Ferrari still biggest spender in F1

[John S]

But not by much; RBR, Team Lotus, Virgin & Sauber have all upped their spend this year. It's interesting that the manufacturers like Ferrari and Merc are putting a lot less of their own money into the teams than in the Toy, BMW & Honda era; instead they're relying on sponsors more heavily. 

Ferrari is F1’s biggest spender, while Hispania boasts the smallest budget, an industry publication has found. The latest edition of ’Business Book GP’ said the teams association FOTA has succeeded in dramatically cutting costs with its resource restriction agreement, according to a report in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo Deportivo.

The average annual team budget has reportedly decreased from EUR 209 million in 2009 to 113m in 2011. It was 119m in 2010.

Ferrari’s (199m) is the highest budget, while HRT’s (34m) is the lowest.

And the reduction in the average figure, whilst apparently impressive, is also due to the arrival of three low-spending new teams, and the withdrawal of big-spenders like BMW and Toyota and the scaling-down of Renault’s operation.

The report also said that despite the success of the cost-cutting, the Martin Whitmarsh-led FOTA wants to further empower the resource restriction agreement.

Reportedly, not every team in F1 has reduced its spending. Business Book GP said Team Lotus is spending much more money in 2011, while Virgin, Sauber and Red Bull also have bigger budgets than a year ago.

Meanwhile, grandees Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Renault are all now spending less, relying on sponsors for more than 50 per cent of their budgets.

Nextgen-auto.com, Today.

[Jericoke]

I realise that Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault are car companies with deep pockets that see F1 as advertising... in effect money coming out of their pockets isn't all that different from 'sponsor' money, even if it is half their budget.

But where does McLaren make money that only half of their budget comes from sponsors?  Do their shareholders just throw piles of cash away every year as a hobby?  Is the prize money from F1 really big enough that McLaren has vaults full of Concorde payments?

[Scott]

Mclaren is a pretty big company.  They use their F1 name to produce quite a bit of high tech stuff outside F1.  F1 isn't their only source of income.

http://mclaren.com/mclaren-group

[Jericoke]

Mclaren is a pretty big company.  They use their F1 name to produce quite a bit of high tech stuff outside F1.  F1 isn't their only source of income.

http://mclaren.com/mclaren-group

I bet ol' Bruce never expected his name to be applied to a catering company!

I rather like that they've decided to use every aspect of the F1 business as an opportunity to create a fully functioning company.  It certainly is an odd thought that someone is eating caviar at a Royal Wedding party, and that pays for Button's front wing.

[John S]

But where does McLaren make money that only half of their budget comes from sponsors?  Do their shareholders just throw piles of cash away every year as a hobby?  Is the prize money from F1 really big enough that McLaren has vaults full of Concorde payments?

As a team that usually finishes in the top 3 for constructors McLaren get a pretty big share of the FOM money which will probably cover about half the new lower budget now. I seem to remember reading that the teams got between Four & Five hundred Million split amongst them for last season, the new concorde agreement signed in 09 gives 50% of the F1 take to the teams, with the top teams getting the lions share. 

In previous years, before Merc had their own team and the resource reduction came in, Macca would have got engines for free and probably considerable extra money towards team costs, they were the official Merc backed team back then.