Quote:
Originally Posted by chillibowl
agreed or by one of the top cars, maybe more so when a top car is out of position and making a late charge through the field.
but if its the mid to back fielders making these late runs/late pitstops at the end of races dont we run the risk of seeing a bunch lapped cars (either close to being lapped, lapped already, or lapped by virtue of an extra stop) vying for fastest lap?
Alonso finished a couple of laps down in Spain and Perez was last of the finishers in Monaco...not sure how much value their fast laps really added to those proceedings.
and if its not that, then its one of the top teams winning the race and setting fastest lap as was the case in Britain.
and as the season progresses and fresh PUs come into short supply, whats the incentive to turn up the wick at the end of a race and risk and PU failure? does one point equal enough money to pay for an additional PU?
current restrictions on available PUs and pre event tire allocations render fastest laps sort of irrelevant these days...imo, this needs to change in order to compel teams into being more competitive at all times (every GP for every lap).
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I've generally been against *false* situations being used to *spice up* the racing, but giving a point for fastest lap (and this should be both drivers & constructors points in my opinion) but this would do exactly that.
It's fair to assume that the fastest lap would be set as close to the end of the race as possible when the car is lightest having burned off most fuel.
Those towards the pointy end of the race would probably on more worn tyres which would make them getting the fastest lap more difficult/risky (so is it worth the risk?) Plus, the usual podium finishers are generally the ones fighting for the championship positions, so is it worth them risking car or mechanical damage pushing for the extra points?
For those who were going to finish out of the points anyway, it gives them (all of them) a chance to salvage a bit of kudos from the weekend, but they also have the risks mentioned above, plus the possibility of traffic hampering their lap, another sprinkle of spice in my opinion.
The only way I can see these extra points being won *easily* is if one of the top team's cars has a problem during the race (maybe needing lengthy pit stops to replace front wings a couple of times?) and so ends up running outside of the points. They could hopefully pit for fresh tyres (if they have any left) and get the fastest lap points, but again, this would stop them from just parking a (now) perfectly good car instead of winding around putting mileage on the components to finish the race, which would be good for the spectators and the sponsors.