. Its not a fair sport where a rich manufacturer like Mercedes holds an advantage all the time. Pre Internet age, where we were not up to date on news of every thing f1 every minute, we could safely follow a series like f1 in 1980s 90s, early 2000s and not get too angry at one team dominance, cos we had no idea why this was.

          1. @kpcart Good stuff re the guitars. I’ve become a bit familiar with bending veneers of wood.

            Ya I do hear you wrt F1 then and now. I truly believe though that we are headed back to something better. BE had his way of doing things and now we are on to what I believe will be a much better and balanced product.

  15. Ferrari to Kimi:
    pit for new boots and take the extra point off Lewis :-)

    1. @mirko710 – Another good point I haven’t seen elsewhere. Not only will there be a No1 and No2 driver, but the No2 driver might be asked to worsen their own position to chase a late fast lap to help the No1.

  16. Does it mean it is the fastest lap of the top 10 drivers? Or can a bottom 10 driver deny a point being awarded

    1. That’s a very good point and yet another point of contention.

      1. Actually is at the end of the article, silly me. No point will be awarded.

        1. Silly me as well (see below). But here is a scenario: Hamilton has the fastest race lap in closing stages of the race and neither Ferrari driver is in position to beat it. Would the Scuderia make a suggestion to Sauber or Haas that one of their drivers pits for tyres in order to steal that point from Hamilton on the last lap? Better if nobody earns it than let the opposition have it.

    2. “No point will be awarded if the fastest lap is achieved by a driver who was classified outside the top 10.” – So “a bottom 10 driver (can) deny a point being awarded.

    3. The point is not awarded if outside the top 10.

      There is no thing as fastest lap for a top 10 driver.

  17. I’m for this. I wish there was more points for the ‘team’ orientated tasks.

    1 (constructor) point for fastest pit stop of the race!

    1. That should only count to the constructors title.

  18. OK, I was not at all opposed to a point for fastest race lap, but limiting it only to those finishing in top-ten positions is not right. Does it mean that if someone outside top-ten happens to set fastest lap, no extra point will be awarded at all…or is the driver who sets fastest lap among the top-ten gonna get that point regardless? I think either option is silly, just give it to the one driver who deserves it.

  19. What’s the collective noun for a grouping of smart people that turns out much dumber than its parts?
    Such a bad idea for the sake of one miserable point.

    1. What’s the collective noun for a grouping of smart people that turns out much dumber than its parts?

      @david-br – a parliament. Or whatever the legislative body in your country is called ;)

      Oh wait, you said “smart people”. Sorry, ignore my comment.

      1. Lol lol. Good one.

        But seriously, ‘one miserable point’ can mean one WDC or one WCC. Just ask any team that has just imposed a team order on one of their drivers within the first few races of the start of the season and has to explain that decision to fans and media.

    2. A committee.

  20. There was a bloke called Jack Brabham, you may have heard of him, he did OK in F1. He said you only drive as fast as you need to win. The reason was cars just weren’t so good back then. F1 was not just about how fast you can go, it was also about a winning strategy. Reliability, Tyres, pit stops and fuel, were all unknowns. We really didn’t know if our favourite driver /team would make it to the end.
    In my opinion that is part of the problem F1 faces, a lot of the strategy/unknowns has been eliminated. Cars are much much more reliable, they don’t need to stop for fuel or tyers.
    Tyres don’t disintegrate off the rims brakes don’t fail, Engines, gear boxes are all amazingly strong ,nearly every car makes it to the end every race, basically it’s a 300 kilometer sprint.
    So awarding a point for fastest lap really is just a band-aid on a much bigger problem.
    And what happens if the 11th placed car sets the fastest lap, are they denied the point…how is that fair? Or what if a satellite team car hinders an a opposing teams A car accidentally or not, how can that be judged?
    We can’t go back to the passed but I do not think this is the future.

    1. You are over analysing with 2 completely different eras as comparison. Its the end of the wotld, won’t make much difference to any race, but is interesting in itself, its much better than the fan voted driver of the day, which sees millennial verstappen fans vote for him even in bad races.

      1. ts much better than the fan voted driver of the day

        Has that been ruled out?

    2. If you think F1 is a 300km sprint you’d absolutely love endurance racing, they actually push during a race there.

      1. @alec-glen Already do when I can.

  21. So in an attempt to make fastest lap more meaningful there actually going to end up making it meaningless because a driver pitting with a few laps to go for fresh soft tyres & setting fastest lap by default renders the ‘achievement’ meaningless.

