F1 have made rule change for 2025 - and it probably won't make a difference at all
F1 have made rule change for 2025 - and it probably won't make a difference at all
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After six seasons and very little impact, the rule handing out an extra point for the fastest lap of a Formula 1 race has been scrapped. And if the FIA hadn't announced it themselves, it's hard to imagine anyone would have noticed. They say every point counts and, while there is logic to that statement, it's hard to describe a single point as anything other than inconsequential in a sport in which title-winning margins are rarely so slender.
The 2021 season was one of the tightest drivers' championship battles in history. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen went into the final race level on points but, by the end of it all, the Dutchman won it by eight. Even if Hamilton had double the number of fastest laps he recorded that season (six) it would not have helped.
Every other drivers' championship since the fastest lap point was reintroduced to F1 in 2019 has been decided by a much, much larger margin. It was a reward which simply had no bearing on the outcome of the title race. Lando Norris scored the greatest number of extra points through the rule in 2024, having recorded the fastest lap in six of the 24 Grands Prix held. He finished the season as runner-up in the drivers' championship, but 63 points adrift of title winner Verstappen.
So it is certainly the correct decision to get rid of it. While F1 bosses hoped bringing it back would add an extra layer of intrigue to the results of individual races, the reality ended up being that the fastest lap was often little more than a distraction.
