Formula One 2008 Starts Here

By Phil Huff
March 12 2008

Formula One returns this weekend, with Honda Racing F1 joining ten other teams on the grid at Albert Park in Melbourne. This season sees a number of significant changes to teams, drivers, rules and even circuits, so read on to see what's been happening, and how it will affect our sport.

Every team, with the notable exception of Super Aguri, have been testing throughout the winter, and the smart money appears to be on another predictable duel at the front, with the titans of Ferrari racing alongside the giants of McLaren, making them both look normal size. Behind them, there's a resurgent Williams, expected to be battling with the likes of BMW-Sauber, Renault and maybe Toyota and Red Bull. Facing life towards the back of the grid is our own Honda Racing F1, fighting for the odd point with Toro Rosso. Super Aguri, who have faced financial difficulties throughout the winter, are targeting the new Force India team, who have taken over the Spyker team.

As far as team changes, the most significant change is with a team that hasn't ever run an F1 car, and is looking increasingly unlikely to do so. The FIA opened up a 12th slot in the pitlane, taking applications from 21 prospective team entrants, with David Richards' Prodrive organisation winning the space with a customer McLaren contract in hand. However, disputes over the legality of customer cars has led to the withdrawal of Prodrive, and so the 12th garage remains empty. One of the strongest critics of customer cars has been Force India, a new name to Formula One but with an old team, with team chief Vijay Mallya being yet another owner for the now defunct Jordan Grand Prix team, buying the assets from Spyker. Super Aguri have, at the last minute, been sold to new owners, although there are no changes to the team expected.

The drivers roster has changed a little for 2008, although there's been some significant changes. World champion Kimi Raikkonen remains at Ferrari, partnered to Felipe Massa. Ex world champion Fernando Alonso has, unsurprisingly, parted with McLaren, rejoining the Renault team with which he won two titles, swapping his McLaren seat with ex-Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen. Renault's second driver will be Nelson Piquet Jr, while Giancarlo Fisichella leaves the French squad to take up a berth at Force India, ousting a string of drivers in the process, and partnering Adrian Sutil. At Williams, Alex Wurz has retired from racing, and joins Honda as their test driver. They retain the services of Nico Rosberg, joined by another famous name from F1 history, Kazuki Nakajima. The other Schumacher, Ralf, leaves the sport from Toyota, despite claiming throughout 2007 that he had a number of F1 options available, his seat being taken by ex-BMW tester Timo Glock, sitting alongside Jarno Trulli. Toro Rosso retains the services of Sebastian Vettel, with another Sebastian joining him as the Italian squad sign up quadruple Champ Car champion Sebastian Bourdais. There are no changes at BMW (Nick Heidfeld, Robert Kubica), Honda (Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello), Red Bull (David Coulthard, Mark Webber) or Super Aguri (Takuma Sato, Anthony Davidson).

There's also plenty of changes not only on track, but of the tracks themselves. Most obvious is the introduction of two new street circuits in Spain and Singapore respectively. The first new race will be at Valencia in Spain, where a street circuit will race through the city and around the revamped harbour area that hosted the Americas Cup. The race will be introduced as the European Grand Prix, moving the race from the Nurburgring. The 'Ring won't be hosting a race this year, as racing returns to nearby Hockenheim - the races there will alternate each year, although a dispute over the rights to use the German Grand Prix name will keep things complicated for no real reason. Also missing this year is Indianapolis, as F1 abandons the USA again. Replacing this race will be the new Singapore Grand Prix, another tight street circuit racing along the sea front of the city. Uniquely, this race will also be held at night, with powerful flood lighting allowing late racing so that European viewers can watch the race at a reasonable time. It remains to be seen what would happen in the event of rain, as spray will no doubt create significant glare under the lights.

With a new season also comes a raft of rule changes, although only the increased head protection around the cockpit sides will be visible. In qualifying, the first session has been extended to 20 minutes, while the final session has been cut down to just 10, while the ability to refuel after qualifying has also been removed. Combined, these changes will stop the wasteful 'fuel burn' stage that we've seen previously, while the fuel they use must now be made up of at least 5.75% biological materials. More troublesome for the teams will be the introduction of a new Electronic Control Unit (ECU) supplied by McLaren Electronic Systems in partnership with Microsoft. Along with limiting engine revs to 19,000rpm, it also removes traction control, leaving the drivers in charge of controlling any wheelspin while out on track. This could increase the number of repairs a team might have to make, but a new restriction on spare cars could make life trickier. Each team can now only take two cars, with only spare parts and partly-assembled subframes allowed. The two-race engine rule remains, with a small change that the first engine change of the season is 'free', allowing a team to change a drivers engine just once without penalty. Alongside the two-race engine rule, there is now a four-race gearbox rule, with any gearbox changes before the race resulting in a five place penalty on the grid. There are now than 14 sets of dry-weather tyres available for each driver throughout the Grand Prix weekend, along with four sets of wet-weather tyres and three sets of extreme-weather tyres, although drivers will be limited to just two sets of dry tyres during Friday practice. Extreme wet tyres will now be marked by Bridgestone with a white line through the central groove, as they currently do with the softer compound dry tyre at each race.

Finally, there's a new fleet of safety vehicles, with the Safety Car now being a 525bhp Mercedes-Benz AMG SL63, still driven by Bernd Maylander. The Medical Car will be a new Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG estate car.

That's all the changes for 2008. We hope you're as excited by it all as we are.

We can't wait!