SQL & PL/SQL

Dear All,
I am using the oracle hint Driving_site in one of my queries.

I read about this hint in one site and they mentioned that if the local table is smaller than the Remote table, then we can use this to get better performance.

My question is:
1. If we dont have local tables and my query is having only remote tables then will be it usefull.

2. Can I give remote table index hint along with the driving_site hint.
Ex: select /*+ index(remtab index_1) driving_site(remtab) */ from remote_table@link remtab;
Here the index hint will this works?

Appreciate your suggestions on this one.

Thanks,
Madhu K.