Analysis: Verstappen seals DHL Fastest Lap Award

Although the 2024 Formula 1 season is simply across the nook, F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó takes a glance again on the final yr’s championship, choosing up some key details concerning the quickest race laps.

The Formula One Championship was born in 1950 when the drivers assembled on the British Grand Prix on 13 May. Back then, the purpose system was very totally different with solely the primary 5 drivers incomes factors on the finish of the race. The winner obtained eight factors with the second-placed driver gathering six models, then the third-, fourth- and fifth-placed racer incomes 4, three and two factors recpectively.

Some extent was awarded for the driving force who set the quickest lap between 1950 and 1959. Interestingly, there was no extra situation to earn the extra level, drivers didn’t even want to complete the race to gather the additional level.

There had been a number of examples for that curious incidence to occur from this ten-year interval. Retiring from the season-closing Italian Grand Prix in 1950, Juan Manuel Fangio set the quickest lap of the race and went on so as to add an addition level to his tally of 27 factors which was sufficient for the five-time champion Argentine racing driver to complete the season second behind Giuseppe Farina.

As timekeeping applied sciences had been removed from extremely developed, there have been occasions when extra drivers set the quickest lap. In truth, because the know-how was not exact sufficient, officers had been unable to find out the drivers who set absolutely the quickest lap. As a consequence, the extra level was shared between drivers.

At the 1954 British Grand Prix, at least seven drivers set a lap time of 1 min 50 secs together with Juan Manuel Fangio, Jose Froilan Gonzalez, Mike Hawthorn, Stirling Moss, Onofre Marimon, Alberto Ascari and Jean Behra. It meant that each one drivers obtained 1/7 of some extent.

There was an extended interval when the quickest laps weren’t awarded. But in 2019, the purpose for scoring the quickest lap was re-introduced, so long as that driver completed within the prime ten.

The 2023 F1 season noticed Max Verstappen safe the best variety of quickest laps. No surprises there, because the Red Bull driver picked up the race winner’s trophy on 19 events in 2023. The solely blips had been Singapore and the 2 victories for team-mate Sergio Perez in Saudi Arabia and Baku. Overall, the marketing campaign file for the RB19 contains 21 wins, 14 pole positions, 5 dash wins, 30 podiums, eleven quickest race laps and 860 championship factors.

The three-time world champion notched up a powerful 9 quickest laps – only one shy of Kimi’s 2008 file.

The Dutchman set the quickest race lap in Jeddah, Miami, Barcelona, Spielberg, Silverstone, Budapest, Suzuka, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, including 9 extra factors to his factors tally.

Finishing third within the drivers’ championship, Lewis Hamilton clocked within the quickest race lap in Monte Carlo, Spa, Singapore and Mexico whereas Red Bull’s Mexican racer Sergio Perez scored two extra factors because of his quickest race laps in Melbourne and Montreal.

McLaren’s rookie driver Oscar Piastri additionally scored further factors, recording the quickest race lap in Monza and Las Vegas. Joining Aston Martin forward of the 2023 F1 season, Fernando Alonso earned some extent in Zandvoort with the quickest lap. Finishing second on the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, McLaren’s British driver Lando Norris set the quickest lap in Interlagos whereas Mercedes driver George Russell recorded the quickest race lap in Baku.

Completing his third F1 season in 2023, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda set the quickest race lap in Austin. The Singapore Grand Prix noticed Alfa Romeo’s Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu set the quickest race lap, however he was not in a position to decide up the extra level as he completed the race on the Marina Bay Circuit exterior the highest ten.