The 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 62nd season of Formula One motor racing, recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) – the governing body of motorsport – as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship was contested over eighteen races commencing in Australia on 16 March and ending in Brazil on 2 November. The 2008 season saw the debut of the Singapore Grand Prix, which was held at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Marina Bay, Singapore and was the first Formula One race held at night. The European Grand Prix moved to a new venue at the Valencia Street Circuit, in Valencia, Spain.

Lewis Hamilton won the Drivers' title by a single point – by overtaking Toyota's Timo Glock on the final corner of the final lap of the final Grand Prix of the season to claim the required 5th-place finish to win the championship – from Brazilian Felipe Massa, who had finished the race in first place; his team and family already celebrating the championship when the final overtake occurred. Massa's teammate, the reigning World Champion Kimi Räikkönen, was ranked third, with two wins after suffering a mid-season dip in form. Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro won the Constructors' title. In winning the Drivers' title, Hamilton became the youngest driver ever to win the title (a record since surpassed by Sebastian Vettel winning the 2010 Drivers' title) and the first black driver to do so. He was also the first British champion since Damon Hill in 1996.

Eleven teams competed in the championship, although Super Aguri withdrew on 6 May due to financial troubles, having completed four races. New technical rules for 2008 included the banning of traction control after it was re-introduced in 2001, at the Spanish Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso won the first World Championship race held in Singapore; however, only after teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed to cause a Safety Car period which helped Alonso's strategy. When Piquet admitted this to the press in 2009 Renault team-principal Flavio Briatore resigned. Some journalists dubbed this "Crashgate".

This was the last season for the Honda team before they withdrew from Formula One later in December due to the financial difficulties. Ross Brawn then bought the team, and renamed it to Brawn GP in February 2009 using the Mercedes-Benz engines. Honda returned as an engine supplier from 2015 to 2021. This was also the last Formula One season to race with grooved tyres, used since 1998, before slick tyres returned to Formula One in 2009. 2008 was the last season to feature 2001 runner up David Coulthard who retired from racing in F1 after 14 years and 246 race starts becoming a television pundit for the BBC ahead of the 2009 season.

2008 was the first year in the history of Formula One in which all teams used the same two drivers throughout the season, and the only year in which two Finnish drivers won races, Räikkönen in Malaysia and Spain and Heikki Kovalainen in Hungary. This season was the most recent World Drivers' Championship win by the driver of a McLaren until Lando Norris in 2025. 2008 also stands as the most recent World Constructors' Championship title win for Scuderia Ferrari.

There were a total of seven teams signed up to compete in the championship through an agreement with Formula One Management, with the other four major manufacturers in the Grand Prix Manufacturers' Association (GPMA) having signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the 2006 Spanish Grand Prix. All teams in both groups have two spots each on the 2008 grid. The following teams and drivers competed in the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship. Teams competed with tyres supplied by Bridgestone. McLaren was given the fifth pit position in Australia and Malaysia until their pit position was moved to the last in Bahrain.

On 14 February 2006 the FIA president Max Mosley announced that all teams interested in competing in the 2008 World Championship would have a seven-day window during which they would have to submit an application to compete. All eleven current teams applied, as well as several others. On 28 April 2006 the FIA announced that all of the current teams' applications for the 2008 season were granted, along with a new team Prodrive, fronted by the ex-BAR and -Benetton principal David Richards. There were 21 applications in total, several new teams applying included European Minardi F1 Team Ltd, Jordan Grand Prix, Direxiv and Carlin Motorsport.^{[citation needed]} However, despite the Prodrive application being accepted, Richards later announced that the team would not race in 2008 due to a dispute over the legality of customer cars.

2005 and 2006 World Champion Fernando Alonso left McLaren after a single season to rejoin Renault. He was replaced at McLaren by Heikki Kovalainen, who had replaced Alonso at Renault the previous season. Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault's other driver from 2007, moved to the newly renamed Force India team, in place of erstwhile Spyker driver Sakon Yamamoto, who became Renault's test development driver. Fisichella's place at Renault was taken by the team's test driver Nelson Piquet Jr. (son of the three-time World Drivers' Champion Nelson Piquet).