Position Time Bonus

[Duplode]

@HerrNove Indeed, partial carryover does lead to some weird edge cases. Similar situations were also possible with the LTB system that we had until last year: under that, 120 leading hours in one race and 360 in the next would give two points, while 360 and 120 would give just one point (plus 120 h carryover).

Why even have partial carryover, then? That's a fair question. I'd say partial carryover came about as a compromise between two things:

• On the one hand, the main goal of carryover is making it rewarding to earn hours at lower rates. That's especially important now with PTB, given that it's impossible to reach PTB +0.5 in a single race from 4th place or below.
• On the other hand, not having carryover after PTB +1 is meant to introduce jeopardy, and tactics, to fights for the lead. The spirit of it is that if you want PTB +2 (which is a fairly large reward in a linear point system like ours) you gotta be prepared to defend your lead and settle the matter in the current race, without relying on carryover into the future.

Allowing carryover in all cases would make the system essentially continuous, so that summing the hours across the twelve races would be enough to know how many points one gets. That would mean a system that's easier to make sense of, but perhaps a less exciting one as well.

On a somewhat related note, something I'm curious to see -- and that, I guess, we'll only find out in practice -- is whether fights to reach (or prevent!) PTB +2 will be common. If such fights fail to happen, we might have a separate reason to consider adding PTB +1.5.

[alanrotoi]

Wasn't there a limit of 2 PTB per race?

[Duplode]

Yes, there is. I think HerrNove meant 2.5 points over two races.

[alanrotoi]

Maybe it could be fixed to 2 points even with carryover.

[Duplode]

I believe it already is. If you bring 131:59 of carryover (the maximum amount in the new system) into a race, and then earn 396:01 in it, you'll get PTB +2, and from that point no further bonuses will be available in that race, even if you lead all the way through the rest of the month.

[HerrNove]

Duplode got what I meant. To better clarify, repeating my example where

* Driver A gets 263 leading hours on race 1 and 400 hours on race 2
* Driver B gets 265 leading hours on race 1 and 400 hours on race 2

The results would be

* Driver A gets 0.5 points on race 1, carries over 131 hours and gets 2 points on race 2 (total 2.5)
* Driver B gets 1 point on race 1, carries over no hours and gets 1 point on race 2 (total 2)

So, driver B would be punished for doing too well on race 1. To avoid this situation, top drivers who are having a bad month might be tempted to artificially stay under the 1-point threshold, giving up half a point but gaining useful carryover that can be used in the next race to hopefully reach the 2-point threshold. Is this a too artificial situation? Maybe, my analysis is just based on abstract game theory while you have decades of concrete experience in this tournament.

[Duplode]

So, driver B would be punished for doing too well on race 1. To avoid this situation, top drivers who are having a bad month might be tempted to artificially stay under the 1-point threshold, giving up half a point but gaining useful carryover that can be used in the next race to hopefully reach the 2-point threshold. Is this a too artificial situation? Maybe, my analysis is just based on abstract game theory while you have decades of concrete experience in this tournament.

That is a reasonable concern. In my experience under the old LTB system at least (others might want to chime in), this kind of coldly calculated move in which the immediate goal would be not getting LTB +1 wasn't really on my radar. What would sometimes happen is a more natural variation, that has more to do with pacing oneself and keeping the energy expenditure across the season sustainable. If at, say, 160-200 h it felt like pushing for LTB +1 (240 h threshold) would be too much trouble, I might let it go and try sorting it out in the next race. Such an option isn't without its risks: besides the matter of leaving 40-80 h on the table for everyone else, who knows how the next race will be like ("a bird in hand is worth two in the bush").

(There is also an additional, PTB-specific complication in the way of the calculated move. Under the new rules, losing the lead no longer stops you from earning hours; rather, it just reduces the rate at which you gain them. That being so, intentionally stopping as close as possible to the PTB +1 threshold is probably harder to do now.)