The fastest lap point in Formula 1 is disappearing at the end of the 2024 season.
The FIA announced Thursday that drivers would no longer get a bonus point for having the fastest lap starting in 2025. The bonus point has been around since 2019, when F1 introduced the rule in an attempt to incentivize drivers to push harder on fresh tires during races.
However, teams have only really gone for the fastest lap in the race without the fastest car if they aren’t at risk of losing a spot with a free pit stop. During races with spread-out fields, it isn’t uncommon to see a team in the top 10 make a free pit stop near the end of a race to put on a set of fresh soft compound tires and get the bonus point.
The bonus point is only available to drivers who finished in the top 10. If a driver from 11th on back runs the fastest lap, he doesn’t get a point.
The move to get rid of the point wasn’t hasty. However, it does come after a somewhat controversial fastest lap at the end of the Singapore Grand Prix. Daniel Ricciardo, in his last race with the Red Bull family, pitted his RB car near the end of the race for soft tires while he was well outside the top 10. Ricciardo set the fastest lap on the final lap of the race … and took it away from race winner Lando Norris.
The race was Ricciardo’s last of the season as RB parted ways with him following the Singapore Grand Prix in favor of Liam Lawson.
Since Norris didn’t get the bonus point for the fastest lap, he ended the Singapore Grand Prix 52 points back of Max Verstappen. That’s a magic number. If Norris wins all six Grand Prix races and all three sprint races remaining this season and Verstappen finishes second to him in each of those nine events, Verstappen will win his fourth consecutive driver’s title by a point. Verstappen, of course, drives for Red Bull Racing, the No. 1 team to the junior RB team.
In addition to getting rid of the fastest lap point next season, the FIA also said that teams will be required to field a young driver in four practice sessions. Teams are currently required to field a young driver in two practice sessions over the course of the season.
