Why F1 must get rid of the point for fastest lap

It’s been a flawed concept since its reintroduction to Formula 1 in 2019. But with every passing week, the evidence mounts to underline that awarding a point for the fastest lap is a bad idea and should be dropped

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Fastest lap statistics have always been fraught. Not quite pointless (pun intended) but requiring lots of caveats. For example, the fact arch-rivals Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna scored 41 and 19 fastest laps respectively tells us something about their different approaches to a race weekend but is merely one small part of a much bigger picture.

Similarly, Kimi Raikkonen sits third in the all-time fastest laps list. Partly that's thanks to his genuine speed at McLaren, but more than half of his tally of 46 were scored at Ferrari, often late on in races when they were largely irrelevant to the grand prix.

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Author Kevin Turner

Kevin Turner is Autosport’s Chief Editor. While studying History at the University of York, Kevin began covering UK club events as a freelance reporter for Autosport and Motorsport News. He joined the Autosport staff as Editorial Assistant on the magazine in 2006, winning what is now known as the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award. He became National Editor in 2008 and over the next few seasons covered a range of international events, including the Le Mans 24 Hours, as well as the British Touring Car Championship and British GT. Kevin became Features Editor before switching to edit Motorsport News in 2014.

He returned to Autosport in 2016 to become editor of the magazine, a dream job that is still part of his role.

He became Chief Editor in 2020, helping to plan content for autosport.com and Autosport’s podcast as well as seeing the magazine through the coronavirus pandemic. Kevin also led work on the special publication celebrating 70 years of Autosport and has been a judge on the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award, formerly known as the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, since 2008. He lives in Fleet with his wife and two children.