2007 Formula One World Championship

Kimi Räikkönen (pictured in 2002) left McLaren at the end of the 2006 season to join Ferrari before the season.

The 2005 and 2006 World Champion Fernando Alonso switched to McLaren after 5 years at Renault.

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.

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

On 6 September 2006, Renault confirmed Heikki Kovalainen as the team's replacement for Fernando Alonso. On 10 September 2006, Scuderia Ferrari announced Kimi Räikkönen to replace for the retiring Michael Schumacher.

On 15 November 2006, Super Aguri confirmed Anthony Davidson as Sakon Yamamoto's replacement. On 24 November 2006, McLaren confirmed Lewis Hamilton as their second driver.

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

On 10 July 2007, Spyker 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 Spyker's second car at the European Grand Prix. On 25 July 2007 Spyker confirmed that the Japanese driver Sakon Yamamoto would compete in the remaining seven Grands Prix for them.[8] On 31 July 2007, Scuderia Toro Rosso replaced Scott Speed with BMW test driver Sebastian Vettel following an alleged physical altercation between Speed and STR Team Principal Franz Tost.[11]

On 8 October 2007, Williams driver Alexander Wurz announced his immediate retirement from Formula One racing.[12] Williams test driver Kazuki Nakajima replaced Wurz for the Brazilian Grand Prix.[13]

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.[14] 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.[15]

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.[16]

Red Bull officially became an Austrian constructor by receiving an Austrian licence, though continued to operate from the same base in Britain.[17]

On 9 September 2006, MF1 Racing was officially sold to a Dutch-Arab consortium owned by Michiel Mol, along with the aid of Spyker Cars. The team was officially renamed Spyker MF1 Team, keeping the MF1 for the rest of the season due to Concorde Agreement rules.[18] On 30 September 2006, Spyker announced that their engine supplier would be Ferrari.[19]

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.[20] On 20 October 2006, Williams announced AT&T as their new main sponsor.[21] On 24 October 2006, Spyker announced they would change their name from Spyker MF1 Team to Spyker F1 from 2007 onwards, subject to all other teams giving their agreement.[22][23] On 31 October 2006, Red Bull confirmed their engine situation for 2007. Renault engines were used by Red Bull Racing, while Scuderia Toro Rosso used 2006-spec Ferrari engines.[24]

On 15 March 2007, Spyker announced their new title sponsor for the 2007 season: United Arab Emirates airline company Etihad Airways.[25]

• 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.[29]

Top: harder tyre (officially named the 'prime' tyre).
Bottom: softer tyre (the 'option' tyre), at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

• 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.[30] 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.[31]
• 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.[32]
• 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.[32]
• 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.[33]
• 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.[33]
• 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.[33]
• 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.

• Formula One Management became the sole host broadcaster for all but three of the 17 Grands Prix in 2007. All coverage was produced in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen for the first time.[34][35]
• ITV Sport, Premiere, ORF1, RTL7, TF1, TV3 and Polsat[36] were among the first broadcasters to provide a standard 16:9 widescreen programme at the opening race in Australia.
• For the United States TV coverage, except Speed Channel, FOX also broadcast four Formula One races. Those were the Canadian Grand Prix, United States Grand Prix, French Grand Prix and British Grand Prix. The Canadian Grand Prix and United States Grand Prix were televised live.
• In Poland, F1 broadcast was moved into Polsat from TV4.
• In Portugal, SportTV became the broadcaster.

• A new chicane was inserted into the straight between Europcar and New Holland (final corner) at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. It was installed in order to slow the cars down before the long main straight, and with the intent that it would provide more overtaking opportunities into turn 1.[37]
• Spa underwent track changes as well, with a new paddock area, a reprofiled Bus Stop Chicane, an extension of the start-finish straight and a change to La Source hairpin.[38]
• The largest-scale repair in the last 35 years was done to Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo, Brazil, to fundamentally solve the problem of the asphalt.[39][40] All present asphalt was removed and replaced with new asphalt.[41] At the same time, the pit lane entrance was enhanced to improve safety.[42] The circuit was closed and no event was held for five months to allow work, from June to October, until immediately before the event.[43]

