The gamesmanship warning over F1’s potentially title-deciding moments

Imagine the scenario. There are three laps to go in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and the 2021 Formula 1 championship battle could not be more finely poised. Lewis Hamilton, who came to Yas Marina seven points behind rival Max Verstappen, holds a comfortable 10-second margin over the pursuing Dutchman.

Victory alone though is not enough to guarantee the Mercedes driver the title – thanks to the countback rule and Verstappen having won more races this year. He knows that, for the championship to be his, he also has to grab fastest lap. And that’s exactly what he did during the long second stint, securing the quickest lap of the race.

With Valtteri Bottas running a couple of seconds behind Verstappen, Red Bull does not have the option to pit its man to go for a late effort on fresh tyres and take that crucial point that the championship now depends on. In the past, Red Bull could have sacrificed Sergio Perez to do it, just as it did at Silverstone. This time, however, the Mexican is already out of the race after some earlier reliability problems.

As the title protagonists start the penultimate lap, the points situation has everything pointing towards Hamilton. But a couple of seconds later, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who has been outside of the points since a first-lap incident, dives into the pits for new tyres – and the clear intention of grabbing the fastest lap.

Alarm bells ring at Mercedes about a grander Red Bull scheme at play, but there is nothing it can do. Hamilton duly races on to take the chequered flag from Verstappen, and holds the fastest lap at that point. For a few moments he is world champion.

But 50 seconds later, Gasly roars across the line to snatch the fastest lap. It may not earn him anything personally, as he’s finished outside of the top ten so he doesn’t keep the point, but his Red Bull bosses are delighted. By ensuring that the race winner did not take the point, Gasly’s effort pulls Hamilton back level on points with Verstappen, with the Red Bull driver claiming his first title.

The nature of the last-lap anguish for Hamilton triggers a social media meltdown – and F1’s bosses vow to consider a tweak to the fastest lap rules to ensure that no championship can be impacted by partner teams helping the others.

Could team affiliations come into play in determining the title outcome?

Photo by: FIA Pool

If you think the above scenario sounds far-fetched, the nature of the gamesmanship between Verstappen and Bottas at last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix suggests that the battle for fastest laps is going to be a critical thing over the remainder of the campaign.

Sure, collusion between two teams – be it Red Bull and AlphaTauri, or Mercedes and any of its customer squads - is quite unlikely and would be heavily frowned upon. The fact that Red Bull’s accusations against Yuki Tsunoda after qualifying in Mexico went down like a lead balloon at AlphaTauri shows there is certainly not much joint thinking between those teams that makes you believe they would work together.

But, as we’ve seen with Perez and Bottas this year, the prospect of this being an internal-team affair is highly likely. And this duo’s final jobs of the season could well be making that stop on the penultimate lap to go for fastest lap.

If the world championship does come down to some fastest lap shenanigans it would be a disappointing end to what has been a thriller of a campaign

In fact, it’s not impossible that both men are called in at the same time to do the same thing – effectively opening up a scenario where the title outcome comes down to a single lap showdown between the number twos. How the series would react to those circumstances playing out remains to be seen...

PLUS: Could F1's 'kingmakers' tradition impact the 2021 title battle?

In Mexico, that battle over the fastest lap point served up a bit of a talking point, but was deemed well above board. It was circumstance, more than anything, that meant Bottas’ pursuit of fastest lap to snatch it from Verstappen put him on pretty much the same bit of asphalt as the Red Bull car. Verstappen knew that Bottas was behind him as the Finn made a first attempt at the lap, and the Dutchman deliberately backed off to scupper his rival.

When Bottas elected to use his tyre advantage to overtake the leader so he could have some clear air and go for it on the following lap, Verstappen again became the spoiler as he speeded up to ensure the Mercedes got blue flags and had to let him past. It was only when Mercedes opted to pit Bottas again, for completely fresh tyres and some clear track, that he grabbed it – taking the point away.

The Mexican example is not the first time that the second cars from Red Bull and Mercedes have been used to deliberately prevent the other team’s number one having the fastest lap point.

Perez was pitted from the lower reaches of the top 10 at Silverstone to deny Hamilton the fastest lap point

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

At the British Grand Prix, Perez lost the chance to score a few points when he was ordered near the end to pit and gun for the fastest lap to take it away from Hamilton, even though it dropped him outside the top ten.
Don’t forget too, that when Bottas had to pit for fresh tyres towards the end of the Dutch Grand Prix, he had to be given orders from the pitwall not to go for the fastest lap in case he stopped Hamilton gaining that point there.

There is no doubt that as we enter the final races of the campaign, the focus on the destiny of that fastest lap point is going to increase massively. If we do end up with a title battle between Hamilton and Verstappen that requires one of them needing to get fastest lap to secure the title, then you can be sure the number two cars will be brought into play.

And whereas in Austin Red Bull felt it would have been too brutal to have pitted Perez from a podium position to spoil Hamilton’s fastest lap party, do not think for a second that such emotional considerations will matter when the title is on the line. If Red Bull or Mercedes are faced with a situation where their second driver can finish an easy third, or have to pit and lose a few places to take the fastest lap that secures their team-mate the title, then there will be no hesitation in doing it.

What would be a more intriguing situation, though, is if that podium place was needed to secure the team the constructors’ championship. Sacrificing that to help their number one take the drivers’ crown would be the ultimate F1 dilemma….

If the world championship does come down to some fastest lap shenanigans it would be a disappointing end to what has been a thriller of a campaign. Just as nobody wants a world title decided by a reliability failure nor the title protagonists caught up in an unlucky incident, so too it would feel a bit of a let-down if it came down to another driver setting out deliberately to take the fastest lap as a spoiler.

When F1 brought back the fastest lap point from the start of 2019, it was done with the intention of adding a bit of extra spice to the races. And, well aware about the dangers of teams further down the order going out of their way to grab the point on offer, it was deliberately limited to only the top ten finishers being able to earn it.

This season is the first since it arrived, however, where the fight between two teams for the championship is so close that it has mattered, and there is value not only in having the point, but in ensuring the other camp doesn’t get it. The intention was clearly not for it to act as the thing that could decide the championship, but that genie is now out of the bottle. There is little that F1 can do now to avoid that potential scenario playing out in Abu Dhabi.

Whether it does or does not happen depends a lot on how things shake out in the next three races. But, make no bones about it: the Mexico fun between Bottas and Verstappen could just be a taster of what could be the most controversial final lap of an F1 season ever as those purple sectors light up.

Fastest lap gamesmanship is likely to be a big talking point as F1 2021 reaches its climax

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images