Only Aston Martin have made a bigger step in 2023 than Williams – Albon

16 comments on “Only Aston Martin have made a bigger step in 2023 than Williams – Albon”

1. 

   pastaman
   8th March 2023, 0:26

   I have no issues with awarding a point for fastest lap. In fact, I enjoy the extra strategic decisions and risk that a team or driver needs to make to get it. It also allows teams further down the order to have an impact on the race and perhaps gain some measure of pride.

   Barely gets talked about? It gets mentioned almost every race. I’m a fan.
   1. 

      Dex
      8th March 2023, 2:13

      I don’t like that sometimes all you have to do is pit for a new tires and it’s an easy point. At the same time, if you’re, say, winning the race and you have the fastest lap with two laps to go, you may lose it if some backmarker decides to pit for the softs and go for a glory run in the last lap. I think that most times this point is not earned or lost on merit, so it looks more like a joke to me. I wouldn’t mind it if it earner more “naturally”, but I can’t think of decent rules for this. I wouldn’t mind it if only a race winner could get an extra point for the fastest lap. As a “strategic element” this rule failed for me, since we’re mostly talking about exploiting the rules, and not about someone who really had the best one-lap pace.
      1. 

         Dex
         8th March 2023, 2:15

         if it was earned more “naturally”* Forgive my typing.
      2. 

         S
         8th March 2023, 5:10

         If only the race winner could get the fastest lap, that would just extend their advantage, wouldn’t it.
         They already have the fastest car and get the most points….

         In reality, this is only an issue because F1 hasn’t sufficiently brought the field together in performance.
         It’s exacerbated by the fact that only the top 10 finishers qualify for it – those who already get points… Meaning those outside of the top 10 have nothing to gain from it themselves – they are just playing dirty games.

         The fastest lap point is a good incentive for someone to try something (ie take a risk) in the closing stages of the race – it’s just a waste that only the top half of the field can gain from it directly. F1 needs more cars scoring points, especially those further back in the field.
         After all, if a lower-midfielder can be the fastest car on the track, that just says that the leaders don’t have anywhere near enough incentive to go faster themselves. There simply isn’t sufficient competition to push them, nor sufficient reward for doing so off their own bat.
         That is a fundamental problem that no points system can ever solve.
      3. 

         pastaman
         8th March 2023, 12:46

         Yes, you are right, but I’m willing to accept the few times where it is meaningless for the times where it has an actual impact. Keep in mind that every time a driver pits, there is a bit of risk that the stop gets botched.
   2. 

      Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
      8th March 2023, 3:59

      I agree. Indeed we saw Ferrari take the risk and lose out last season. I like the extra element it can sometimes bring.
   3. 

      Shimks (@shimks)
      8th March 2023, 7:30

      I like it too. It adds another element. And we’re talking about it now, aren’t we!

      I don’t remember specifics but I believe there was at least one race a few years ago when several teams pitted towards the last lap and tried to get that final point. And I also think there have been occasions where drivers have tried this and lost positions due to the team miscalculating the gap to the next driver. Going for that extra point is risky and therefore adds excitement.
   4. 

      SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
      8th March 2023, 7:38

      Yeah, it’s been a good addition to the races. I don’t know what broadcast CotD watches, but F1TV commentary never fails to mention it. It’s often something we hear the drivers talk about during the race, and we’ve seen things like Charles Leclerc almost throw away a position at the end of the Belgian GP last year just for it. It’s not always that exciting, but it certainly adds some flavor to the tactics at the end of races.
      1. 

         Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
         8th March 2023, 18:56

         I’d prefer they award a point for pole rather than the fastest lap of the race.
2. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   8th March 2023, 5:47

   Rather than him qualifying higher than he should’ve, being out of position meant lower this time around.
   Therefore, final race positions came more or less on pure pace.

   While RB mightn’t be a clear-cut favorite on all tracks, I still expect them to win in Jeddah, Melbourne, etc.

   A slightly touching story, but recovering was the most important thing.
   Perhaps he’ll avoid injury risks relatively close to season-openers in the future, or more specifically, cycling on open & rough roads with relatively little lead time that can make things tight.

   I’ve never disliked the fastest lap bonus point, not even the tactical aspect of taking that away from someone else as the sole motive.
3. 

   AllTheCoolNamesWereTaken
   8th March 2023, 8:14

   But we fully expect our rivals to come back hard in the future races.

   Horner sounds a lot like Wolff used to sound not that long ago while Mercedes was still dominating. So far I’m not as fed up with Horner as I was with Wolff, but I suppose it’s early days still.

   On a quasi-related note: As far as I’m aware, Grosjean still hasn’t done that Mercedes test he was promised after Bahrain 2020. I wonder if the prospect has lost some of its appeal to him over the last year or so.
   1. 

      grat
      8th March 2023, 22:11

      Well, part of the team principals job is to manage expectations. So Horner’s doing what Wolff did, because no one likes a sore winner– “We beat you, and we’re going to keep beating you for the rest of the season!! NYAAAAAHHHHH!”.

      Having said that, I got tired of Horner’s constant whinging back in 2010– when they were winning everything AND STILL COMPLAINING. I think he threatened to quit the sport every year from 2008 to 2013, because they didn’t have “engine parity”– with the most successful engine of the V8 era. Then we had to listen to nearly a decade of “our engine isn’t good enough” from them– which to be fair, it wasn’t, but coming off the back of 8 championships in 4 years, you’re not going to get much sympathy.
4. 

   bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
   8th March 2023, 9:25

   Aston Martin’s jump of more than two seconds, is that the biggest jump a team has done inside what is broadly the same regulations? I can’t think of another team that has ever found so much time. It’s not like Bahrain is a long track. Dan Fallows should consider auctioning himself off at Sotherby’s for charity.
   1. 

      slowmo (@slowmo)
      8th March 2023, 11:00

      Probably when the “pink Mercedes” rocked up is the last time a team made such a huge jump (albeit still not 2s I believe) and that by and large was the same thing, they copied the front running teams previous year car. This time it does look like they did a bit more than just copy the Red Bull though. I think it says more about how awful their car was at the start of last year as much as it does about their gains too.
      1. 

         Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
         8th March 2023, 12:15

         And Hulkenberg, not Vettel, was driving it.
   2. 

      Jere (@jerejj)
      8th March 2023, 15:10

      @bernasaurus Possibly or at least afair & not a massively long track, but relatively long, so perhaps some impact from lap length, although Jeddah Corniche Circuit at 6.174 km will give a better idea.

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