2008–09 A1 Grand Prix season

The 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix season was the fourth and final season of A1 Grand Prix.

A1 Team Ireland became the fourth A1GP champions, after a title battle which went down to the final round in Great Britain. Ireland won with 112 points, with team driver Adam Carroll taking five victories at Chengdu, Sepang, Taupo and the series finale at Brands Hatch during the shortened 14 race season. Financial issues led to the cancellation of three events and ultimately the cancellation of the 2009–10 season.

Ten events were scheduled to be held in the 2008–09 series.^[1]

Round	Event	Circuit	Dates
C	A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Italy	Mugello Circuit	19–21 September 2008
1	A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Netherlands	Circuit Park Zandvoort	3–5 October 2008
2	A1 Grand Prix of Nations, China	Chengdu Goldenport Circuit	7–9 November 2008
3	A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Malaysia	Sepang International Circuit	21–23 November 2008
4	A1 Grand Prix of Nations, New Zealand	Taupo Motorsport Park	23–25 January 2009
C	A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Indonesia	Jakarta Street Circuit	6–8 February 2009
5	A1 Grand Prix of Nations, South Africa	Kyalami Circuit	20–22 February 2009
6	A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Portugal	Algarve International Circuit	10–12 March 2009
7	A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Great Britain	Brands Hatch	1–3 May 2009
C	A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Mexico	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez	22–24 May 2009
Map
Mugello Zandvoort Chengdu Sepang Kyalami Taupo Jakarta Portimão Brands Hatch Mexico City

On 21 August 2008, the Italian round at Mugello was postponed following a delay in the build schedule of the new chassis.^[2] A replacement date was not announced and the event was never held.^[3]

Further timetable changes were announced on 26 August 2008. The Chinese round was confirmed to be held at Chengdu Goldenport Circuit, and swapped places in the calendar with the Indonesian round at Jakarta.^[4] Subsequent to that, the Indonesian race was moved back further, to 8 February due to track construction.^[4] The Indonesian round was later cancelled on 16 January due to the circuit missing a construction deadline.^[5]

On 9 September 2008, Brands Hatch was confirmed as hosting the British round at the end of the season.^[6] On 19 December, Interlagos was announced as the season finale on the weekend of 15–17 May 2009.^[7] On 5 March, the Interlagos race was removed from the circuit's official calendar – making Brands Hatch the finale.^[8]

The Mexican round was also moved back by one week, so as to avoid clashing with a concert held in the baseball stadium inside the circuit on the original date.^[9] On 17 February 2009, an official preview reported that the Mexico City round was no longer to take place on the weekend of 20–22 March and a replacement date was being sought.^[10] eTicket.com.mx advertised the event as it should take place on the weekend of 22–24 May, and was confirmed on 31 March 2009, subject to the FIA-stipulated changes to the Peraltada corner.^[11][12] On 29 April 2009, the Mexican round was cancelled due to an outbreak of swine flu.^[13][14]

Teams representing Monaco and South Korea joined the grid, whilst the Czech Republic left the series.^[15][16] Canada and Pakistan appeared on the pre-season entry list, but did not participate in any rounds.^[17][18]

Entrant (Team)	Driver	Events
A1 Team Australia Alan Docking Racing	John Martin	All
A1 Team Brazil David Sears Motorsport	Felipe Guimarães	All
A1 Team Canada Status Grand Prix	Daniel Morad	None
A1 Team China Team Astromega	Ho-Pin Tung	1–3, 5–6
	Congfu Cheng	4, 7
A1 Team France DAMS	Loïc Duval	1, 3–4
	Nicolas Prost	2, 5–7
A1 Team Germany GU-Racing International	Michael Ammermüller	5, 7
	André Lotterer	6
A1 Team Great Britain	Danny Watts	2–3, 5
	Dan Clarke	4, 6–7
A1 Team India Argo Racing Cars	Narain Karthikeyan	2–7
A1 Team Indonesia Performance Racing	Satrio Hermanto	1–4, 7
	Zahir Ali	5–6
A1 Team Ireland Status Grand Prix	Adam Carroll	All
A1 Team Italy Team Ghinzani	Fabio Onidi	1
	Edoardo Piscopo	2–5
	Vitantonio Liuzzi	6–7
A1 Team Korea Carlin Motorsport	Hwang Jin-woo	1–3
	Lee Kyung-woo	5
A1 Team Lebanon Argo Racing Cars	Daniel Morad	All
A1 Team Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	1–6
	Aaron Lim	7
A1 Team Mexico Campos Racing	David Garza	2–3
	Salvador Durán	4–7
A1 Team Monaco	Clivio Piccione	All
A1 Team Netherlands Racing for Holland	Jeroen Bleekemolen	1, 3, 5, 7
	Robert Doornbos	2, 4, 6
A1 Team New Zealand David Sears Motorsport	Earl Bamber	1, 3, 5–7
	Chris van der Drift	2, 4
A1 Team Pakistan Teamcraft Motorsport	Adam Khan	None
A1 Team Portugal Boer Racing Services	Filipe Albuquerque	All
A1 Team South Africa DAMS	Adrian Zaugg	1–6
	Alan van der Merwe	7
A1 Team Switzerland Boer Racing Services	Neel Jani	All
A1 Team USA Andretti Green Racing	Charlie Kimball	1
	Marco Andretti	2–6
	J.R. Hildebrand	7

