Who owns the F1 teams? 6 billionaires, 4 auto giants, tightening ties at Aston Martin
The Formula 1 business is expanding at an unprecedented rate: thanks to the cost ceiling, top teams are already able to generate tens of millions of dollars in profit, and the interest of the public, advertisers and sponsors is only growing.
Activity in terms of ownership and representation of teams is also unprecedented: over the past 5 years, only 2 organizations did not sell part of the shares (or the entire stake), did not arrange a striking rebranding, or did not negotiate a direct sale at all.
But who owns the teams right now? Are there many car factories in business? Or are these just toys of billionaires? We studied and figured it out.
“Red Bull” is the Red Bull concern (49% of Dietrich Mateschitz’s son Mark – fortune is $20.7 billion according to the Forbes rating of 2022, 51% of Chalerm Yuvidya – $20.2 billion according to the Forbes rating of 2020)
Purchased: November 15, 2004
Amount: a symbolic $1 along with a commitment to invest $400 million in the team over the next three seasons
It can be said that Dietrich Mateschitz’s concern got a valuable asset for nothing: he was clearly going to actively invest anyway, but the “core” of the team remained unchanged after the leadership reconfiguration, as the new boss Christian Horner admitted. Since then, the company has had two engineering divisions and one engine division.
Dietrich died on October 22 from cancer, and his share of the company passed to his son Mark - at least it was he who presented the plan for restructuring the management of the empire in letters to sports teams.
One Austrian felt sleepy after a flight - this is how the Red Bull empire began. She came to the sport before she released the drink
Ferrari - Ferrari company: Elkann-Agnelli family (24%), stock exchange (65.5%) Enzo Ferrari's son Piero (10%)
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Founded: November 16, 1929
They thought about losing the Ferrari company to Ford, sold it to Fiat, separated it into a separate organization and placed it on the stock exchange, the team was never traded - it always belonged to the Maranello plant.
The company is now freely traded on the Italian and New York stock exchanges (under the ticker RACE) - 65.49% of the shares are placed there. A 10% stake belongs to the son of Enzo Piero, but it is managed by the representative of the Agnelli-Elkann clan, John Elkann - after all, he controls the largest block of shares through ownership of a controlling part of the Exor fund (also traded on the stock exchange, by the way, and owns Juventus, a stake in Stellantis " and "Iveco").
He has 33% of the votes in the company, so his opinion is very significant - however, it is unlikely that it will ever come to the point of selling the team separately from the company. After all, the capitalization of the entire Ferrari is now about 38 billion euros, and Formula 1 is its main marketing platform.
Mercedes - 33% - Mercedes concern, 33% - INEOS, 33% - team chief Toto Wolff
Purchased: December 2020
Amount: Approximately $400 million, entire team valued at $1.2 billion
Mercedes announced its return to F1 on November 16, 2009 - then the concern bought 45.1% of the champion Brown, the investment fund and UAE Aabar took another 30%. In total, the deal cost 176 million pounds by the end of 2011, when the restructuring and consolidation of shares was completed.
After this, the distribution of shares constantly changed: the plant and the fund bought out the remaining shares from the previous managers, transferred them to new ones (Toto Wolff, Niki Laude, Paddy Lowe), gave them over to each other (Aabar owned 10% of the concern until 2012, and then sold the shares to the Kuwaiti fund and Chinese Geely and BAIC) until 2020. Then, after the death of Niki Lauda, the team faced the final restructuring at the moment: the British petrochemical giant INEOS (the private company of billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe with a fortune of $28 billion) was allowed into its capital. Chief Toto Wolff received an additional share - now his voice in management is equal to both co-owners.
Mercedes sold control of the F1 team, but retained the Grand Prix brand and key boss
Alpin - Renault group, 24% - a group of investors from actor Reynolds, Otro and RedBird
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Purchased: December 3, 2015, part resold June 26, 2023
Amount: Symbolic 1 pound, paying off debts of 100 million pounds and retaining 10% of the shares with the previous owner, then 200 million euros for 24% of the shares.
The modern history of the “Team from Enstone” is very interesting: in 2009 it was bought by the foundation of the odious Gerard Lopez, in 2011 it was renamed “Lotus”, and in 2015, after the almost bankruptcy of the organization, “Renault” returned. And at the end of 2020, it transferred the sports divisions to the subsidiary sub-brand Alpin - in fact, only the sign was changed, even the nameplate on the engine remained Renault.
Who owns the French group? 15% goes to the country, another 15% goes to the Nissan concern through the exchange of shares during the formation of the alliance, another 65% is traded on the stock exchange, the rest goes to the management and working staff.
Want to know more about the odious Gerard Lopez? We had a separate text!
Billions on Skype, friendship with Putin and government contracts in Russia
But at the end of 2022, Renault bought his share for an undisclosed amount.
