[Michael]

This is a very open-ended question to try and understand who is making money in the sport of F1 aside from Bernie. We know that some top drivers receive compensation that is commensurate with other popular sports like soccer, basketball, tennis etc but then we hear stories of other drivers not getting paid at all.

But what about the constructors, agencies?

[Craig Woollard]

Erm, probably Bernie, Bernie and Bernie again.

In all seriousness, I would assume that the engine suppliers for each team (Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault) must make some sort of profit on their engines (perhaps not this year with the new powertrains but in future seasons for sure) otherwise they wouldn’t bother.

World Champions get rather high wages simply for being a World Champion. Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg and possibly a few others probably aren’t that badly off either. Drivers who tend to be more marketable will also receive a lot of sponsorship money.

I would guess that race promoters for a lot of events must get some sort of decent reward for holding F1, especially ones who have forked out recently for new facilities.

Constructors at the top of the tree (and Ferrari regardless of where they finish) will gain a decent amount of money. Those who do not, will not be so fortunate, especially if they finish in last place two seasons on the trot. I would guess that Force India have been making money over the past couple of seasons with their impressive place in the WCC given that their budget isn’t one that a top team has.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think I can talk with any degree of certainty, but I’d imagine the teams’ share of the TV revenue doesn’t remotely outweigh the costs of running a team.

So yes, Bernie is the winner 100 times over. However, the teams that were around in the early 1980s only have themselves to blame – Bernie apparently bought the rights to F1 TV coverage at that time for £100m – and asked all the teams to buy in with him. They said no – and have paid the price for it ever since.

I heard someone say that the sure way to make a small fortune from F1 … is to start off with a large fortune!

[Michael]

Let’s look at the drivers. We know that drivers like Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg makes tens of millions per year as other top athletes in other sports do. But what about drivers like Hulkenberg, Perez, Bottas, Bianchi, Sutil? Are they fairly compensated?

Let’s look at the constructors. I’d be very surprised if teams like Sauber (in the past) or Force India are turning a reasonable profit on the investment. Even if they make 5-10 million (pounds/euros/dollars) profit, it’s still a paltry return on the hundreds of millions that must have been invested and those profits are usually offset by losses in seasons just like Sauber will be facing this year. Ferrari might turn an acceptable profit in F1 but that’s also questionable given that they have to invest more heavily to compete at the top. I suspect McLaren was able to be profitable through their Vodafone deal and other deals in the past.

This is further evidenced by the fact that teams drop out after a few seasons obviously since they don’t receive enough money to compete from F1 even as the last team. They run out of money 2/3s into the season.

Engine manufacturers must look to break even. They are in it for the glory and for the technical expertise that they can use in their cars or hypercars.

Then we have the race promoters and I’ve never read an article where race promoters claimed to have made like a bandit in hosting a F1 race. The circuits are incredibly expensive and I’m sure for every penny they make they pay as much to Bernie.

We all know Bernie and CVC must make crazy money and that has to be the case because no one else seems to make any money.

Does anyone know what other agencies there are? What does the FIA make?

This sport is beyond expensive in terms of attending a race and in terms of watching it which begs the question of why on earth aren’t most participants turning a healthy profit in the sport? That is what needs to change in F1 more so than the regulations.

[Author]

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