2008 entry list still leaves some unanswered questions

The Formula One's governing body FIA have released the official 2008 Formula One World Championship entry list. 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen will start the season with the prized number one on his Ferrari.

FIA Formula One World Championship: Jean Todt and Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari.

Photo by FIA.

"The fact that I won the drivers' world title last year gives me the confidence that I can do it again," said Raikkonen at Ferrari's launch today of their new car, the F2008. "But I don't feel any stronger than last year."

Second placed Lewis Hamilton will start with 22 after the McLaren team's exclusion from the constructors' championship last year.

It has since been reported that the Super Aguri team have clarified that the FIA's newly published official entry list for 2008 may not be the final driver line up, explaining that contractual negotiations are still ongoing.

The two drivers, Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson, are likely to keep their seats and the team chiefs decided to lodge the two driver entries with the FIA even though the plans are not finalised.

In the testing at Jerez early in December, the team clocked up 314 laps Davidson recorded the fastest laptime of 1:21.076 in the car on the second day of testing, narrowly ahead of Sato.

The new Force India team owned by billionaire Dr Vijay Mallya are yet to announce who will be filling the final seat for 2008, former However Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella is now widely expected to be signed.

The team completed two test sessions, Barcelona from 13th to the 15th November and from the 4th to the 7th December in Jerez..

In the first test at Barcelona Adrian Sutil, Roldan Rodriguez and Giedo van der Garde completed a series of tests on the chassis development and standard electronics package. Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi joined the trio to supply additional F1 experience for the test.

The second test session in Jerez, Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella and Franck Montagny joined the party with Christian Klien and Tonio Liuzzi being invited back after their performances in Barcelona. Giedo van der Garde and Roldan Rodriguez again completed one day of testing.

The Best lap times of the drivers were:
1:20.187 - Christian Klien
1:20.470 - Giancarlo Fisichella Q1:21.194 - Tonio Liuzzi
1:21.559 - Franck Montagny
1:21.853 - Ralf Schumacher
1:22.321 - Giedo van der Garde
1:22.508 - Roldan Rodriguez

The Silverstone based outfit were impressed with Fisichella's smooth style in the 2008 spec car without traction control.

The team, formally Jordan F1 then Midland F1 Racing Limited was purchased from the Spyker F1 operation for Euro 88m (approx USD 130m) by Mallya.

Although the team will run an evolution of the Spyker 2007 B spec chassis for the start of the 2008 season the aerodynamics package will be very different.

The current contract to run the Ferrari customer engine remains in place until 2010.

The technical team has recently been restructured bringing back ex-Jordan team members Mark Smith and Ian Hall. Smith will be the new Design Director working under Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and alongside Technical Director James Key. Hall has been made Project Leader for the 2009 car.

Smith coming from a position at Red Bull and Hall from Toyota worked with Gascoyne at Jordan in the highly successful 1999 championship campaign.