The 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 61st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It 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 him 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 .

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.2007 FIA Formula One World Championship Classifications, www.fia.com, as archived at web.archive.org Defending double Constructors' Champions Renault proved to be uncompetitive with their R27 car taking them to third in the constructors' standings (after McLaren's exclusion) and ended up win-less for the first time since the 2002 season. 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.

2007 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 season onwards, which prohibited teams from using this kind of technology. The season also saw the debuts of future world champions Lewis Hamilton (the first black driver to participate in the category) and Sebastian Vettel (although, in Vettel's case, this was the first year in which no German driver won a race since 1991).

Honda ran with an "Earth livery" on their RA107 car. It was the first time since , 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 once more for 2007, having previously been F1's sole tyre manufacturer for the 1999 and 2000 seasons.

, this is the last Drivers' Championship won by a Ferrari driver and the last drivers' title won by a Finnish driver to date in Formula One.

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 is the historical tradition. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Bridgestone.

Entrant Constructor Chassis Engine Race drivers Rounds Vodafone McLaren Mercedes McLaren-Mercedes MP4-22 Mercedes FO 108T 1 Fernando Alonso All 2 Lewis Hamilton All ING Renault F1 Team Renault R27 Renault RS27 3 All 4 Heikki Kovalainen All Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Ferrari F2007 Ferrari 056 2007 5 Felipe Massa All 6 Kimi Räikkönen All Honda Racing F1 Team Honda RA107 Honda RA807E 7 Jenson Button All 8 Rubens Barrichello All BMW Sauber F1 Team BMW Sauber F1.07 BMW P86/7 9 Nick Heidfeld All 10 Robert Kubica 1–6, 8–17 Sebastian Vettel 7 Panasonic Toyota Racing Toyota TF107 Toyota RVX-07 11 Ralf Schumacher All 12 Jarno Trulli All Red Bull Racing Red Bull-Renault RB3 Renault RS2714 David Coulthard All15 Mark Webber All AT&T Williams Williams-Toyota FW29 Toyota RVX-0716 Nico Rosberg All17 Alexander Wurz 1–16 17 Scuderia Toro Rosso Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR2 Ferrari 056 200618 Vitantonio Liuzzi All19 Scott Speed 1–10 Sebastian Vettel 11–17 Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team Spyker-Ferrari F8-VIIF8-VIIB Ferrari 056 200620 Adrian Sutil All21 Christijan Albers 1–9 Markus Winkelhock 10 Sakon Yamamoto 11–17 Super Aguri F1 Team Super Aguri-Honda SA07 Honda RA807E22 Takuma Sato All23 Anthony Davidson AllSource: † All engines were 2.4-litre V8 configuration.

Free practice drivers Three constructors entered free practice only drivers over the course of the season: Sebastian Vettel for BMW Sauber at the opening two rounds, Christian Klien for Honda at the British Grand Prix and Kazuki Nakajima for Williams at five Grands Prix.

+ Drivers that took part in free practice sessionsConstructorPractice driversNo.Driver nameRoundsHonda 34 Christian Klien 9BMW Sauber 35 Sebastian Vettel 1–2Williams–Toyota 38 Kazuki Nakajima 1–2, 6–7, 16

Driver changes

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

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 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, their junior program driver who won the GP2 Series title that year as their second driver.

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

In-season changes 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. 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.Vettel replaces Speed at Toro Rosso autosport.com. Retrieved 3 August 2007. Vettel had made his debut that same season driving for BMW Sauber at the 2007 United States Grand Prix, replacing the injured Robert Kubica following his accident at the Canadian Grand Prix.

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 , 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 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. On 30 September 2006, Spyker 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. 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. 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. As a result of Red Bull Racing switching to Renault engines, this marked the first time Renault had supplied more than one team in the sport since the season (when it supplied Williams and Benetton) as a fully-fledged engine manufacturer (although from to Renault had supplied more than one team but under Mecachrome, Playlife and Supertec brandings respectively). As a result of Spyker and Toro Rosso switching to Ferrari customer engines, this marked the first time Ferrari had supplied more than two teams in the sport since the season when it used Petronas branding for the engines it supplied to Sauber and Acer branding for the engines it supplied to Prost.

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

Other changes On 30 September 2006, Cosworth announced that they would temporarily withdraw from Formula One as an engine supplier, citing lack of room for supplying engines for private teams after Williams switched to Toyota engines and Spyker opted for Ferrari engines from 2007 season onwards and thus for the first time since 1962 a Formula One season did not feature Cosworth-powered cars. However the company would return to the sport from 2010 season onwards.

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