    1. I do agree that that scenario is possible, but I think it won’t always be a no-brainer for a team to do this as they will have to see the lay of the land race on race depending on which cars are where and how they are performing in any given race. Some tracks may even lend themselves to teams doing what you are suggesting more than other tracks. What if two or three or four drivers go for this in the closing stages of a race? Would that help make it more of an achievement as opposed to one bloke going for it for the glory run?

      As I say I completely understand your point, and I wonder if perhaps they approve this for this year, and the result is exactly as you bring up, perhaps they scrap it for next year and consider it an experiment that had to see itself through.

      Just another thought…we have seen some drivers go for and achieve the fastest lap seemingly just out of boredom or to prove a point, let’s say after a team strategy went against them and favoured their teammate, or what have you. Those types of glory runs that have already existed don’t exactly make the effort meaningful do they? That a driver set the fastest lap doesn’t generally make me think that he was therefore the sentimental favourite for the win and was somehow robbed because he had pace during one special lap. Ie. I think overall half the time a driver is just going for bragging rights anyway, and the other half of the time the driver with the fastest lap had that genuine pace for much of the weekend and achieved the fastest lap ‘naturally,’ by just going for the win.

  22. Does this mean a grand slam now includes the fastest lap?

    1. @barnstable1 — It always did. Grand slam = pole, win, lead every lap, fastest lap.

  23. Promise:
    “We are not going to gimmick the sport up”

    Reality:
    Introduce new gimmick just a week before first race.

    Bunch of idiots.
    Well, my run of being an F1 fan stretches from around 1991 up to today… I am more and more disillusioned with Liberty’s approach, and I guess I am totally ready to abandon F1 once they completely destroy it in 2021.
    Well done, Liberty.

  24. So championship deciding points will go to whoever in the top 10 happen to luck into having the space behind to do a pit stop at the end, how utterly ridiculous.

  25. Cristian (@sandorcristian)
    8th March 2019, 14:36

    Great initiative!

  26. I think this should be open to all the drivers. To get around the suggestion drivers will pit, wait 20 or 30 laps, then come out just to set a fastest lap time, then we need to have a rule that excludes drivers who didn’t run continuously in the race, e.g. only award the point if the fastest lap time was set by a driver who is not more than two laps behind the race leader, only award the point if the fastest lap time driver didn’t stop in the pits for more than 1 minute, etc.

    1. @drycrust – What we don’t need (imo) is more minutiae. Let’s leave the point out entirely and deal with actual issues in F1 rather than manufacturing new ones.

      1. You’re correct! Nevertheless, it seems Liberty Media have decided this isn’t a gimmick and that it will make racing better. I guess it could add something of interest to the end of a race when usually drivers are trying to conserve fuel. So let’s give it a try.
        If they do want to try it, then it should be open to all those who have made a creditable effort to be part of the race, not just those in the first 10.

        1. @drycrust – If they add it to the rules, I’d rather see no restriction. No limit to the top 10 drivers, no limit to laps behind, or laps driven.

  27. There’s one thing that irks me here. I don’t have much demands for liberty. I mean give me a half decent F1 TV pro (stable, possibility to cast, ability to access at all time, less than two days wait to be able to replay…) and a tighter grid and I’m good. This is unnecessary.

  28. Its also a chance for a second driver to score a constructors point….which could be very valuable to the right team at the end of the season…but to me leave the rule alone

  29. Give points for the fastest pitstop. It is a teamsport and this will ad to the spectacle.

  30. Really not a fan of it. Points should be awarded for finishing positions & the championship order decided by those points rather than bonus points for poles, fast laps or anything else.

    Awarding a point for fastest lap & creating a scenario where a driver pit’s for fresh tyres with a few laps left & with those fresh tyres & low fuel is able to lap 1-2+ seconds faster than anybody else & grab fastest lap by default just makes that point not mean anything. I also don’t think pitting with 4 laps left & having a new set of soft’s that allows you to go 1-2+ seconds faster than anybody else is deserving of a point.

    Plus you just know teams are going to play games with it especially late in the year during a close title fight. If for instance Vettel has the fastest lap & Lewis isn’t fast enough to get it & doesn’t have a gap to make a stop in order to pit for fresh tyres, Mercedes will just pit Bottas & have him take the fastest lap & point off Vettel, Especially during a final race title decider & that sort of thing swinging the championship isn’t something i’m a fan of.

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