Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Red Bull Ring, 2019

Red Bull’s F1 team spent £237 million in 2019

2020 F1 season

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Red Bull Racing spent £237.3 million ($304 million) on its Formula 1 programme in 2019, the company’s latest accounts show.

This is a slight fall compared to the previous season, when the team spent £239.6m. It finished third in the constructors’ championship behind Mercedes and Ferrari in both years.

During this time Red Bull changed engine suppliers. Having previously been a customer of Renault, in 2019 the team took on a works engine supply from Honda, which would have been a considerable cost saving for Red Bull.

The team’s spending was significantly higher than the $145 million cost cap which will be imposed from the 2021 F1 season. However there will be many significant exceptions to the new spending limit including the salaries of drivers and top executives, power unit development, travel and accommodation, plus marketing and hospitality costs.

In his comments on the accounts, team principal Christian Horner said their “costs remain under control and the team is mindful of adaptions necessary for new FIA Financial Regulations coming into force for 2021.”

Teams have agreed to a “dry run” of F1’s forthcoming cost cap during the 2020 season. While the spending limit will not be imposed this year, teams will submit financial information as if the cap was in force, giving the FIA an opportunity to test the application of the all-new rules.

As in 2018 Red Bull reported a relatively small profit, which fell from £923,000 to £618,000.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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46 comments on “Red Bull’s F1 team spent £237 million in 2019”

  1. And for that price they only finish second

    1. Sadly not. Ferrari cheated them out of second, so that bought them third.

      1. Small part cheating Ferrari’s, big part not having a good second driver.

        1. Not really. Ferrari didn’t have one of those in 19 either.

      2. Not Bad Because Mercedes spend $442 million to come first. So spending $304 Million to come second is pretty good.

        And Yes they were Second in 2019 in my book. Because we all know Ferrari cheated and should not have any points.

        1. Because Mercedes spend $442 million to come first. So spending $304 Million to come second is pretty good.

          Exactly what exchange rate did you use to arrive at these figure? In 2019, $237 million was almost half a billion dollars. The truth is, last year Red Bull almost matched Mercedes in spending. The difference was in a few million dollars, not even in the tens of millions.

          And this is despite the fact they get their engines free from Honda, including other financial support. The truth is, Red Bull is underachieving for the amount of money they spend.

          1. some sources for your estimates would be nice.
            Btw, Mercedes paying for their engines is of course a double entry system.

        2. proud_asturian
          1st October 2020, 20:47

          Good thing your book means as much as your opinion – nothing!

    2. @paeschli
      Red Bull’s turnover in 2019 increased by 9.5% to hit nearly 6.1 billion euros. Sales particularly increased in India (37%) and Brazil (30%).
      Now, how are Daimler doing……?

      1. I dont know who buys Red Bull(and Gatorade for that matter) in India. It must be only limited to Metros as a single can of
        Red Bull is just too overpriced here at INR 115.

  2. so this is for both teams right?

    1. It seems to be for RBR only, @nickthegreek.

      I assume that STR/SAT is incorporated in Italy and will submit its accounts there.

  3. The cost cup is just a political move to better promote the sport as sustainable and to encourage the midfield/smaller teams not to quit the sport.

    Strangely, RBR who tend to whine aggressively about anything they don’t like are keeping quiet about half of their budget being gone with the cost cup which suggest that maybe they have found a way to get around it before even it was agreed.

    Ferrari have already bypassed a state of the art real time fuel flow sensor…

    1. about half of (RBR’s) budget being gone with the cost cup which suggest that maybe they have found a way to get around it before even it was agreed.

      I understand that they will increase Verstappen’s salary and agree that he will bring his own mechanics.
      Back to the days when Jos was tuning his cart.

      Also expect all future Red Bull drinks promotions to be something like ‘who can design the most efficient front wing’, to make it fit in the promotional budget.
      They’ll call it ‘Red Bull will give you cash for wings’.

      And of course the pit crew will be asked to make their own sandwiches and coffee so they can be defined as catering staff.

      1. @coldfly I know you mean it as a joke, but now you mention it, could we actually start seeing the use of “personal staff” as a mechanism for teams to get around the cost cap by having staff classified as being employed by the driver?

        1. anon Surely they’ve thought of that?

          1. @johnrkh that is not necessarily 100% clear from the financial regulations – they are geared around “the F1 Team”, but I do wonder if that might well leave some possible loopholes around what is defined as being part of the team itself.

