Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Albert Park, 2019

Teams should “trust” drivers to push for fastest lap point – Smedley

2019 F1 season

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Formula 1 technical consultant Rob Smedley says teams should be more willing to let their drivers push flat-out to set the fastest lap of the race now that point is on offer for it.

At the season-opening race Valtteri Bottas became the first driver for 60 years to score a point for setting the fastest lap following the reintroduction of the bonus. However his Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff revealed he had ordered his drivers not to push to set the fastest lap towards the end of the race.

Smedley, who was previously a race engineer at Williams and Ferrari, said he would have told Bottas to “just do it” if he’d been managing the Mercedes driver’s race.

“I think we tend to forget how good these guys are,” said Smedley. “People like Valtteri aren’t rookies. He knows what he’s doing and he knows when he’s driving within himself.

“He’s not going to go and do the lap of his life right on the ragged edge if it’s going to jeopardise those 25 points. They’re too professional for that.

“When you’re managing drivers during a race you’ve got to let them operate in their area of expertise. You have to trust their ability. If a driver thinks he can do it, he will do it.

“I can almost guarantee that if a professional driver doesn’t think it’s on, he will come back and tell you it’s not possible and they will be really clear about it. But if the possibility is there, then they will absolutely go for it.”

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Smedley also expects teams will become more willing to take the risk of pitting a driver to put them on fresh tyres in order to set the fastest lap, if they have time to pit without losing a position.

“I think the top teams will definitely go for it,” he said. “If you win them all it’s like an extra race win. In the constructors’ championship it’s like having a third driver in your squad.

“Every time you do something in a race there’s a risk. Many times in races I’ve been in the position where you think: ‘There’s a big enough gap, we have a free pit stop, do we take it?’ It isn’t a black and white decision. Yes, the free stop might be there, but even though you’ve got every trust in the guys on your pit crew, you’re introducing a variable that didn’t exist before. There is a risk and running a race correctly is all about risk management.

“If you’ve got 25 points on the table, do you want to take that pit stop in the hope of gaining an extra point? The risk is small but it is still there. Something could go wrong and you don’t come out with 25 points, you finish in second place and though you’ve gained a point, you’ve dropped six. That’s the call teams at the front will have to make, and that has to be balanced against the appetite of your immediate rivals to take that risk too.

“Are they in damage limitation mode and then seeing that extra point as clawing back a part of advantage you’re getting by beating them? Are you going to counter that to frustrate them? Are there other players in the game that make taking a risk less likely to bring a return?

“Those are sort of strategic decisions the front-running teams will have to make and they’ll make those on a case-by-case basis.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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8 comments on “Teams should “trust” drivers to push for fastest lap point – Smedley”

  1. Engines are “Lifed” all the components in them are “lifed” the whole future of the engine depends on it being used inside the tested parameters. ie it can go so long at these revs at this temperature plus so long at those revs at a lower temperature, each combination of revs, temperature, load, mode and other factors forms part of the engine life.
    The use of each part of the engine life is carefully planned so that in theory it will last the required number of weekends. If the driver is allowed to go for fastest lap he may well go outside the planned usage and hasten the use of a new engine.
    When I say engine I mean the whole PU.
    Rob knows this very well, and since this year, we are down to three engines per car it is more critical than ever and directly at odds with the very concept of going for fastest lap.

  2. I agree with Smedley that teams are too overbearing when it comes to controlling what their drivers do on-track.

    But in Melbourne it was a waste of time for anyone other than Bottas to go for fastest lap. He obviously had the fastest car/tyre combination. And that’s going to be the case most of the time.

    1. @keithcollantine Agreed. Perhaps Max might have been the other candidate to go for this ‘naturally’ in that he had it until VB went for it, and was chasing LH for many laps thus putting in some hot’ish laps anyway, but otherwise yes I see this bonus point being had mainly by the literal fastest car/tire combination, and it will we rare and perhaps out of desperation for the point as the season winds down that a driver will actually pit for tires just to maybe perhaps possibly get the fastest lap depending on whoever else is attempting it too, including naturally without a pit for tires.

    2. He obviously had the fastest car/tyre combination. And that’s going to be the case most of the time.

      Disagree. If Ferrari had better pace as we expect them to and some balls then 4th placed LeClerc could have risked it for the biscuit with relative ease.

      And the first team to throw away a podium or solid points finish chasing it by botching a pitstop will also be entertaining to see.

      1. If we are going to play woulda, coulda, shoulda then…if VB had obeyed Wolff, Max would have had the extra point.

      2. @robbie There’s one risk Smedley didn’t mention, because it’s not directly about race engineering: what if you stop for new tyres and then still get beaten to the fastest lap by someone who didn’t? It would be pretty embarrassing.

  3. Agreed.

  4. Trust in the drivers isn’t the issue. It’s using more of the car that’s necesary just for 1 point. If you’re running 8th, it makes sense, but if you’re winning, there’s little incentive… Maybe later in the season as points become more necessary, we’ll see championship contenders risking it all. But right now? I just don’t see it…

    Tyres are sensitive and the drivetrain components are not unlimited per season… so, yeah. I think all season, we’ll see 20 laps from the end who’s in the best position to exploit a free pit stop, and he’ll be the one able to set the fastest lap. If he pits and the others can’t pit because of the gap between them, he’ll get the fastest lap easily and it’ll be as dramatic as doing the laundry. If no driver is able to pit for free, it’ll be like Melbourne: the fastest driver will get it, and the others won’t even think of snatching it from him because they’ll know they cannot beat him.

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