F1 teams now reaping massive profits & worth $billions.

[John S]

Even Lowly Williams is now set to make $160m this year, that's probably what investor paid for it few years back. 

US business magazine 'Forbes' has run the slide rule accross F1 grid and come up with big numbers, below GPblog reviews the figures.
Remember these are values and profits - not turnover! Seems the budget cap has produced a real money printing machine no wonder they don't want others to join the club. 

'Big profits for top three'

And dear billionaire, if you are reading this, a Formula 1 team is not even a crazy investment.
Ferrari's estimated profit for 2023, according to Forbes' gross, is $680 million.
Mercedes is also allowed some extra butter on its sandwich. The Germans would pocket a whopping $700 million gross over 2023.
And at Red Bull, too, over half a billion gross will be collected with an estimated profit of $510 million.
Even the Williams team is making big profits. The British racing team is said to be making a gross profit of $160 million this year, according to the magazine.

Estimated values F1 teams

1. Ferrari ($3.9 billion)

2. Mercedes ($3.8 billion)

3. Red Bull ($2.6 billion)

4. McLaren ($2.2 billion)

5. Alpine ($1.4 billion)

6. Aston Martin ($1.375 billion)

7. AlphaTauri ($1.125 billion)

8. Alfa Romeo ($900 million)

9. Haas ($780 million)

10. Williams ($725 million)

Above section taken from longer article courtesy Olly Darcy, GPblog.com, Today. [/i]

[Jericoke]

My understanding is that teams like Williams are held back by the spending cap, because their facilities are out of date, and they aren't allowed the budget to improve it.

If F1 wants rich people to buy into the sport, they need to find a way to improve a team's infrastructure, while still honouring the cap's principles (otherwise Ferrari could continue developing bleeding edge infrastructure year over year).  If Williams isn't allowed to catch up, then how is the team worth anything?  It would make more sense to invite new teams who can build infrastructure with unlimited budget.  (Is that the true fear of allowing new teams?)

It would be weird to have a standard facilities design, but maybe that level of regulation would allow a fair chance for everyone. (The wind tunnels are already regulated, so maybe not that weird?)

[John S]

Jeri it's the projected profits on a regulated expenditure that makes Williams or any other team worth north of $700m not the winning potential.

Sure it's crazy but that's what the cost cap has created. There's no real change in the haves or have nots - except of course for Aston who had Stroll's huge cash pile and genius for seeing how it would all shake out.

Gone are the days of investing a big fortune in F1 to end up with a small one, today a place on the grid is indeed a licence to print money.