Suggested

Fastest Lap Point

Not making it a bug issue.  More of a what can be done to make the game more realistic and to allow for a fastest lap point to not be another point for the top guy with the fastest car.

Point taken Andrew. That`s definitely an ongoing battle. 
I thought that had already been covered; fastest laps with boost aid are not considered for fastest lap extra point.  

My problem with the guys who use their boost in one or 2 laps isn't necessarily that they boost past me but the way they boost past me. I don't care if they use it on the last lap or the 10th lap, but when all the boost is used in one go, you get a car that is not only absurdly quick, it could overtake any number of cars. It makes the game look unrealistic. I've seen a lap time 8 seconds faster than the times everyone else was doing, when did you see an F1 car doing that? 

Maybe the answer is to have some kind of gradual decrease in the affect boost has, the longer its used in one go, the less it works. 
Something needs to be done with it before every race finishes with a last lap boost fest. 
I've tried doing it, it was one of the most boring races I've taken part in. I sat there, waiting for the pit stops, increased the PL on my in and out laps, then reduced it back to normal levels and that was it until the last lap. If that's how races are going to be run, I can see that I won't be the only one leaving. 

From a realistic sim sense, a decrease in the effect boost has, would make it more realistic.


However, with the less powerful KERS, it would reduce or even eliminate some of the current KERS strategy moves (ie. Strategic team KERS catches into DRS zones, 'breaking out' of long DRS trains)

The 2nd drawback could result in more stagnant racing, with a far greater emphasis on Qualifying than live KERS management..more difficult to overtake

I’ve seen it a lot. Saving boost TIL the last lap appears to be a common strategy and it seems to pay dividends in lap time and track position.  When Kers was introduced I believe it was limited to 6 seconds of deployment per lap if I’m remembering correctly and you could recharge and deploy that throughout the race. Or am I making that up lol?

I agree that it's a bit annoying to see some managers wait until the last lap or 2 to use most if not all of their boost.  Unfortunately, I really don't see any good suggestions on how to prevent this.  I'll explain.

• KERS: Pretty simple.  Kinetic energy from the cars' brakes charge a battery.  The battery can then be used to add a temporary power advantage with a limit of how long one can use it per lap (in F1's case, it was 6 seconds of use per lap).  It is deployed manually by the driver (in iGP's case, by the manager if they are present).  2 problems arise. 1) It would be use constantly.  Depending on the track, the KERS may or may not be charged enough to use the full 6 seconds allotment per lap.  In the case that it's fully charged, it forces managers to use it every lap since it recharges each lap.  Meaning if you could've use your full allotment and failed to, you have just given up some time.  In the case it's not fully charged, the decision would have to be made on whether to use whatever energy was charged each lap, or wait and use a larger amount on one lap.  2) The top mangers will figure out where the best spots are to use KERS and how much to use at a time.  Apart from those who vow to always be "original" in their strategy and not copy what someone else is doing, everyone starts using it in same spots, removing any strategic use of it.  Granted, catching a backmarker on the DRS straight may change where you use your KERS on any given lap (more so than a car for position), but those situations don't always happen or happen too seldom to have a big enough impact.  Futhermore, if it replaces boost, higher level teams have a larger allotment than lower level teams, which would increase the gap between them.

  

• ERS: This a bit different from KERS.  In F1, it is currently charged by capturing heat energy (exhaust gases) from the turbo and rotational energy (kenetic energy) from the rear wheels when the driver is off the accelerator.  The energy is then used to either add more power to the engine, or to spin up the turbo, eliminating turbo lag.  Unlike KERS, this is deployed automatically by the cars' software when it determines the best times to use it, with the driver (present mangers in iGP's case) having no control over it.  I don't speek for anyone, but I'd like to think we would prefer to have control over our car's boost, rather than having it done for us.  Again, if it replaced boost, the system would be superior for higher level teams by having more energy recovered per lap.

 
• Restriction on usage: There's a few ways this could be done.  There could be a limit on how much boost can be used in a single activation (pushing the button) with a time limit (cooldown) on when it can be used again.  Then there's limiting per lap, where a car is allowed to use so much boost over the course of a lap, and would have to wait until the next lap if they used up their allotment.  There was a suggestion of dropping boost at quarterly intervals throughout the race if a car has not used 25%, 50%, and 75% of their boost at said thresholds.  Personally, I'm against that method as it makes boost usage mandatory rather than optional, since you're removing boost if someone chose not to use it.  The major problem with this these methods are, you guessed it, levels.  Higher level teams, as mentioned previously, have a larger allotment of boost to use during a race.  If you limit how much boost can be used with time, let's say 5 seconds per activation or lap, a level 1 system would use a huge chunk of it's boost.  A level 20 system, on the other hand, would still have a majority of its boost remaining.  What about limiting the percentage of boost used per activation or lap?  For this instance, let's say 5%.  For lowers levels, especially level 1, this would be used up quite rapidly.  For higher levels, this would take longer to use since, with a larger allotment, 5% takes longer to be used up.  Now yes, I mostly went with the extremes here, rather then comparing neighboring levels, which would have less noticeable differences.  But, it doesn't hide the point that lower level teams would be more negatively effected by restrictions on boost usage than higher level teams.

