F 1 2008

The 2008 Formula One season begins on 14 March at Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Some of the prominent drivers and personnel have moved to different teams and technical regulations have also been changed. There are two new street-track venues, one in Spain and the other in Singapore featuring the sport's first-ever night race.

Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari are the world champions, after a gripping, if controversial, 2007 season when the action on the track between the Scuderia and McLaren reached fever pitch. But what are their chances of retaining the titles? Having come so close in his rookie season, can Lewis Hamilton win redemption for McLaren by going one better in 2008?

Raikkonen and Hamilton, together with Fernando Alonso, are regarded as F1's top trio, and Ferrari and McLaren are the top teams. Renault--constructors' champion in 2005 and 2006 but nowhere in 2007, faces the question of whether it can recapture its past form.

On the other hand, as F1 continues to implement rules changes designed to reduce costs and return driving responsibility to the drivers and away from engineers and computers, there is talk of the same two-team dominance and whispers of scandal to come. By most accounts, however, the 2008 show will have a different tint. Continuing the cost-cutting that began several years ago with longer-life engines and a freeze in engine development, each car must now use the same gearbox for four races. This will be of little interest to most spectators, unless a team needs to replace a gearbox sooner and the driver is thus given a five-spot starting-grid penalty.

Meanwhile, Alonso is back on the team with which he won his two championships (2005, 2006). Renault's budget is nowhere near Ferrari's or McLaren's (even after McLaren suffered from the FIA's $100 million fine for last year's industrial espionage debacle), but that was also the case when Alonso won his titles. Team boss Flavio Briatore is a master at running a race team, spending the money when and where necessary but never squandering it.