The Economics of Owning an F1 Team

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Okay, so you want to own a Formula 1 team. There are only 10 of them on Earth. The cheapest one will cost you a billion dollars, and almost none of them turn a profit. So, why is every billionaire on the planet trying to buy one?

[00:00:18]There are three ways to get your name on a Formula 1 grid. Option one, pay the anti-dilution fee.

[00:00:26]The Concorde agreement set this at $200 million in 2021.

[00:00:31]Cadillac and Andretti found out in 2026 that the real number was $450 million.

[00:00:39]FIA FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem says the next slot should cost $600 million.

[00:00:47]The fee The fee goes straight to the 10 existing teams, compensating them for letting you into the club. Option two, buy an existing team.

[00:00:58]Williams changed hands for about $200 million in 2020.

[00:01:03]By 2025, Sportico and Forbes put its value above $2.5 billion. Aston Martin was picked up for $117 million in 2018.

[00:01:15]Five years later, the team was valued at $3.2 billion.

[00:01:20]The average Formula 1 team, according to 2025 estimates, is now worth $3.4 billion.

[00:01:28]Option three, try to talk your way in for less. Andretti's $120 million bid did not even make it to the starting lights.

[00:01:37]The FIA's response was not enough money, not enough value, come back later.

[00:01:44]Once you have wired the entry fee or bought the team, you get to start spending for real.

[00:01:50]The FIA's cost cap for 2024 and 2025 is $135 million with an extra $1.8 million allowed for each race above 21.

[00:02:06]For a 24 race season, that is $140.4 million.

[00:02:12]This cap covers performance-related costs, car development, parts, engineers, mechanics, but the cap does not touch everything.

[00:02:22]Driver salaries are off-budget. Max Verstappen's contract is $65 million a year. Lewis Hamilton is at $60 million.

[00:02:32]Marketing, hospitality, and capital investments all live outside the cap, too. Logistics and engine leases add another $50 million or so. A typical season burns through 150 to 300 million depending on how much you like private jets and wind tunnels. The anti-dilution ladder is designed to keep the pie from shrinking for everyone already at the table. If you are the new entrant, you are paying a premium just to avoid slicing the prize pool thinner.

[00:03:05]The Concorde Agreement makes sure the grid stays capped at 10 with every new entry requiring not just money, but the blessing of the incumbents.

[00:03:14]The slot itself behaves like a rare asset. You pay up front, you pay every year, and you still need to pass the gatekeepers.

[00:03:23]A Formula 1 team is basically one of 10 lottery tickets that pays out every year, whether you win the lottery or not. The ticket itself keeps doubling in value while you are holding it. But here is where it gets stupid.

[00:03:39]An F1 team is basically one of 10 lottery tickets that pays out every year, whether you win the lottery or not. The ticket itself keeps doubling in value while you are holding it. If you are still wondering why anyone would pay $450 million just to get through the door, here is the punchline. The slot comes [music] with three built-in revenue streams.

[00:04:05]First, there is the annual prize money pool. Liberty Media's 2024 filing show Formula 1 generated $3.4 billion in commercial revenue. Of that, $1.27 billion gets carved out for the teams.

[00:04:21]The payout ladder is fixed in the Concord agreement. The champion collects about $140 million.

[00:04:28]The last place team gets $60 million.

[00:04:31]And And Ferrari gets a $65 million bonus just for being Ferrari.

[00:04:37]Even if you finish dead last, you are looking at a cash flow most sports teams would kill for.

[00:04:44]Second, you are not relying on ticket sales or t-shirt margins. Sponsor mega deals are the backbone.

[00:04:52]Oracle pays Red Bull $100 million a year for title rights. Ferrari's deal with HP is another $100 million.

[00:05:01]Mastercard writes McLaren checks for $90 million a season.

[00:05:07]These contracts are guaranteed, not performance-based.

[00:05:11]If your car is a moving billboard, the advertisers do not care if it is in P1 or P19.

[00:05:18]That is before you count the off-cap marketing spend, which is not even regulated. Third, the asset itself.

[00:05:27]Williams was bought for $200 million in 2020.

[00:05:31]By 2025, it is valued at over $2.5 billion.

[00:05:37]Aston Martin cost Lawrence Stroll $117 million in 2018.

[00:05:44]Five years later, Forbes and Sportico put the number at $3.2 billion.

[00:05:50]The average team is now worth $3.4 billion. The slot appreciates because there are only 10, and the FIA keeps raising the price.

[00:06:02]The anti-dilution fee started at $200 million in 2021, hit $450 million for Cadillac in 2026, and FIA president Ben Sulayem says $600 million is the new baseline.

[00:06:19]So, if every team is losing money racing, why is every billionaire trying to buy one?

