The FIA has scrapped F1’s fastest lap bonus point for 2025

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of the fastest lap bonus point, born unto the world in 2019 and cruelly taken from it again in 2024. May it rest in peace.

Ahem. Yes, out of nowhere the FIA has decided that F1 should no longer award a bonus point for setting the fastest lap in a grand prix. Why? We’ve got literally no idea.

It caused controversy at the last race in Singapore as Daniel Ricciardo - knowing that his F1 career was coming to an end - pitted for fresh tyres so he could bow out with the fastest time, even though he wasn’t in the top 10 and therefore couldn’t claim the point for himself. Merely… deprive someone else of it.

Someone like Lando Norris. Who had it, then lost it, and whose job of catching Max Verstappen in the championship is now that little bit harder. Gamesmanship? An innocent quirk of the rules? Who knows.

Either way, it won’t happen next year. The decision was rubber stamped by the World Motor Sport Council yesterday, but so far no one from the FIA has explained the thinking behind it, or the timing. Weird.

So we can only guess. The bonus point was introduced on the eve of the 2019 season (come to think of it, that too was announced on the hop with no prior warning), with the idea being that the top 10 drivers would have something extra to fight for in the latter part of a race.

It… didn’t work out like that. Far too often a driver with a big enough gap behind and nothing to play for ahead could simply pit for fresh rubber on the penultimate lap, zip round to the chequered flag and bank the extra point. Not very exciting.

Even so, it added an extra layer to the spectacle and maybe they could’ve refined the rules to stop the splash ‘n’ dash chancers with a free pit stop in hand.

Oh well. Goodbye, fastest lap bonus point. You made purple look good.