Formula One News — August 2008

The opening round of the new Superleague Formula took place at Donington Park with victory going to Davide Rigon, driving a car in the colours of Beijing Guoan. He finished ahead of AS Roma's Enrico Toccacelo and Duncan Tappy, who was representing Tottenham Hotspur.

Phil Hill is the only native-born American to have won the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, although naturalised US citizen Mario Andretti would follow Hill to the title in 1978. Hill's importance was as the trailblazer.

Phil Hill, the first American driver to win the Formula 1 World Championship, has died at the age of 81. Hill, who had been suffering from Parkinson's disease, died early on Thursday at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in California.

In the next few days there may be some more driver announcements for 2009. The end of August is often used as an option date and so it will be no surprise to learn that one or two variables have been removed from the market.

The Indy Racing League is set to switch away from normally-aspirated engines in 2011, and intends to adopt rules with small displacement turbo engines.

Formula 1 is a world which tends to make judgements based on what happened five minutes ago, rather than looking at longer-term trends or the bigger picture. Thus it is no surprise that Felipe Massa's victory in Valencia is seen as confirmation that the Brazilian is now Ferrari's challenger for the World Championship.

Before the start of the European GP on the new Valencia street circuit we had a quick straw poll in the Media Center. How many Safety Cars are there going to be? "Seven," said one chirpy soul. "Three," said another. In the end, there were none - and the race was worse off for it.

The Force India team has been doing rather better this year than in previous incarnations in previous seasons, thanks in large part to the arrival of Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya, who has provided the team with financial stability.

The e-magazine GrandPrix+ is reporting that Marlboro may be preparing to end its relationship with Ferrari - earlier than has been thought.

European GP - Race Notes

European GP - Sunday Photos

European GP - Sunday Press Conference

The FIA Stewards have decided that Ferrari should be fined $10,000 for "unsafe release" of Felipe Massa from his pit stop. The stewards ruled that Massa had not gained any advantage from what happened and should not be further punished.

European GP - Sunday Team Quotes

European GP - Race Incidents

European GP - Race Results

Felipe Massa took pole position for the European Grand Prix after a weird qualifying session on the streets of the port of the Spanish port of Valencia.

European GP - Saturday Photos

European GP - Saturday Press Conference

European GP - Saturday Team Quotes

European GP - Qualifying Results

Robert Kubica set the fastest time of the morning session on Saturday at Valencia, on a track that had been washed clean by a huge storm on Friday night.

European GP - Practice 3 Results

Kimi Raikkonen ended the second session for the European GP at Valencia fastest for Ferrari. The times, however, remain rather suspect as Fernando Alonso was second for Renault and Jenson Button was third in his Honda, a rather unlikely result.

European GP - Friday Photos