It's the stuff that dreams are made of. Gearhead dreams, anyway: Who would be the fastest between a racing icon of yesteryear and a champion of today? That's the question which Swiss watchmaker and longtime F1 sponsor TAG Heuer posed with its latest contest, The Duel.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the timeless Monaco wristwatch, TAG pitted two of its most famous brand ambassadors – the late great Steve McQueen and reigning Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton – against each other with trick video editing. Online contestants registered their bets on who would win the virtual race, and three winners received a Monaco wristwatch, Hamilton helmet or a test drive in an F1 car. Follow the jump to watch the video and see which of the two TAG Heuer crowned as all-time champion of our imaginations. Thanks for the tip, James!

[Source: TAG Heuer]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Last weekend's Australian Grand Prix, the season opener to the 2009 Formula One season, may have ushered in a new era in on-track competition, but the off-track politics are already back up to full swing.

Following the race, officials from the FIA convened to decide whether Toyota's Jarno Trulli had illegally passed McLaren's defending champion Lewis Hamilton behind the safety car. McLaren and Hamilton insisted the pass was illegal, but new evidence – namely radio transmissions between the two drivers and their pit crews – reportedly demonstrated indicated that Hamilton deliberately let Trulli by.

The new evidence was confirmed by a meeting of the FIA stewards in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the second race of the season is scheduled to take place this coming weekend. Their decision? To take away Hamilton's and McLaren's points altogether, which may seem like a harsh punishment, but the stewards determined that Hamilton and McLaren had intentionally deceived the officials.

The adjusted rankings therefore bump Trulli up to third (in both the race results and the drivers' championship standings, since it was the first race of the season) and Toyota up to second in the constructors' championship, while McLaren remains outside the standings altogether as both their drivers were deemed not to have been classified in the race. Tune in on Sunday for our recap of the Malaysian Grand Prix, where hopefully the finishing order will actually be determined on the track and not in boardroom.

[Source: Autosport]

2008 was a good year for Lewis Hamitlon. In taking the Formula One drivers' title, he became the youngest champion in F1 history, and the first British champion in twelve years. To cap off his victorious season and start the new one on the right foot, after commissioning Bentley to convert her limos to run on bio-fuel, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has named Hamilton a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Sounds pretty impressive, doesn't it? Well for starters, Lewis can add the letters MBE to his name, but unlike his predecessor Jackie Stewart, it does not entitle Hamilton to knighthood. The MBE is the lowest rank in the British order of chivalry, and was awarded to Hamilton together with nearly 1,000 other recipients on the Queen's annual new year's list. Still, not bad when combined with his own set of stamps. Oh yeah, and the F1 trophy.

[Source: McLaren, Photo by DAVE CAULKIN/AFP/Getty]

Few countries have such unimpeachable car-crazed credentials than the Isle of Man. The semi-autonomous British island has no speed limits, boasts a fearsome TT road course, and is home to a handful of motorbike champions, former F1 world champion Nigel Mansell and even Jeremy Clarkson has a house there. Apparently, the love of motorsports hasn't escaped any crevice of Manx society -- not even the postal service -- which has announced it is issuing a set of stamps to honor Britain's new golden boy, recently crowned Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton.

The six-stamp set, which will be released on January 15, will feature images from Hamilton's triumphant season, and follows the British Racing Greats which the Philatelic Bureau of the Isle of Man Post Office released earlier this year. A set of stamps might not quite measure up against the McLaren F1 LM supercar which Hamilton was promised as a reward for the title, but who knows, maybe letters will arrive at their destination a little faster with Lewis driving. Press release after the jump.

[Source: Isle of Man Post Office]

Everybody's got their fantasy, but few ever get to live it out. For many of us, it might very well be taking the Formula One world title. That was Lewis Hamilton's dream, and he achieved it this year becoming the youngest F1 champion in history. A huge achievement, but a bubble burst. So Lewis needs a new dream, one that's almost sure to remain purely fantastic. And since he's mastered the crop of grand prix circuits on the calendar, you can guess what his fantasy might be: the ideal race track. And that's just what he's dreamed up.

Like some deranged G.I. Joe villain, Lewis' composite "super lap" takes bits and pieces from some of the world's most fearsome tracks and puts them in succession to make for the ultimate race track. Not surprising for a speed freak like young Lewis, most of the corners are fast and pile on the Gs. The turns are culled from Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps, the Monte Carlo street circuit in Monaco, Brazil's Interlagos, the Magny Cours circuit that used to host the French Grand Prix, England's own dilapidated Silverstone, and even two from Suzuka in Japan where Lewis has yet to race. What, no corkscrew from Laguna Seca? No hairpin from Montreal's Gilles Villeneuve circuit? No Carousel from the Nordschleife? Rookie.

