2008–09 A1 Grand Prix season

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.

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.

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. 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.

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

Championship standings
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.
 * Points system


 * Championship standings