Formula 1’s official X account exhorted its followers to follow its link for the “full story” on why the series has abruptly decided to drop its bonus point for fastest lap.
However the series’ own report offered no explanation for why it had decided to drop a rule it introduced just five years ago.The enthusiasm with which F1 launched its bonus point for fastest lap contrasted sharply with the quiet admission it has been dropped. Back in 2019 Ross Brawn, F1’s managing director for motorsport at the time, promised it would “improve the show whilst maintaining the integrity of our sport.”
F1 was quick to point out it previously awarded a bonus point for fastest lap from 1950 to 1959. Apparently it cared little why the rule was then deemed unnecessary and dropped for 60 years.
After the first season under the new rule, Brawn insisted “generally it’s been successful.” More contentiously, the championship insisted those who were sceptical about the rule when it was introduced had been won over.
“Avid fans were erupting like in an outcry, how dare we add a gimmick, we’re trying to be like NASCAR or whatever,” said F1’s global research director Matt Roberts in late 2019. “Then, actually, after the first few races we did some surveys and everyone said they love it.”
So as far as F1 is concerned the bonus point for fastest lap is a tremendous addition to the championship, beloved even by those fans who initially had doubts about it, which is now being dropped for reasons too trivial to deserve explanation.
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The reality is few fans seemed particularly enthusiastic about the rule, the drivers were similarly sceptical, it added little to the competition and has now been deemed more trouble than it’s worth.
The drivers voiced their doubts as soon as the rule was announced. “I don’t see the benefit of it” remarked Max Verstappen, which neatly encapsulated the pointlessness (no pun intended) of the new rule.
Drivers immediately sussed the rule would often arbitrarily hand a bonus point to whoever happened to have a large enough lead over their closest competitor at the end of a race to make a pit stop for fresh rubber. Sure enough, exactly that happened.
Few drivers had anything positive to say about the regulation when F1 dropped it. “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,” Carlos Sainz Jnr observed.
Sainz’s analysis of the rule’s flaws is spot-on. But as drivers were saying the same before it was introduced, did F1 take nearly six years to accept they were right, or have they dropped it for some other reason?
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There was no indication F1 was about to drop its bonus point for fastest lap prior to the last race in Singapore, where winner Lando Norris lost the bonus point in controversial circumstances. Daniel Ricciardo claimed the fastest lap at the end of the race, despite being unable to score the bonus point as he finished 18th, prompting claims his RB team brought him in for a flying lap on soft tyres to aid championship leader Max Verstappen of sister team Red Bull.
Zak Brown, CEO of Norris’ team McLaren, has long warned over the potential problems arising from multiple teams sharing the same owner. What happened in Singapore was a consequence of that, but as covered here previously, eliminating the bonus point for fastest lap is a far easier fix than to implement a rule which would ultimately force Red Bull to sell one of its two teams.
Although the FIA is F1’s regulator, the push to introduce the bonus point for fastest lap came from F1. While they insisted most fans were eventually won over by it, it’s not possible to say how generously they interpreted their data, and the feedback from our audience on the subject was consistently negative.
When F1 introduced sprint races three years ago, it justified them in much the same way, seizing on data which indicated weak support among fans and trumpeting it as “very, very encouraging.” Again, our readers have consistently told us they don’t want sprint races.
The sudden disappearance of the bonus point for fastest lap at least gives cause for hope that Liberty Media is willing to undo its mistakes.
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Comment
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f1andrea
18th October 2024, 15:38
Love you, Keith
pastaman
18th October 2024, 15:53
Fans “love” sprint races too
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
18th October 2024, 16:06
Fans of anything generally do love them ;)
I just think almost all morr serious fans of the sport don’t like spints or the flap bonus.
Ideals (@ideals)
18th October 2024, 16:35
“Engagement” yay, they get like twice the tweets during a sprint session compared to an P2 session, it’s a raging success, obviously.
AlanD
19th October 2024, 2:20
“they get like twice the tweets during a sprint session”
Yep, twice the opportunity for people to say “this is so boring”
Leksa (@leksa)
18th October 2024, 18:23
For F1 and Liberty, those who don’t love sprints are not real fans. So inversely, 100% of the real fans love sprints ;)
Nick T.
18th October 2024, 19:52
If 1% of fans liked FLAP and 10% of them complained on Twitter, that’d be thousands of complaints, which is exactly the sort of logical fallacy news media use to print headlines like “so and so’s words spark outcry” citing “hundreds of posts!”
Asd
18th October 2024, 16:17
Oh my, I can’t imagine what visions he had had to claim that. Indycar has always had a FLAP bonus and it was never more than an afterthought.
That goes for almost everything racingwise in F1 these days. Drivers can’t even attempt an overtake if they aren’t on fresh tyres or aren’t about to pit to get them.
RandomMallard
18th October 2024, 21:28
Indycar hasn’t had a fastest lap point since the dying days of the Champ Car World Series in 2007, although they do have bonus points for pole and for leading a lap and leading the most laps, which could lead to some interesting anomalies if (and I don’t think it’s a good idea) it was ever introduced into F1 – Gionvinazzi leading at Singapore in 2019 comes to mind, and Vettel in COTA in 2022.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
20th October 2024, 12:41
No, IndyCar does not award a bonus point for fastest lap. It does give a point for pole, leading a lap and two points for leading the most laps. All of which I’d drop and none of which I’d like to see F1 adopt.
Kribana (@krichelle)
18th October 2024, 16:52
Only fake F1 fans want the fastest lap point to stay.
Markp
18th October 2024, 19:38
Changing in the season is wrong. Should be for next season on. Now drivers have had additional points that others cannot get in future races. Whats the championship look like for fastest laps only this season? They should remove all points for fastest lap that have been given this season to date and adjust the standings.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
18th October 2024, 17:06
Sprint races are a farce. Clearly most of the drivers think so too. Maybe they should do an Indy 2005 and just all pull off into the pits at the start of one of them to make their point :)
Grapmg
18th October 2024, 20:36
FL bid from Leclerc in Spa 2022 was fun. Will miss those akward moments.
S
19th October 2024, 13:21
That’s the case with just about everything, though.
Fansites are typically where certain types of ‘fans’ congregate – and rarely provide an accurate representation of the wider audience.
IMO, there are only two problems with the fastest lap point: (a) that it isn’t available to everyone, and; (b) that teams (and manufacturers) have so much control over their drivers at all times that it will inevitably be used for evil at least as often as for good.
(b) also being the cause of just about everything else that is wrong with F1, anyway – which is a lot.
Even if fans don’t ‘love it’ – most were content with it providing an option or risk for (some) teams to consider in the late stages of a GP.
Sadly, that strategic option will now be removed entirely – yet another variable lost from F1.