With tickets selling out in record time for each passing Grand Prix, more and more fans tuning in to watch their favourite teams, and Netflix’s Drive to Survive raking in the viewership on streaming, the value of Formula 1 has never been higher… and everyone’s looking for a piece.
Formula 1 is having a moment. It’s undeniable. Fans all over the world simply can’t get enough of the world’s premier motorsport, and the ten teams that occupy the starting grid are reaping the benefits. It’s why more people than ever are engaged with the evolving narratives of the 20 F1 drivers, it’s why the calendar has been expanded to offer more days – and more racing – than ever before, and it’s why teams are comfortably rejecting near $1 billion USD (~$1.5 billion AUD) offers for majority shares.
Big commercial interest translates to big valuations, and everyone wants a piece of the pie. Last month, it was confirmed that Wrexham AFC Owner Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney had invested $330 Million into Alpine Formula 1 Team. Together with Otro Capital and US investment firm RedBird, Maximum Effort Investments, a production company owned by Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney and Michael B. Jordan, secured a 24% share of Alpine, valuing the British-based, French-owned Formula 1 team at €900 million (~$1.5 billion AUD) at the time of purchase.
It led many people to question whether the F1 team was even worth that much money, considering it tends to place further back in the standings, with F1 legend Eddie Jordan labelling the valuation, “Ridiculous!” But as Forbes reveals the true valuations of the ten Formula 1 teams, it looks as though Reynolds, McElhenney and Jordan have certainly got their money’s worth.
Check out the values of the Formula 1 teams below.
| 1. Ferrari | $3.9 billion USD (~$5.7 billion AUD) |
| 2. Mercedes | $3.8 billion (~$5.6 billion AUD) |
| 3. Red Bull | $2.6 billion (~$3.8 billion AUD) |
| 4. McLaren | $2.2 billion (~$3.2 billion AUD) |
| 5. Alpine | $1.4 billion (~$2 billion AUD) |
| 6. Aston Martin | $1.375 billion (~$2 billion AUD) |
| 7. AlphaTauri | $1.125 billion (~$1.6 billion AUD) |
| 8. Alfa Romeo | $900 million ($1.3 billion AUD) |
| 9. Haas | $780 million ($1.1 billion AUD) |
| 10. Williams | $725 million (~$1 billion AUD) |
Of course, the conditions of the Alpine sale were locked in as early as last year, but the huge increase in valuation since then is emblematic of a steep incline in average valuation for the ten Formula 1 teams on the grid, with Forbes reporting that the average value of one of the teams currently sits at $1.88 billion USD (~$2.8 billion AUD), “an incredible 276% increase from the $500 million average when Forbes last valued the series’ teams in 2019.”
There are many factors that contribute to the driving cost of Formula 1 teams; Netflix’s Drive to Survive gripped the imaginations of a global audience during the pandemic, with more and more people turning to F1 in the absence of live sport. But it didn’t simply stop at the end of the series, with American fans, in particular, selling out Miami and the Austin Grand Prix in record time once the season resumed.
This led to an expanded Formula 1 schedule that will see three North American circuits for the first time in 40 years, with the ever-lucrative Las Vegas entering the travelling party, “expected to generate about $500 million in ticketing and hospitality-related revenues for F1.”
WATCH Lewis Hamilton take over the Las Vegas streets below.
“Worldwide, Formula 1 viewership averaged 70 million per race in 2022, and the series’ global media rights are expected to top $1 billion this year and reach $1.4 billion by 2029, according to a recent report by Seaport Research Partners.”
Forbes
And although recent viewing figures could suggest that American fans are starting to lose interest in the monotonous monopoly of Red Bull’s season, Forbes estimates that team revenue has jumped from an average of $220 million in 2018 to $380 million in 2023, from increased television viewership, commercial rights and race day income.
It’s unsurprising to see Ferrari at the top of the list, valued by Forbes at $3.9 billion USD (~$5.7 billion AUD). The longest competing team on the grid, Ferrari first entered the Formula 1 circuit during the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix and since then has lifted a record-16 Constructors’ Championships and 15 Drivers’. An era of Mercedes dominance and Red Bull ascendency has challenged Ferrari’s legacy in recent years, but such is the enduring relationship between Ferrari and motorsport that they still reign supreme, but only just.
Mercedes sits a close second, taking a potential earning of $700 million for 2023 and an overall valuation of $3.8 billion (~$5.6 billion AUD). Since the acquisition of Lewis Hamilton in 2013, Mercedes and Team Principal Toto Wolff have enjoyed an unopposed era of Formula 1 supremacy, securing six Drivers’ Championships and eight Constructors’.
Red Bull, the current Formula champions, represents the best of the rest, reaching an overall valuation of $2.6 billion (~$3.8 billion AUD). A considerable jump owing to the recent success of the scintillating quick Max Verstappen, who, behind the wheel of the relentless RB19, looks set to lift a third Drivers’ championship and embark on an era of Red Bull dominance of his own.
And with the staggering commercial interest in the ten teams that occupy the starting grid, the increasing appeal – and value – of Formula 1 will only grow exponentially with each passing season.