Take advantage of it, from the 2025 season, you will no longer see it! We are talking about the point of the best lap in the race. This reward introduced during the 2019 F1 campaign, intended to offer an additional unit to the driver setting the fastest time on Sunday, provided that he is in the Top 10.
But over time, authorities and teams understood that it could be used as a weapon against the enemy. How many times has Valtteri Bottas stopped in the last three laps of a race during the 2021 season to deprive Max Verstappen of this bonus while he was fighting for the title against Lewis Hamilton? More recently, the episode of the Singapore Grand Prix, where Daniel Ricciardo, already aware that his year was over, was asked by his team to stop a third time to put on soft tires and thus steal the fastest lap from Lando Norris, still with his sights set on the championship while the Englishman fights against the Dutchman.
Zak Brown then raised his voice, emphasizing that this type of strategy involves a problem of sporting fairness since Red Bull has two teams on the grid compared to one for McLaren. The question then arose of the viability of the extra point on Sunday. It was enough for the FIA to remove it during the last World Council, in response to recent complaints from the teams.
Among the pilots, the news was rather well received, they who did not really see any interest in it. “ I’ve always been of the opinion that the Formula 1 points system doesn’t need it, mainly because of the way it’s set upunderlined Carlos Sainz in the Texan paddock.
Currently, that point goes to whoever has a free pit stop with one lap remaining in the race. It does not reward who is fastest in the race (…) It is just a point that goes to whoever, by luck, or a racing situation, has a free pit stop at a given time. Not always, but often. Most of the time. »
Same story with Esteban Ocon who has always advocated running to win and not to be the fastest on Sunday. “ In the race, we race to winhe slips. We don’t necessarily race to be the fastest on a lap. I never thought it was a good thing to have a point (additional) in the race. » A speech in line with that of George Russell, president of the GPDA, the pilots’ association, who said ” not to be sad » to see it deleted. Finally a decision which was practically unanimous in the paddock.
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