[00:06:26]Meet Lawrence Stroll.

[00:06:29]Here is what you are really buying. A guaranteed seat at the prize money table, a pipeline of sponsor cash, and an asset that appreciates just by existing. [music] Turns out, the racing is not the business. The racing is the marketing budget. The real product is the slot, and there are only 10 of them on Earth, and they are not selling.

[00:06:54]You do not buy an F1 team to win a championship. You buy it because the FIA is not printing anymore.

[00:07:03]Lawrence Stroll did not buy Force India for the thrill of chasing podiums. In August 2018, he paid $117 million for a team that had just entered administration. The deal included 405 jobs, a battered chassis, and a guaranteed seat at the F1 table.

[00:07:23]By 2021, Stroll had rebranded the operation as Aston Martin. In 2023, he sold a minority stake to Arctos Partners at a valuation of $1.24 billion.

[00:07:37]That is a 960% paper gain in 5 years without a championship or even a run at the front.

[00:07:46]The team posted $27 million in operating losses in 2023, but the asset kept climbing. The real windfall came from simply owning the slot.

[00:07:58]Scarcity did the heavy lifting. While the cars circled the midfield, the franchise value quietly outpaced every on-track result. Stroll's timing was almost surgical. [music] He was in before the anti-dilution fee spike and out with a billion-dollar valuation. Not everyone gets this lucky, but if you want proof that the slot is the product, not the racing, Stroll's balance sheet spells it out. [music] Now, let's talk about the people who got this wrong.

[00:08:29]Williams sold the family silver for about $200 million in 2020.

[00:08:35]Five years later, the same slot is valued at over $1 billion with Forbes and Sportico both putting it above $2.5 billion.

[00:08:45]The Williams family exited just before the real money showed up. Scarcity is great unless you cash out before anyone else notices.

[00:08:55]Michael Andretti tried to talk his way onto the grid for $120 million. FIA's reply landed on January the 31st, 2024.

[00:09:08]Not enough money, not enough value, come back later.

[00:09:12]Formula 1 management's official statement was even blunter. F1 would bring value to the Andretti brand rather than the other way around.

[00:09:21]Andretti's technical approval from FIA did [music] not matter. Commercial approval was the real gatekeeper. The anti-dilution fee for Cadillac's later bid was $450 million, and even that was called too low by FIA President Ben Sulayem, who suggested $600 million as the next baseline.

[00:09:43]Red Bull went a different route and simply broke the rules.

[00:09:47]In 2021, they overspent the cost cap by 1.86 million pounds, about 2.2 million dollars.

[00:09:56]The fine was $7 million plus a 10% cut in aerodynamic testing.

[00:10:02]The lesson is that even the most dominant team can get caught, and the penalty is a rounding error compared to [music] annual sponsor revenue.

[00:10:11]Scarcity makes the slot valuable, but it does not make you immune to bad timing, gatekeepers, or the occasional audit.

[00:10:20]Okay, let's actually do the math.

[00:10:23]Picture yourself buying an F1 team for $1.3 billion. You get a seat at the table, a logo on the grid, [music] and a spreadsheet that looks like this.

[00:10:34]Annual revenue of $250 million, mostly from prize money and sponsors.

[00:10:42]Now, subtract $60 million for driver salaries. That's what it costs to keep a name like Verstappen or Hamilton in the car, and that amount is not capped. Take away another $50 million for logistics.

[00:10:59]Moving cars, engines, and staff across 24 countries is not cheap. You're already down to $140 million before you've paid for a single upgrade or covered the rest of your off-cap spend.

[00:11:13]Aston Martin's 2023 filings show a $27 million operating loss.

[00:11:20]That's not an outlier. Most teams post negative operating margins year after year.

[00:11:26]The numbers don't lie. On paper, you're bleeding cash to go racing. The only reason this makes sense is the slot.

[00:11:35]That $1.3 billion ticket quietly appreciates while the cars go nowhere near the podium.

[00:11:42]Stroll's team went from $117 million to $1.24 billion in 5 years all while losing money on operations.

[00:11:52]The math is simple. You're not buying [music] a business. You're buying scarcity.

[00:11:58]The slot doubles, the racing burns cash, and your accountant learns to stop asking questions.

[00:12:06]So, you put up $1.1 billion for Williams, shell out $135 million a year just to follow the cost cap, and the FIA can still say no. Just ask Andretti. A Formula 1 team is basically one of 10 lottery tickets that pays out every year. Whether you win the lottery or not. Turns out, the racing is not the business. The racing is the marketing budget. The real product is the slot.

[00:12:42]There are only 10 of them on Earth, and they are not selling.

[00:12:47]You do not buy a Formula 1 team to win a championship. You buy it because the FIA is not printing anymore.