Billion dollar F1 teams ‘not expensive’

The incredible rise in value of F1 in recent seasons has seen teams increase in value to where some are worth more than a billion dollars.

However, Williams boss James Vowles suggests that’s not “a lot” given the value of franchises in other sports.

Changes to the business model which underpins F1’s finances in recent years have seen the teams early more while also capping what they’re able to spend.

That has had the knock-on of making them attractive investments, evidenced by Williams owners, Dorilton Capital, an American private investment firm.

It saw the potential when it acquired the team from the Williams family for $200 million in 2020, with some estimates suggesting it has quadrupled in value since.

“Here’s the interesting; is a billion dollar team a lot? I wouldn’t say so,” Vowles told Speedcafe.

“The cheapest NFL team, if you wanted to spend your money, would be four [billion], expensive six [billion].

“We’re not expensive for the sport that we are, and I think that the headroom is quite significant in front of us because we are, as a sport, growing significantly.”

Vowles has a point, with F1 capping its costs at $135 million for the most part (there are exceptions for the highest three earners in the team, plus marketing and so on).

That cap encapsulates everything to do with the running of the Formula 1 team; staff salaries, car development, power units and parts, and more.

By contrast, Sportrac, a resource dedicated to tracking financials across a range of sports, suggests the Cleveland Browns NFP team has a wage bill of more than $250 million.

In basketball, the Golden State Warriors is spending $225 million, while it’s estimated English football club Manchester City shells out $235 million per year.

It’s suggested the blue side of Manchester raked in more than $630 million in commercial revenue during 2022 – third in terms of football clubs revenue behind French club Paris Saint-Germain and German powerhouse Bayern Munich.

In the United States, the Dallas Cowboys had a 2021 operating income of $466 million according to Statista while the NFL made an estimated $11.1 billion during the 2021-22 season and aims to more than double that by 2027.

Much of that is paid out to teams, as is the case in F1, which had revenue of $2.5 billion last year.

It suggests that there is significant growth remaining in the world’s pinnacle motor racing category.

“I don’t think at the moment you can over-capitalise,” Vowles suggested.

“You definitely can in time. If I was Mercedes, I’d be concerned about what else do you spend money on, it doesn’t make sense any more, but their value will grow.

“And this is the mindset that isn’t fully understood in sport, but I think it will be; Mercedes grows not by investing another 100 million back into everything but by the sport growing as a whole, which means that it becomes closer competition, it becomes… you shouldn’t be able to guess who is going to win on Sunday. That’s how the sport grows.”