2007 Formula One World Championship (Alt)

This is a fictional account of an alternative version of the 2007 F1 season. For the real 2007 season, see the 2007 Formula One World Championship

The **2007 FIA Formula One World Championship** was the 61st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship, which began on 18 March and ended on 21 October after seventeen events. The Drivers' Championship was won by Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen by one point at the final race of the season, making Räikkönen the third Finnish driver to take the title. An appeal by McLaren regarding the legality of some cars in the final race could have altered the championship standings, but on 16 November, the appeal was rejected by the International Court of Appeal, confirming the championship results. Räikkönen entered the final race in third position in the drivers' standings, but emerged as champion after the chequered flag, a feat first accomplished by Giuseppe Farina in 1950.

A major talking point of the season had been an espionage controversy involving Ferrari and McLaren, which led to McLaren being excluded from the Constructors' Championship. As a result, Ferrari clinched the championship at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Renault, who were the defending Constructors' Champions proved to be uncompetitive with their R27 car taking them to third in the constructors' standings (after McLaren's disqualification from second). Renault achieved one podium during the season, with Heikki Kovalainen finishing second at the rain affected 2007 Japanese Grand Prix.

The 2007 season heralded the end of the existing Concorde Agreement between the existing Formula One constructors and Bernie Ecclestone. In particular, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Honda (collectively the Grand Prix Manufacturers' Association) had a number of outstanding disagreements with the FIA and Ecclestone on financial and technical grounds. They had threatened to boycott Formula One from the 2008 season onwards and instead stage their own rival series, before signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the 2006 Spanish Grand Prix.

This also marked the seventh and final season, since its reintroduction in 2001, in which the use of traction control was permitted in Formula One. Standardised electronic control units (ECUs) were mandated by the FIA from the 2008 season onwards, which prohibited teams from using this kind of technology.

Honda ran with an "Earth livery" on their *RA107* car. It was the first time since 1968, the year in which sponsorship in the sport became widespread, that a team ran sponsor-free for an entire season. Michelin's withdrawal from F1 at the end of 2006 meant that Bridgestone was the sole tyre supplier for 2007.

## Teams and drivers

The following teams and drivers participated in the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship. Drivers' cars are numbered as per the official FIA 2007 entry list. All team details are as per the Formula 1 official website, except where noted. Note that there is no car number 13, as was the historical tradition. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Bridgestone.

### Driver changes

**Fernando Alonso: Renault -> McLaren.** The 2005 and 2006 World Champion Fernando Alonso switched to McLaren after five years at Renault. Following the retirement of Michael Schumacher, Alonso was the only driver on the grid in this season who had previously won a drivers' championship.

**Pedro da la Rosa -> McLaren.** Juan Pablo Montoya, who was a McLaren driver until the aftermath of the 2006 United States Grand Prix moved to the NASCAR Cup Series for 2007, effectively ending his Formula One career, as announced on 9 July 2006. He was replaced by Pedro de la Rosa, who drove in his place in the latter half of 2006.

**Alexander Wurz -> Williams.** On 2 August 2006, Williams announced that test and reserve driver Alexander Wurz would step up to a race seat for 2007, replacing Australian Mark Webber.

**Mark Webber: Williams -> Red Bull.** On 7 August 2006, Red Bull Racing announced their 2007 driver line-up of David Coulthard and Mark Webber, displacing Christian Klien.

**Robert Kubica -> BMW Sauber.** On 7 August 2006, BMW Sauber announced that Jacques Villeneuve's contract had been terminated immediately and for the rest of the season would be replaced by test driver Robert Kubica. Kubica was later announced on 19 October 2006 to retain the race seat for the 2007 season, with Sebastian Vettel remaining as the team's test driver. On 21 December 2006 BMW Sauber announced former Jordan F1 and GP2 driver Timo Glock as their second test driver.

**Heikki Kovalainen -> Renault.** On 6 September 2006, Renault confirmed Heikki Kovalainen as the team's replacement for Fernando Alonso.

**Kimi Räikkönen: McLaren -> Ferrari.** On 10 September 2006, Scuderia Ferrari announced Kimi Räikkönen to replace for the retiring Michael Schumacher.

**Anthony Davidson -> Super Aguri.** On 15 November 2006, Super Aguri confirmed Anthony Davidson as Sakon Yamamoto's replacement.

**Lewis Hamilton -> BMW Sauber.** On 24 November 2006, BMW Sauber confirmed Lewis Hamilton as their second driver.

**Adrian Sutil -> Jordan.** On 21 December 2006, Jordan confirmed Adrian Sutil as their first driver, replacing WTCC-bound Tiago Monteiro.

On 10 July 2007, Jordan announced that Christijan Albers would no longer be driving for the team. The given reason was a failure to pay sponsorship monies due. Markus Winkelhock raced Jordan's second car at the European Grand Prix. On 25 July 2007 Jordan confirmed that the Japanese driver Sakon Yamamoto would compete in the remaining seven Grands Prix for them. On 31 July 2007, Minardi replaced Scott Speed with BMW test driver Sebastian Vettel following an alleged physical altercation between Speed and Minardi Team Principal Franz Tost.