Personally, the only way I see you could add any of these features is if boost is removed from the technology building and everyone is given the same allotment, regardless of level.  Currently that is only available in quick races, and I think most of us would rather compete mainly in league races. Did I just go off topic from what the OP intended for this thread?  Let's go back to that.

I'm dead set against an extra point for fastest lap if you finish in the Top 10.  Yes, the saving of boost until the end of a stint or the end of the race could very well be magnified, but I more so feel it wouldn't really do much to mater. If you look at the current F1 season, the drivers who have gotten the fastest lap point so far drive for Mercedes, Ferrari, or Red Bull.  In other words, the top 3 teams.  Now yes, depending on league and the managers in it, the number of top teams could be smaller or larger than this, and may vary season to season.  But remember, you have to finish in the top 10 to be eligible.  The top teams are the ones who usually finish in the top 10, with 2 car leagues having these teams having 1 if not both of their cars in those positions.  Also, in saving boost for an attempt at fastest lap, you could be sacrificing more points than you may potentially get.  Let's say, hypothetically, it's last few laps of a race.  You're 9th, and saving your boost for an attempt at fastest lap.  In the process, you fall to 11th.  Let's say you get lucky, got fastest lap and got back to 9th.  Congrats, you got 3 points.  Let's say you got fastest lap but could only get back to 10th.  You got 2 points.  Now, let's say you did get fastest lap, but could not catch 10th in time.  Good job.  You have the fastest lap, but since you didn't get a top 10, it doesn't mater and you go home with no points.  Sure, you can take the 9th or 10th place finish scenarios with a failure to get fastest lap and instead get 2 points or 1.  However, I got a better hypothetical.  Let's go back to you being 9th with a few laps to go.  You look up ahead, and see 8th isn't too far away. They don't have enough boost left to defend against an attacker.  If you your use boost now, you can catch them, but you will throw away any chance at fastest lap.  So you use your boost.  You catch them, and finish 8th.  Well, you didn't get fastest lap.  However, you finished 8th, and got 4 points. More than you would've have gotten had you prioritized getting fastest lap.

Yes, I used 9th intentionally.  Of the positions eligible for the fastest lap point, 9th and 10th are the only positions with a 1 point gap. The rest of the gaps, from lowest to highest, are 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, and 7.  Giving up any of those positions for 1 more potential point isn't worth it. Yes, I'd also like to think most people wouldn't endanger a chance at winning just to get fastest lap, but let's be honest.  We all get a little greedy every now and then.  No, I'm not suggesting we add fastest lap and make it worth more than 1 point.  And yes, in close championship fight 1 point can make a difference. I'm well aware of that.  But personally, I'd rather they make more positions point scoring positions than there currently are.  As it stands, in leagues that are nearly full, for every 1 point scorer, you have 2 that don't score.  1 out 3 cars in the whole league.  To me, it makes more sense to make more points available through positions, rather than adding in a bonus point that will probably go to the top teams more often than not.

I enjoyed reading that lol, I think that was a well structured overview and I agree with pretty much everything you said

The lest elite race in our league, the fastest lap went to the guy in 16th. Pretty sure he’d of liked a point for it lol

+1 for FL = 1 point.

About Boost.
Since the move from KERS (Battery is maxed out each lap). They moved to ERS which still has maximum charge, but charges over 2-3 laps from 0% - 100%.
If this was implemented, I think everyone would be happy:-

1. Can't keep a ridiculous amount of Boost until the end.
2. If you did, you would be wasting all the stored boost.
3. People can still go for fastest lap on fresh SS.
4. Good leveller, as someone else has said, the "fast guys" have less of an advantage by keeping it all and on the last lap doing a -5 second lap!
5. Rewards people who log in.

So I say:-

1. 3 laps = Full charge.
2. Full charge = 5 seconds of use. (Should only deplete to assist accel) 
3. No longer works for slow corners and breaking zones!