[Source: Sky Sports, painting by Rob Ijbema - Car-A-Day.com]

British racing fans had lots of reason to celebrate this year. Not only did their golden boy Lewis Hamilton win the Formula One World Championship, but their star cyclist Chris Hoy took home three Olympic gold medals from the Beijing Olympics. But the ultimate face-off between man and machine is just gearing up as organizers of the annual Race of Champions have announced the two will face off next month at Wembley.

The race will pit Hamilton in a Mercedes road car against Hoy on his bike on parallel winding tracks. Although Lewis won't be driving his championship winning McLaren, he'll be running a few demonstration laps around the stadium for the fans in his first major public appearance after securing the championship. Since both Hoy and Hamilton will have to rush off to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, scheduled at the same time as the race, the showdown will take place as an opening act. And that's one heck of an opening act. Press release after the jump.

[Source: Race of Champions]

Click above for hi-res gallery of the McLaren F1 LM

Now that Lewis Hamilton has secured the Formula One championship, supercar fans around the world are asking when he'll get his hands on that rare McLaren F1 LM. The incredibly valuable supercar – initially reported at $4 million but now apparently worth closer to 8 – was promised to the budding young driver if he won the title. However, the condition was that he win both the drivers title and, together with team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, lock up the constructors' title for the team, as well. Although he won the drivers' championship, the constructors' crown went to arch-rivals Ferrari, but since McLaren chief Ron Dennis is such a good sport, he's renegotiated the terms.

If Hamilton manages to repeat his title victory with a hat-trick – that is, take another two championships – he'll get his hands on the bright orange supercar. That's quite a challenge, but Dennis called it a "small price to pay for three world championships." Indeed, but by then McLaren will have a whole slew of supercars on the market for Lewis to choose from. In the meantime, he'd better keep his head down and focus on the prize.

[Source: F1-Live]

Click above for high-res gallery of the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix

It doesn't get any closer than this. A photo-finish has nothing on the last-minute – make that last-second – end to yesterday's Brazilian Grand Prix, the ultimate decider of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship. Even if you were watching it, chances are you might have missed it. It was that close.

Heading into this final round, the rival pair of young guns Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) were the only two in contention for the drivers' title. But Hamilton's lead in points would mean that Massa would have to win the race with Hamilton coming in no better than sixth place. The win would put the two tied in points, but give Massa the crucial extra grand prix victory to just edge out Hamilton and claim the title. Any less and they'd have to start counting podiums. Saturday's qualifying set the stage: Massa on pole, wildcard Trulli beside and team-mate Raikkonen behind him, with Hamilton stuck in fourth place on the grid. Les jeux sont faites; all bets were placed and the dealer spun the ball. And we wouldn't know who had taken home the prize until the very end. Follow the jump to read how it turned out.

Lewis Hamilton does not have good luck in France. Of all the races he's won in these past two seasons, he's yet to take the checkered flag at the French Grand Prix, has had his license revoked by the French gendarmes, and has now had his appeal thrown out of court in Paris.

Following the Belgian Grand Prix earlier this month, Hamilton was penalized by the race stewards with a 25-second penalty (in lieu of a pit-lane drive-through penalty) that bumped him down from first place to third, and allowed Ferrari's Felipe Massa to close the lead down to one single point. The penalty was given to Hamilton for having cut through a chicane on the Spa-Francorchamps track called the "bus stop", which race officials ruled gave him an illegal advantage. Hamilton's team McLaren decided to appeal the penalty in the FIA's court in Paris, however the court threw out the case as inadmissible, quoting sporting regulations that stipulate that drive-through penalties cannot be appealed. McLaren presented precedent from a repealed penalty handed to Toro Rosso in Japan last year, however the court of appeal was adamant in their refusal to hear the case.

A brief statement from the FIA can be found after the jump, and those interested can read the full 8-page ruling by clicking here.

[Source: Autosport | Photo: Oliver Laban-Mattei/Getty]

SPOILER ALERT

Click for a hi-res gallery from the 2008 British GP

Storms swept through Silverstone this year for the British Grand Prix. First came the announcement of David Coulthard's retirement from Formula 1, which was followed by the announcement that, starting in 2010, the race would leave its historic home at Silverstone and move to Donington Park.

The decision by Formula One Management and the FIA followed years of calls for the ageing Silverstone track -- owned and operated by the British Drivers Racing Club -- to renovate and get itself up to the modern standards set by F1's newer tracks. However, after failing to secure government funding or sufficient private investment, the decision was made to move the event to Donington. So as the storms set in to close two major chapters of British motor racing history, the rain poured down on the penultimate running of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Follow the jump to read how it turned out.

[Images: Getty/AFP]