• On 11 October 2007, A1GP and Ferrari announced a six-year collaboration on the new generation of A1GP cars. The new "Powered by Ferrari" car is a modification of the Formula One Ferrari F2004 chassis with a V8 Ferrari engine producing 600 bhp.^[19] The car was officially revealed and driven for the first time by John Watson in May 2008. Michelin supplied the tyres for the new car.^[20]

• The four qualifying sessions were reduced in length from fifteen minutes to ten minutes each.^[21]
• Teams may now utilise a "joker" qualifying lap (from Malaysia onwards). In one of the four qualifying sessions the team may elect to utilise their joker – for the flying lap in that session, the driver is granted the availability of the PowerBoost button for the entire lap.^[22]
• A mandatory pit-stop was added to the Sprint Race, brought into effect starting in Malaysia. Sprint Race time certainty was decreased to 24 minutes + 1 lap

Round		Event	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winner	Report
1	S	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Loïc Duval	Fairuz Fauzy	Report
	F		Fairuz Fauzy	Charlie Kimball	Loïc Duval
2	S	China	Adam Carroll			Report
	F		Danny Watts	Robert Doornbos	Filipe Albuquerque
3	S	Malaysia	Neel Jani	Neel Jani	Neel Jani	Report
	F		Adam Carroll
4	S	New Zealand	Adam Carroll	Neel Jani	Adam Carroll	Report
	F			Filipe Albuquerque	Neel Jani
5	S	South Africa	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Filipe Albuquerque	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Report
	F		Clivio Piccione	Fairuz Fauzy	Neel Jani
6	S	Portugal	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Adam Carroll	Robert Doornbos	Report
	F		Robert Doornbos		Neel Jani
7	S	Great Britain	Adam Carroll			Report
	F		Adam Carroll	John Martin	Adam Carroll

Points system

The Sprint Race awards points to the top eight positions as opposed to the top ten in the 2007–08 season. The teams that competed in all 7 events were required to drop their worst round pointscore as a number of teams missed the season-opener in Zandvoort due to delays in producing the new chassis.^[23]

Championship standings

Pos Team Drivers NED CHN MLY NZL RSA POR GBR Gross Drop Pts S F S F S F S F S F S F S F 1 Ireland Adam Carroll Ret Ret 1 2 5 1 1 2 4 Ret 2 5 1 1 112 112 2 Switzerland Neel Jani 5 Ret 4 4 1 Ret 2 1 3 1 15 1 8 3 99 4 95 3 Portugal Filipe Albuquerque 9 Ret 6 1 4 2 6 3 2 5 3 2 5 5 92 92 4 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 4 5 6 8 1 4 6 2 81 6 75 Robert Doornbos 2 16 3 5 1 DNS 5 France Loïc Duval 3 1 2 14 4 6 47 47 Nicolas Prost 8 Ret 10 Ret 13 6 9 10 6 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 1 2 13 5 15 10 8 10 9 NC 8 3 43 43 Aaron Lim 16 Ret 7 New Zealand Earl Bamber 2 3 3 6 8 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 36 36 Chris van der Drift 7 11 5 13 8 Australia John Martin 12 4 11 6 8 4 Ret 4 12 13 10 12 7 8 36 36 9 Monaco Clivio Piccione Ret 6 9 7 12 Ret 16 Ret 5 3 5 Ret Ret 4 35 35 10 Great Britain Danny Watts 3 3 Ret 16 Ret 7 28 28 Dan Clarke 12 12 11 7 13 7 11 United States Charlie Kimball 8 10 24 24 Marco Andretti 15 8 Ret 3 11 11 17 8 12 Ret J.R. Hildebrand 4 14 12 India Narain Karthikeyan 10 10 Ret Ret 9 7 6 12 6 11 2 Ret 19 19 13 Mexico Davíd Garza 16 15 14 15 19 19 Salvador Durán 15 Ret 16 Ret 9 4 3 6 14 South Africa Adrian Zaugg 6 Ret 5 9 9 5 10 9 7 Ret 17 Ret 19 19 Alan van der Merwe 15 11 15 Brazil Felipe Guimarães 14 Ret 20 Ret Ret 7 14 15 15 2 7 DNS DNS DNS 18 18 16 Italy Fabio Onidi 7 Ret 17 17 Edoardo Piscopo 14 Ret 7 11 7 8 11 10 Vitantonio Liuzzi 4 Ret 10 9 17 Lebanon Daniel Morad 10 8 12 13 11 12 Ret Ret NC 6 Ret Ret Ret 12 8 8 18 China Ho-Pin Tung 13 9 17 12 10 9 13 Ret 16 8 7 7 Congfu Cheng Ret 14 14 Ret 19 Korea Hwang Jin-Woo Ret 7 19 17 DNS DNS 4 4 Lee Kyung-woo DNA DNA 20 Indonesia Satrio Hermanto Ret Ret 18 14 13 13 13 Ret 12 13 3 3 Zahir Ali 18 9 14 10 21 Germany Michael Ammermüller 14 11 11 Ret 2 2 André Lotterer Ret 9 Pos Team Drivers S F S F S F S F S F S F S F Gross Drop Pts NED CHN MLY NZL RSA POR GBR

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Finished, in points Green Retired, in points Blue Finished, no points Purple Did not finish (Ret) Not classified (NC) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Blank Did not participate Injured (INJ) Excluded (EX) Bold Pole position * Fastest lap spr Sprint Race fea Feature Race

• A1GP official web-site