How Much Money Do Formula One Teams Really Make?
To say that Ferrari is rolling in it is an understatement, but just how much does Maranello take home along with the other teams?
With the 2018 Formula One campaign less than two months away, it's a perfect time to analyze how different teams will be gearing up for the 21-race season. Of course, this will vary depending on the size of their yearly operating budgets, which is greatly influenced by the amount of money they get from the Formula One Group, who is owned by Liberty Media, who is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).
This video created by WTF1 sheds some light on how the billionaire purse is distributed across the participating teams, and who gets what and for what reasons. As expected, the team that clinches the Constructors' Championship and wins the most races tends to earn more than the others, but that isn't always the case.
According to the video, all teams that have participated in the championship for a minimum of three seasons get a royalty payment of $36 million, which means the boys and girls at Haas F1 are out of luck until the end of 2018. Furthermore, teams receive prize money based on the previous season's performance, which means Mercedes-AMG Petronas received a whopping $61 million in 2017 solely for winning the world championship the year prior—and that's before other bonuses which tacked on an additional $100 million and some change.
Of course, F1 is known for their politics and certain "bonuses" reflect that. Take for example the Long Standing Team (LST) bonus, which awarded Ferrari and only Ferrari a total of $68 million simply for being in F1 longer than anyone else. Perhaps Vettel and Raikkonen see this as job security.
In case you're not up to speed, the Liberty Media makes its money from monetizing the circus' commercial licenses like TV rights, merchandise licensing, ticket revenue, and participating fees from all the race venues they visit (except Monaco). This money is then distributed over the winter per the regulations, which as you can see, can be a bit questionable.
Once it's all said and done, the highest earning team made almost 10 times the amount of the lowest earning team in 2017. The more you know!
