The invention relates to a method for determining the ignition point of an internal combustion engine comprising the following steps: preparing a characteristics field (KF) for the ignition point (tz) according to at least one load signal (tL) which indicates the relative filling of a cylinder of the internal combustion engine with air; recording the load signal (tL) at a time (t0) which occurs before the ignition point (tz) that is to be determined; predicting a future load signal (tLPr) for a subsequent time (t0) + DELTA ) which occurs before the ignition point (tz) that is to be determined, and determining the ignition point (tz) from the characteristics field (KF) while taking the predicted load signal (tLPr) as a basis.