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

Pos. Driver AUS MAL BHR ESP MON CAN USA FRA GBR EUR HUN TUR ITA BEL JPN CHN BRA Points 1 Kimi Räikkönen 1 3 3 Ret 8 5 4 1 1 Ret 2 2 3 1 3 1 1 110 2 Lewis Hamilton 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 3 3 9 1 5 2 4 1 Ret 7 109 3 Fernando Alonso 2 1 5 3 1 7 2 7 2 1 4 3 1 3 Ret 2 3 109 4 Felipe Massa 6 5 1 1 3 DSQ 3 2 5 2 13 1 Ret 2 6 3 2 94 5 Nick Heidfeld 4 4 4 Ret 6 2 Ret 5 6 6 3 4 4 5 14† 7 6 61 6 Robert Kubica Ret 18 6 4 5 Ret 4 4 7 5 8 5 9 7 Ret 5 39 7 Heikki Kovalainen 10 8 9 7 13 4 5 15 7 8 8 6 7 8 2 9 Ret 30 8 Giancarlo Fisichella 5 6 8 9 4 DSQ 9 6 8 10 12 9 12 Ret 5 11 Ret 21 9 Nico Rosberg 7 Ret 10 6 12 10 16† 9 12 Ret 7 7 6 6 Ret 16 4 20 10 David Coulthard Ret Ret Ret 5 14 Ret Ret 13 11 5 11 10 Ret Ret 4 8 9 14 11 Alexander Wurz Ret 9 11 Ret 7 3 10 14 13 4 14 11 13 Ret Ret 12 13 12 Mark Webber 13 10 Ret Ret Ret 9 7 12 Ret 3 9 Ret 9 7 Ret 10 Ret 10 13 Jarno Trulli 9 7 7 Ret 15 Ret 6 Ret Ret 13 10 16 11 11 13 13 8 8 14 Sebastian Vettel 8 16 19 18 Ret Ret 4 Ret 6 15 Jenson Button 15 12 Ret 12 11 Ret 12 8 10 Ret Ret 13 8 Ret 11† 5 Ret 6 16 Ralf Schumacher 8 15 12 Ret 16 8 Ret 10 Ret Ret 6 12 15 10 Ret Ret 11 5 17 Takuma Sato 12 13 Ret 8 17 6 Ret 16 14 Ret 15 18 16 15 15† 14 12 4 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi 14 17 Ret Ret Ret Ret 17† Ret 16† Ret Ret 15 17 12 9 6 13 3 19 Adrian Sutil 17 Ret 15 13 Ret Ret 14 17 Ret Ret 17 21† 19 14 8 Ret Ret 1 20 Rubens Barrichello 11 11 13 10 10 12 Ret 11 9 11 18 17 10 13 10 15 Ret 0 21 Scott Speed Ret 14 Ret Ret 9 Ret 13 Ret Ret Ret 0 22 Kazuki Nakajima 10 0 23 Anthony Davidson 16 16 16† 11 18 11 11 Ret Ret 12 Ret 14 14 16 Ret Ret 14 0 24 Sakon Yamamoto Ret 20 20 17 12 17 Ret 0 25 Christijan Albers Ret Ret 14 14 19† Ret 15 Ret 15 0 — Markus Winkelhock Ret 0 Pos. Driver AUS MAL BHR ESP MON CAN USA FRA GBR EUR HUN TUR ITA BEL JPN CHN BRA Points

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrawn (WD) Did not enter (cell empty) Text formatting Meaning Bold Pole position Italics Fastest lap

Notes:

• – Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.

• 
  Scuderia Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship
• 
  BMW Sauber F1 Team placed second in the Constructors' Championship
• 
  Renault F1 Team placed third in the Constructors' Championship
• 
  Although its drivers scored the most points combined, McLaren were excluded from the Constructors' Championship

Pos.[48] Constructor[48] No. AUS MAL BHR ESP MON CAN USA FRA GBR EUR HUN TUR ITA BEL JPN CHN BRA Points[48] 1 Ferrari 5 6 5 1 1 3 DSQ 3 2 5 2 13 1 Ret 2 6 3 2 204 6 1 3 3 Ret 8 5 4 1 1 Ret 2 2 3 1 3 1 1 2 BMW Sauber 9 4 4 4 Ret 6 2 Ret 5 6 6 3 4 4 5 14† 7 6 101 10 Ret 18 6 4 5 Ret 8 4 4 7 5 8 5 9 7 Ret 5 3 Renault 3 5 6 8 9 4 DSQ 9 6 8 10 12 9 12 Ret 5 11 Ret 51 4 10 8 9 7 13 4 5 15 7 8 8 6 7 8 2 9 Ret 4 Williams-Toyota 16 7 Ret 10 6 12 10 16† 9 12 Ret 7 7 6 6 Ret 16 4 33 17 Ret 9 11 Ret 7 3 10 14 13 4 14 11 13 Ret Ret 12 10 5 Red Bull-Renault 14 Ret Ret Ret 5 14 Ret Ret 13 11 5 11 10 Ret Ret 4 8 9 24 15 13 10 Ret Ret Ret 9 7 12 Ret 3 9 Ret 9 7 Ret 10 Ret 6 Toyota 11 8 15 12 Ret 16 8 Ret 10 Ret Ret 6 12 15 10 Ret Ret 11 13 12 9 7 7 Ret 15 Ret 6 Ret Ret 13 10 16 11 11 13 13 8 7 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 18 14 17 Ret Ret Ret Ret 17† Ret 16† Ret Ret 15 17 12 9 6 13 8 19 Ret 14 Ret Ret 9 Ret 13 Ret Ret Ret 16 19 18 Ret Ret 4 Ret 8 Honda 7 15 12 Ret 12 11 Ret 12 8 10 Ret Ret 13 8 Ret 11† 5 Ret 6 8 11 11 13 10 10 12 Ret 11 9 11 18 17 10 13 10 15 Ret 9 Super Aguri-Honda 22 12 13 Ret 8 17 6 Ret 16 14 Ret 15 18 16 15 15† 14 12 4 23 16 16 16† 11 18 11 11 Ret Ret 12 Ret 14 14 16 Ret Ret 14 10 Spyker-Ferrari 20 17 Ret 15 13 Ret Ret 14 17 Ret Ret 17 21† 19 14 8 Ret Ret 1 21 Ret Ret 14 14 19† Ret 15 Ret 15 Ret Ret 20 20 17 12 17 Ret EX McLaren-Mercedes 1 2 1 5 3 1 7 2 7 2 1 4[lower-alpha 4] 3 1 3 Ret 2 3 0 (166)[lower-alpha 5] 2 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 3 3 9 1[lower-alpha 4] 5 2 4 1 Ret 7 Pos. Constructor No. AUS MAL BHR ESP MON CAN USA FRA GBR EUR HUN TUR ITA BEL JPN CHN BRA Points

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrawn (WD) Did not enter (cell empty) Text formatting Meaning Bold Pole position Italics Fastest lap

Notes:

• – Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.