2008 Formula One World Championship


The 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 62nd season of Formula One motor racing, recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile – the governing body of motorsport – as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship was contested over eighteen races commencing in Australia on 16 March and ending in Brazil on 2 November. The 2008 season saw the debut of the Singapore Grand Prix, which was held at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Marina Bay, Singapore and was the first Formula One race held at night. The European Grand Prix moved to a new venue at the Valencia Street Circuit, in Valencia, Spain.
Lewis Hamilton won the Drivers' title by a single point – by overtaking Toyota's Timo Glock on the final corner of the final lap of the final Grand Prix of the season to claim the required 5th-place finish to win the championship – from Brazilian Felipe Massa, who had finished the race in first place; his team and family already celebrating the championship when the final overtake occurred. Massa's teammate, the reigning World Champion Kimi Räikkönen, was ranked third, with two wins after suffering a mid-season dip in form. Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro won the Constructors' title. In winning the Drivers' title, Hamilton became the youngest driver ever to win the title and the first black driver to do so. He was also the first British champion since Damon Hill in.
Eleven teams competed in the championship, although Super Aguri withdrew on 6 May due to financial troubles, having completed four races. New technical rules for 2008 included the banning of traction control after it was re-introduced in, at the Spanish Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso won the first World Championship race held in Singapore; however, only after teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed to cause a Safety Car period which helped Alonso's strategy. When Piquet admitted this to the press in Renault team-principal Flavio Briatore resigned. Some journalists dubbed this "Crashgate".
This was the last season for the Honda team before they withdrew from Formula One later in December due to the financial difficulties. Ross Brawn then bought the team, and renamed it to Brawn GP in February using the Mercedes-Benz engines. Honda returned as an engine supplier from 2015 to 2021. This was also the last Formula One season to race with grooved tyres, used since, before slick tyres returned to Formula One in. 2008 was the last season to feature 2001 runner up David Coulthard who retired from racing in F1 after 14 years and 246 race starts becoming a television pundit for the BBC ahead of the 2009 season.
2008 was the first year in the history of Formula One in which all teams used the same two drivers throughout the season, and the only year in which two Finnish drivers won races, Räikkönen in Malaysia and Spain and Heikki Kovalainen in Hungary. This season was the most recent World Drivers' Championship win by the driver of a McLaren until Lando Norris in 2025. 2008 also stands as the most recent World Constructors' Championship title win for Scuderia Ferrari.

Teams and drivers

There were a total of seven teams signed up to compete in the championship through an agreement with Formula One Management, with the other four major manufacturers in the Grand Prix Manufacturers' Association having signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the 2006 Spanish Grand Prix. All teams in both groups have two spots each on the 2008 grid. The following teams and drivers competed in the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship. Teams competed with tyres supplied by Bridgestone. McLaren was given the fifth pit position in Australia and Malaysia until their pit position was moved to the last in Bahrain.
EntrantConstructorChassisEngine†No.Race driversRounds

New entries

On 14 February 2006 the FIA president Max Mosley announced that all teams interested in competing in the 2008 World Championship would have a seven-day window during which they would have to submit an application to compete. All eleven current teams applied, as well as several others. On 28 April 2006 the FIA announced that all of the current teams' applications for the 2008 season were granted, along with a new team Prodrive, fronted by the ex-BAR and -Benetton principal David Richards. There were 21 applications in total, several new teams applying included European Minardi F1 Team Ltd, Jordan Grand Prix, Direxiv and Carlin Motorsport. However, despite the Prodrive application being accepted, Richards later announced that the team would not race in 2008 due to a dispute over the legality of customer cars.

