Carlos Sainz Jnr, Ferrari, Circuit of the Americas, 2024

“It was not needed”: Most drivers won’t miss fastest lap bonus point

Formula 1

Posted on

| Written by

Most Formula 1 drivers who expressed an opinion on the series’ decision to drop the bonus point for fastest lap said they won’t miss it.

Since 2019, the driver who sets the fastest valid lap in a grand prix has been awarded an extra bonus point, so long as they finish inside the top ten positions.

However, in Thursday’s meeting of the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council, it was decided that the bonus point for fastest lap will no longer be awarded as of next season. The decision comes weeks after the bonus point came under the spotlight after the Red Bull-owned RB team pitted Daniel Ricciardo late in the Singapore Grand Prix to fit fresher tyres and set the fastest lap, denying McLaren’s Lando Norris the fastest lap and bonus point in his pursuit of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the championship.

Asked if he would have wanted the bonus point for fastest lap to remain, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jnr admitted he was never a fan of it in the first place.

“I always was of the opinion that it was not needed in the points system of Formula 1, mainly because how it is achieved,” Sainz said.

“Right now that point goes to the one that has the free pit stop one lap to the end of the race. It’s not showing who is the fastest guy in the race – and he deserves one point for being the fastest guy – it’s just a point that goes to the guy that by chance, or by luck, or by race situation has a free pit stop at some point of the race. Not always, but in a lot of occasions. Most of the time.”

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon agreed with Sainz. “In the race, we race to win,” he said. “We don’t necessarily race to be fastest on one lap. I never thought that this is a good thing to have one point for the race.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Kevin Magnussen also said that the bonus point was little incentive for midfield teams like Haas.

George Russell, Mercedes, Circuit of the Americas, 2024
Russell is “not sad to see it go”
“I think it’s something that very rarely is on our mind,” he said. “If we’re in the top ten, even if you’re P6 or P7, it’s very rare that you will have a pit stop gap. For us, it’s never been relevant.”

Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director George Russell admitted he was “not sad to see it go.” The Mercedes driver pointed out the point was too frequently scored by a driver who wasn’t quick enough to deserve it on merit alone.

“I always felt the fastest lap [point] was a bit of a strange rule because often if a driver was having a bad race, they would pit, put new tyres on and set the fastest lap,” he told the official F1 channel. “So often it was a driver who was between fifth and 10th place who was in a position to achieve it and it wasn’t truly who was the fastest driver of the race.”

Norris was one of few drivers who admitted he preferred the existing rule, which was introduced when he arrived in F1 five years ago.

“I kind of liked how it is now,” he said. “There’s an opportunity to go for something else. Sometimes you pay the price for risking such a thing. It’s always been a risk in certain scenarios, if your pit stop goes wrong or for different reasons.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

But F1’s most experienced driver, Fernando Alonso, expects the loss of the rule will change little.

“I raced 90% of my career without going for the fastest lap [point] and it was fine,” he said. “So my guess is it will not change much. If they decided that this is the way to go, I think we will support it.”

Miss nothing from RaceFans

Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:

2024 United States Grand Prix

Browse all 2024 United States Grand Prix articles

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

9 comments on ““It was not needed”: Most drivers won’t miss fastest lap bonus point”

  1. Love to know how many times the FLAP was awarded to a driver who has pitted specifically to make that fast run as opposed to how many were won in the race without that hail-mary pitstop.

    1. Yes. I’m more interested in the fastest lap when it just happens during the race.

  2. While I share the view of liking the rule itself, I also think removing it won’t be a loss for anything & therefore probably won’t miss it in the long term either.
    All in all, I’m largely indifferent.

  3. Article #31 featuring FLAP in the headline since Singapore! Yeeee hawww!

    Eat your heart out Flapo Colapointo!

  4. Bob Sanderson
    18th October 2024, 12:41

    It was always a stupid, unnecessary rule.

  5. Note that the race website made an interesting graph, and it looks like the most common ending position for a driver who got fastest lap while the rule was in place was first, however it was still only around 1\3 of the total fastest lap points there’s been.

    Verstappen and hamilton are those who got most points that way, by far!

  6. One of many Liberty’s actions to improve the ‘show’

  7. • Liberty/CVC, trying to monetize and ‘milk’ the sport as much as they can, introduces new rules in places where it was not needed.
    • They come up about a B.S. reason to justify it (there was a FLAP point in the 50s, Sprint races mean MORE action therefore IT MUST BE GOOD).
    • Maybe they’ll conduct some polling among the fans, than either it would be fixed in a way to end up with the desired result (i.e. How much do you love FLAP point? a) a lot b) extremely a lot c) infinitely a lot etc) or keep the results to themselves and say the overwhelming majority loves it.
    • Forbid the drivers/teams from criticising it and push the media to tow the line by reminding us that it’s the best invention since fire.

    • Be forced to remove it quitely after there is a scandal or misuse of the ‘spirit’ of the rule, with drivers and teams saying “yeah we never really cared about it anyway, no one is going to miss it”.

    It happened with double points at the finale in 2014, elimination qualifying in 2016, flap in 2019-24 and hopefully soon with sprint races.

  8. With these regulations and tyres, it was lame.
    Norris won the last race by 20 seconds or so, but any other driver on that track, even the one running dead last, could take that FL from him with a new set, it was just a matter of opportunity and absolutely nothing else.

Comments are closed.