Championship Watch
Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 Drivers' Championship for McLaren. Final 2008 standings — every driver and constructor ranked by points and wins.
Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 Formula 1 World Drivers' Championship driving for McLaren, finishing on 98 points, 1 clear of Felipe Massa. Hamilton won 5 races that season.
Ferrari took the Constructors' Championship with 172 points, 21 ahead of McLaren.
7 different drivers won a Grand Prix, and 18 drivers scored championship points.
Standings compiled from the Ergast/Jolpica Formula 1 results archive. Spotted an error? Tell us.
Lewis Hamilton leads the 2008 Drivers Championship with 98 points, holding a 1-point advantage over Felipe Massa (Ferrari). A gap of fewer than 25 points — one race win — means the title race remains mathematically open every single weekend.
In the 2008 Constructors Championship, Ferrari leads with 172 points — a 21-point margin over McLaren. The Constructors title is decided by the combined points haul of a team's two drivers from every race, making car reliability, pit stop execution, and strategic pairing as important as raw pace.
The current FIA points system awards points to the top ten finishers in every Grand Prix: 25–18–15–12–10–8–6–4–2–1. An additional point goes to the driver who sets the fastest lap of the race, provided they finish inside the top ten. Sprint events — held on Saturday at select rounds — offer a separate points structure: 8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1 for the top eight finishers, counting toward both championships independently of the main race result.
A driver must hold an FIA Super Licence and score at least one championship point to register on the standings. DNFs score zero, but a classified finish — completing at least 90% of the race distance — earns the driver’s finishing position even without a points reward.