Team changes

  • Rumours about the possible sale of the Spyker team had been abundant in the paddock throughout the last few months of the 2007 season. Only a year after Spyker bought the team from Midland, Indian businessman Vijay Mallya bought the team for €88 million, several million more than Spyker paid. On 24 October 2007, Mallya was granted permission to change the team's name to Force India. Force India had a driver announcement ceremony in January 2008 where it was revealed that Sutil would be second driver partnered by first driver Giancarlo Fisichella and test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi.
  • On 28 April 2006, rallying and motorsports technology firm Prodrive were officially granted entry to Formula One when the FIA announced the list of entrants to the 2008 Formula One World Championship. While a total of 21 teams applied for entry, the FIA had always maintained that only 12 teams would be granted entry, meaning only one new team would line up on the grid in 2008. FIA president Max Mosley revealed that Prodrive had found the finances to support their bid. Also, Prodrive's chief executive, David Richards, had experience as a Formula One team principal. However, on 23 November 2007, after lengthy negotiations between FIA president Max Mosley regarding customer cars, Richards announced that Prodrive F1 would not compete in the 2008 Formula One World Championship, as the legal situation left no time for the team to be set up.
  • During the 2008 season on 6 May, the Super Aguri team folded and withdrew from Formula One. The team was in dire financial straits at the end of as the team did not receive a payment on a sponsorship deal. Super Aguri rejected a buyout offer in January 2008 from an Indian consortium led by the CEO of the Spice Group, on the condition Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan drove in the line-up, because it meant demoting or cutting one of the team's 2007 drivers. Despite this Super Aguri were unable to sign any contracts until agreements had been reached with their sponsors. Sato and Davidson were confirmed on 10 March. Super Aguri announced that a major deal had been made with Magma Group to solve the team's financial problems, however this fell through, and on 6 May 2008, Super Aguri withdrew from the Formula One World Championship. It affirmed a prediction at the start of the season by Max Mosley saying the team would not make it to the final race in Brazil.

    Driver changes

and 2006 World Champion Fernando Alonso left McLaren after a single season to rejoin Renault. He was replaced at McLaren by Heikki Kovalainen, who had replaced Alonso at Renault the previous season. Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault's other driver from 2007, moved to the newly renamed Force India team, in place of erstwhile Spyker driver Sakon Yamamoto, who became Renault's test development driver. Fisichella's place at Renault was taken by the team's test driver Nelson Piquet Jr..
After an unsuccessful test for Force India in December 2007, Ralf Schumacher left Toyota to drive for Mücke Motorsport in the DTM series. 2007 GP2 champion Timo Glock, who had also been the test driver for BMW Sauber, returned to a Formula One race seat in place of Schumacher. Christian Klien, previously the test driver for Honda, and the Estonian driver Marko Asmer took up test driver roles at BMW Sauber.
Sébastien Bourdais, who won his fourth consecutive Champ Car title in 2007, joined Toro Rosso in 2008, replacing Vitantonio Liuzzi, who moved to Force India as their test driver.

Calendar

The FIA World Council approved the 2008 schedule on 24 October 2007. Singapore was Formula One's first ever night race.

Calendar changes

  • Singapore hosted its first Grand Prix in 2008, with a contract for the next five years. The race, held on a street circuit designed by KBR, was Formula One's first night race. The practice and qualifying sessions also took place at night.
  • The European Grand Prix took place at the Valencia Street Circuit in 2008, changing from the Nürburgring which hosted the event up until 2007. Because both German circuits share the right to host an F1 race, the German Grand Prix took place at Hockenheimring in 2008. It continued to alternate between these two circuits yearly until 2014.
  • The Indianapolis Motor Speedway did not hold a Grand Prix in 2008; however, a possible return to Indianapolis in the future was not completely ruled out, although the United States Grand Prix made its return in 2012 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
  • In the run up to the 2007 French Grand Prix it was reported that it would be the last Grand Prix to be held at Magny-Cours. Some alternatives suggested for the French Grand Prix included Paul Ricard or a new circuit near Disneyland Paris or Charles de Gaulle Airport. However, on 24 July 2007 it was reported that Bernie Ecclestone had "agreed in principle to maintain the race at Magny-Cours in 2008, and even 2009, if there were no other alternatives".

    Regulation changes

  • A standard Electronic Control Unit was supplied by Microsoft MES, a joint venture between Microsoft and McLaren Electronic Systems.
  • Traction control was banned along with engine braking reduction.
  • An engine freeze to last five years was started in 2008, with the first unscheduled engine change of the season not leading to the usual 10 place grid penalty.
  • Fuel of the cars must have been made up of at least 5.75% biological materials.
  • Gearboxes were required to last four races, with a 5 place grid penalty for a gear box change. If a driver did not finish a race, he was allowed to change the gearbox for the next race without receiving a penalty.
  • Cockpit protection was improved.
  • The use of a spare car was restricted. Each competing team would not be allowed to have more than two cars available for use at any time. In this context, a car was considered as such if it was a partially assembled survival cell, fitted with an engine, any front suspension, bodywork, radiators, oil tanks or heat exchangers.
  • Bridgestone would be the official tyre supplier for the 2008–2010 seasons. They would also be marking their extreme wet weather tyres with a white line in the central groove to differentiate it from the softer wet weather tyre compound.
  • No competing team was allowed to carry out more than 30,000 km of testing during the 2008 calendar year.