On 8 October 2007, Williams driver Alexander Wurz announced his immediate retirement from Formula One racing. Williams test driver Kazuki Nakajima replaced Wurz for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

### Team changes

Ferrari technical director, Ross Brawn, was to take a sabbatical year for 2007, after ten seasons at the Italian team since 1997. However, it was later announced that he would leave the team. In 2008, Ross Brawn became Team Principal of the Honda team.

McLaren signed a title sponsorship deal with the telecommunications company Vodafone late in 2005. With the loss of Vodafone, Scuderia Ferrari began a sponsorship deal with Alice, a brand of Telecom Italia.

Mild Seven confirmed that they would not renew their contract with Renault following its conclusion at the end of 2006 due to current European tobacco laws.

British American Tobacco's Lucky Strike and 555 brands ceased to sponsor the Honda team, following which the team ran a sponsorless livery in 2007.

Williams changed their engines from Cosworth to Toyota in a three-year deal until 2009. Contrary to speculation at the time, the engines were not rebadged as Lexus.

Red Bull officially became an Austrian constructor by receiving an Austrian licence, though continued to operate from the same base in Britain.

On 30 September 2006, Jordan announced that their engine supplier would be Ferrari.

On 16 October 2006, Renault confirmed that the Dutch banking company, ING, would become their main sponsor to replace Mild Seven, which has sponsored the Enstone-based team during the 13 years since 1994. On 20 October 2006, Williams announced AT&T as their new main sponsor.

## Season calendar

On 29 August 2006, The FIA published a provisional calendar for the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship. The San Marino and European Grands Prix were excluded, although the European round would later make a comeback (see below). The final calendar (above), which confirmed that the San Marino Grand Prix would not return, was released on 18 October 2006.

For the first time in nearly half a century, no German Grand Prix was held as a result of the circuits previously hosting a Grand Prix in Germany beginning to alternate in organizing the German Grand Prix. However, the promoter for the Hockenheim race controlled the rights to the descriptor "German Grand Prix" and an agreement could not be reached between them and the Nürburgring circuits for the naming rights. The Nürburgring event therefore retained its usual Grand Prix of Europe title.

After twenty years of being hosted at the Honda-owned Suzuka Circuit since 1987, the Japanese Grand Prix moved to Toyota's rebuilt Fuji Speedway, a circuit that F1 had not raced at since 1977.

The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps returned after a one-year absence in 2006 due to track maintenance.

For the first time since 1975, no country hosted more than one Grand Prix.

## Changes

### Rule changes

* Although the FIA had planned to mandate a single regulation tyre manufacturer from 2008, Bridgestone was the sole supplier in 2007, after Michelin ended their participation in Formula One at the end of the 2006 season. Revised Sporting Regulations meant a total of 14 sets of dry weather tyres per driver would be available over each race weekend: four sets for Friday only, and 10 for the rest of the weekend. During the race both compounds of tyre (hard and soft) had to be used at least once. At the first round in Australia soft tyres were marked with a white spot. However, this was difficult to see when the car was in motion and from the second round in Malaysia onwards one of the four grooves in the soft compound tyre was painted white.

* The teams finishing 5th–11th in the previous season's Constructors' Championship were no longer allowed to run a third car on Friday following a rule change. The teams that finish 1st–4th were already banned from doing so.
* Engine development was frozen from the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix, with these engines being used for the whole of 2007 and 2008. This was described as engine "homologation" by the FIA. It was previously set to be introduced in 2008.
* All cars were fitted with red, blue and yellow cockpit lights. The purpose was to give drivers information concerning track signals or conditions. The lights had to be LEDs each with a minimum diameter of 5 mm and which were fitted so as to be directly in the driver's normal line of sight.
* In order to give rescue crews an immediate indication of accident severity each car had to be fitted with a warning light which was connected to the FIA data logger. The light had to face upwards and be recessed into the top of the survival cell no more than 150 mm from the car centre line and the front of the cockpit opening and as near to the marshal neutral switch as is practical.
* The two Friday practice sessions were expanded from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. All teams were allowed to use two cars, which could be driven by either the two race drivers or a nominated third driver.
* The engine penalty was only applied in the second day of the Grand Prix weekend. Any engine change in the first day was not penalised.
* No car was allowed to enter the pits to refuel during a safety car period until all cars were in the group following the safety car and they were advised that the pit lane was open. This prevented drivers from racing to the pits immediately after a safety car was deployed. In addition, any lapped cars in front of a car on the lead lap were required to pass the safety car and restart at the end of the line-up instead of maintaining their physical position.
* The Formula One teams unanimously agreed to the voluntary early introduction of the testing agreement scheduled for 2008. This limited each team to an annual limit of 30,000 kilometres (19,000 mi).
* The team's second car had to run with a yellow coloured roll bar instead of a black one. The first cars continued running with a red/orange roll bar. This was intended to help spectators distinguish between first and second cars at further distances.

## Results and standings

### Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top eight classified finishers using the following structure: