The 2008 Superleague Formula season was the inaugural

Superleague Formula Superleague Formula was an open wheel single seater motor racing formula, which started in 2008, at Donington Park in the United Kingdom. The league introduced team sponsorship by association football clubs. It used the slogan 'The Beautiful ...

championship. The season started very late in 2008 with the first round being on August 31 at

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

. There were six rounds (twelve races) in total with the successful season finale at

Circuito Permanente de Jerez Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto (formerly known as Circuit of Jerez and Circuito Permanente de Jerez), is a racing circuit located close to the city of Jerez de la Frontera, south of Seville and deep within the sherry-producing region in th ...

on 23 November. In the 18 cars on the grid were established A1GP and GP2 drivers as well as two ex-

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

race starters,

Robert Doornbos Robert Michael Doornbos (; born 23 September 1981) is a Dutch former racing driver who also competed with a Monégasque licence. He has been test and third driver for the Jordan and Red Bull Racing Formula One teams, as well as driving for Mi ...

and

Antônio Pizzonia Antônio Reginaldo Pizzonia Júnior (born 11 September 1980) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who has raced in Formula One and the Champ Car World Series. Born in Manaus, he started his car racing career in the Formula Vauxhall Junior s ...

Beijing Guoan Beijing Guoan Football Club () is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in the Chaoyang District in Beijing and their ho ...

, run under former Formula One team

Zakspeed Zakspeed () is a motor racing team from Germany, founded in 1968 by Erich Zakowski and after that run by his son Peter Zakowski. It is based in Niederzissen, Rhineland-Palatinate, around from the Nürburgring circuit. 1973 to 1981: Saloon and s ...

with driver

Davide Rigon Davide Rigon (born 26 August 1986) is an Italian professional racing driver who is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and other selected GT races for AF Corse. He is also currently part of the Scuderia Ferrari Formula ...

, were eventually crowned the first ever champions at the last event of the season.

Teams and drivers

* All teams competed on

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...

tyres. * No numbers 1 or 2 because it was the first season. * Cars 16 and 17 were run by

Team West-Tec Team West-Tec F3 is a motor racing team owned by Gavin Wills and John Miller based in Corby in the United Kingdom, the most successful team in the history of the European F3 Open Championship, it also won two drivers championships in the ASCAR ...

during pre-season. * Atlético Madrid did not enter until prior to round 2. * FC Porto switched from Alan Docking Racing to Hitech Racing prior round 5.

Test/reserve drivers

2008 Schedule

Race calendar and results

* Race 2 starts with reverse grid from finishing order of Race 1.

Test calendar and results

* The first group test was at

Vallelunga Vallelunga (Italian for ''long valley'') is a valley, or plateau,Tonino Floris, Marco Spada, ''Pedalando nel Lazio''p. 97 Edizioni Mediterranee, 1996 . near Campagnano di Roma, Italy. See also * Vallelunga Circuit The Autodromo Vallelunga P ...

, Italy and ran from August 6–8.

Scuderia Playteam Scuderia Playteam (also known as Scuderia Playteam Sarafree) was an Italian racing team owned by Giambattista Giannoccaro. History The team competed in several series. These included the FIA GT Championship in 2007 when the team finished 2nd over ...

were the fastest team on all three days with drivers

and

Alessandro Pier Guidi Alessandro Pier Guidi (born December 18, 1983) is a racing driver from Italy. He drove two races for the Italian A1 Team. A Ferrari factory driver since 2017, he won LMGTE-PRO 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship and 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans, a ...

putting in the fast laps, for the clubs they would later go on to race for. Prior to the opening round, two test sessions at

, UK on August 21 and 28 further helped the cars and it was the combination of FMS International and

Enrico Toccacelo Enrico Toccacelo (born 14 December 1978 in Rome) is an Italian auto racer with karting, GT and Formula 3000 experience. He won three F3000 events and briefly led Vitantonio Liuzzi in the 2004 championship before Liuzzi went on to win the next thr ...

for

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

who were fastest on both occasions.

Championship standings

References

External links

Superleague Formula Official Website

V12 Racing: Independent Superleague Formula Fansite Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:2008 Superleague Formula Season

Superleague Formula season