        2. Interesting.. the female Minion that follows every step if Hamilton. Is she paid by Merc or by Hem?

      2. Funny!

    2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
      1st October 2020, 13:20

      Keep in mind that the £237m mention here is their full spend – various big tickets items are excluded from the budget cap.
      Driver salaries, key management (Horner, Newey, etc), marketing, engines and hospitality are excluded.

  4. Nice. A marketing exercise that still give you £923,000 to £618,000 profit.

    1. @ruliemaulana Mercedes even made something like 13 or 14 million profit. Beat everybody, score billions in advertisement worth and still have a couple million profit.

      1. @F1oclown
        “Mercedes even made something like 13 or 14 million profit. Beat everybody, score billions in advertisement worth and still have a couple million profit.”
        Well, given that Mercedes’ parent company Daimler’s stock value and profit margin have plunged by roughly 50% since 2015 opposed to the steadily increase (over 30%) of Red Bull’s revenue since that period, one might say Mercedes is actually doing something wrong…….I’m pretty sure Dieter Mateschitz and his thai friends are sleeping very well, opposed to Ola, who has to cut 10000 staff and and slash 1,4 billion of spending.
        (Oh, and btw, do you know how much money Brackley is wasting on the development of a basically obsolete engine formula? RBR gets their engines for free.)

        1. Lol, your tears bring me so much joy. Cry some more. Please.

        2. Oconomo – laughing and mocking the misfortunes of others who have been caught up in redundancy issues comes across as extremely crass and distasteful, given you are going “ha ha – your life has been ruined” at thousands of people.

          Are you really so utterly blinkered in your slavish devotion to Red Bull and to Max that you are happy to abuse and trample on others in that way? You really do have a very strangely warped view of the world if you place so much importance on a corporate brand that it blinds you to the people behind it.

          1. its remarkable you always jump on every critic on Merc and try to change it in a fanbased battle about other drivers..

        3. “f1oclown”? WHOOOOOOOOA.

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      1st October 2020, 13:15

      Well, I suppose they don’t want to have anything but a symbolic profit as they have to pay serious taxes on that. Ideally, they’d break even pumping all profits from this season into the next. Mercedes m

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        1st October 2020, 13:17

        Oops, hit submit before end. Mercedes has to show some profitability for good reasons so they share some money with the government.

        1. Mercedes has to show some profitability for good reasons so they share some money with the government.

          Plus their CEO is a significant shareholder, @freelittlebirds.
          Every Euro extra he convinces Mercedes to pay the team as advertising costs turns into profit for the team and thus 30% for Toto.

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            1st October 2020, 15:05

            @coldfly yes, that might be one of the ways that Toto is compensated. Plus they have to show the board of directors at Mercedes that they are profitable because Toto doesn’t have to explain why the team is unprofitable when they are sweeping everything and how bad will it when they are not winning. It’s likely they may boost profitability when they are not winning to calm the board.

    3. @ruliemaulana I still don’t understand how they can make a profit? Value of increased drinks sales?

      1. @balue They get money from their sponsors and FOM? Perhaps also merchandise.

        1. Yes sure. But enough to make a profit on £237m expenses? Seems crazy to me, but I guess it has to be..

          1. This RacingsLines article from @DieterRencken about the 2018 financials explains it quite well, @balue.

          2. Thanks @coldfly, I forgot about that (most excellent) article.

            But I see Red Bull is listed as a sponsor which explains it. I just thought they were one and the same and couldn’t sponsor itself..

  5. £237 million and they get the PUs for free, that gives them a significant advantage over the other teams.

    1. Just like Mercedes.. free engines and a lot of income form other Merc driven teams..

      1. Obviously mercedes spend money to make their own engine, red bull don’t.

        1. And sells them multiple times..

      2. Just like Merc????
        Ill informed fan.

        1. well inform me then ;)

          total silence……..

  6. Is there any way Dieter can do a proper comparison between RBR and Mercedes. Both released financials. But I’m sure there’s more to it than just the numbers.

    1. @suwperman As @coldfly mentioned above, @DieterRencken did an article about the 2018 financials that does that for that year. With the numbers now beginning to come in, might well be that we can expect a follow-up to that for 2019. And with the teams having to do that dry-run for this season, that will probably be a very interesting series for this year and the next, seeing how the run-up to 2021 and 2022 go!

  7. Spend so much and not even build their own engine. What a useless team.

    Merc is the best. Car, engine, everything and the parent company hardly spends 35 million a year.

    1. ah, a blind fan ;)

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