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.

Calendar Ten events were scheduled to be held in the 2008–09 series. Round Event Circuit Dates 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 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 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Mexico Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez 22–24 May 2009 Map Source:

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

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. Subsequent to that, the Indonesian race was moved back further, to 8 February due to track construction. The Indonesian round was later cancelled on 16 January due to the circuit missing a construction deadline.

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

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. 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. 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. On 29 April 2009, the Mexican round was cancelled due to an outbreak of swine flu.

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

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

Rule changes Technical changes 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. a1gp.com (May 12, 2008 ) 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.Michelin to supply A1GP a1gp.com (July 21, 2008)

Sporting changes The four qualifying sessions were reduced in length from fifteen minutes to ten minutes each. 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. 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

Results and standings Results summary 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 CarrollSource:

Championship standings 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.

Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Ref Sprint 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 Feature 15 12 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 1

Championship standings PosTeamDriversNEDCHNMLYNZLRSAPORGBRPtsSFSFSFSFSFSFSF1 IrelandAdam CarrollRetRet1251124Ret25111121122 SwitzerlandNeel Jani5Ret441Ret213115183994953 PortugalFilipe Albuquerque9Ret61426325325592924 NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen4568146281675Robert Doornbos216351DNS5 FranceLoïc Duval31214464747Nicolas Prost8Ret10Ret1369106 MalaysiaFairuz Fauzy1213515108109NC834343Aaron Lim16Ret7 New ZealandEarl Bamber23368RetRetRetRetRet3636Chris van der Drift7115138 AustraliaJohn Martin12411684Ret4121310127836369 MonacoClivio PiccioneRet69712Ret16Ret535RetRet4353510 Great BritainDanny Watts33Ret16Ret72828Dan Clarke121211713711Charlie Kimball8102424Marco Andretti158Ret3111117812RetJ.R. Hildebrand41412 IndiaNarain Karthikeyan1010RetRet976126112Ret191913 MexicoDavíd Garza161514151919Salvador Durán15Ret16Ret943614 South AfricaAdrian Zaugg6Ret59951097Ret17Ret1919Alan van der Merwe151115 BrazilFelipe Guimarães14Ret20RetRet714151527DNSDNSDNS181816 ItalyFabio Onidi7Ret1717Edoardo Piscopo14Ret711781110Vitantonio Liuzzi4Ret10917 Lebanon Daniel Morad10812131112RetRetNC6RetRetRet128818 ChinaHo-Pin Tung139171210913Ret16877Congfu ChengRet1414Ret19 KoreaHwang Jin-WooRet71917DNSDNS 4 4Lee Kyung-woo DNA DNA20 IndonesiaSatrio HermantoRetRet1814131313Ret121333Zahir Ali189141021 Germany141111Ret22André LottererRet9PosTeamDriversSFSFSFSFSFSFSFPtsNEDCHNMLYNZLRSAPORGBRSources:

Notes

References

External links A1GP official web-site