And on June 26, 2023, Alpin announced the sale of 24% of the team’s shares, announced back in mid-2022 - they went to a group of investors for 200 million euros,
, which includes Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, owners of Wrexham Football Club, as well as Otro Capital and RedBird Capital. Previously, RedBird acquired the football clubs Milan and Toulouse; they have a stake in the Fenway Sports Group in their portfolio (they own the Boston Red Sox baseball team, the Pittsburgh Penguins from the NHL, the Liverpool football team, as well as two stadiums and 50 % NASCAR Racing Team Roush Fenway Keselowski).
The team's total valuation came out to 833 million euros - or 905 million dollars.
McLaren – 67% Mclaren Group (owned by the state fund of Bahrain Mumtalakat), 33% investment fund MSP Sports Capital
Founded: 1963
The team survived the death of its creator, but was saved by American entrepreneur Ted Mayer. Since then, it has acquired a car production company, an engineering division and many side sub-companies (like the Absolute Taste catering company), its capital included Saudi and Bahraini state funds, Mercedes and several investment conglomerates.
The latest restructuring took place in 2020: the racing division was separated into a separate structure and a third of it was sold to the American fund MSP Sports Capital for $245 million. In addition to McLaren, their portfolio includes the World Extreme Games (X Games) and a set of medium-sized football clubs: German Augsburg, Portuguese Estoril, Spanish Alcoron from the third division and Belgian Beveren. The head of the company, Jam Najafi, is a co-owner of the NBA team Phoenix Suns, and McLaren appointed him vice chairman. The company's second board representative, Jeff Murad, helped manage Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres.
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The rest remains with the Mclaren Group - its majority shareholder since 2007 has been the state fund of Bahrain Mumtalakat. In 2022, several sold PIF to the Saudi Arabian state fund for $150 million, in addition to the investments of the Ares group made back in 2020 for $710 million!
PIF is one of the largest private funds with assets worth $620 billion (in sports, it also bought Newcastle): there are large investments in Uber, stakes in Saudi Aramco and Neom, as well as part of the package in the concert promoter Live Nation, a parallel project of the owner of F- 1" Liberty Media.
Mumtalakat owns most of the key companies in Bahrain - the national bank, an aluminum smelter, a number of development organizations, hotels and an aviation park. The most modest estimate of the portfolio is 18 billion. On March 22, 2024, the complete repurchase of the group’s shares from PIF and Ares was confirmed - for the team the situation has not fundamentally changed in terms of the division of shares, but the Bahrainis now have even more votes.
Kick Sauber - Audi
Purchased: July 20, 2016, Audi formally entered on January 30, 2023 and fully completed the buyout at the end of February 2024.
After the departure of BMW, the founder of Sauber, Peter Sauber, carried the team for 5 years, but in the end the money ran out - to save the team, it was sold to the Swiss investment fund Longbow Finance, while maintaining the name of the team. Since the transaction was carried out inside Switzerland, it is impossible to know the exact amount without a third-party leak of registrars. Now it is called “Kick Sauber” solely because of the sponsorship brand contract.
Who is behind Longbow? A thorough study of the history of changes in the names and composition of the company's participants, carried out by Bloomberg, revealed several names: the organization is run by the former chief of the Swiss banking giant Julius Bär. Also, the previous name of the company was Tetral Investment Management, and now there is exactly the same one in Pully, Switzerland: it is registered at the address of the international division of Tetra Laval. And this is the parent company of the Swedish packaging giant Tetra Pak.
Previously, Tetral Investment Management belonged to Hans Rausing, co-owner of Tetra Pak with a fortune of $28 billion, according to Forbes. But he died in 2019, and his nephew Finn Rausing, also a Tetra Laval shareholder with a fortune of $8 billion, took over the team from the investment fund, structuring management through Islero Investments AG. Insiders from the paddock now call him the real owner of the Sauber.
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At the end of 2022, Sauber announced an upcoming partnership with Audi: the German automaker will enter as a mechanic and chassis developer from 2026, but in the meantime the company bought a minority stake as a first step towards cooperation. The completion of the transaction was announced on January 30, 2023, the size of the package is still unknown (presumably 25%). The estimated valuation of the entire team according to Forbes insider in accordance with this deal is $650 million.
But on March 6, the German press unearthed a sudden turn: in the wake of rumors about a potential abandonment of the F1 program, the German concern completed the buyout ahead of schedule - on the 20th of February. And the company boss joined the board of directors of Sauber.
“Aston Martin” – Lawrence Stroll (owner of the Aston Martin company and father of racing driver Lance Stroll, $8.5 billion), Arctos Partners investment fund, Aston Martin company
Purchased: August 2018, November 2023
Amount: $142 million (with debts).
In 2018, the most effective team was
Elton's "Force India" took podiums with micro-budgets, but there was not enough money to pay suppliers, and for racers' fees, and for debt payments. As a result, pilot Sergio Perez activated the bankruptcy process so that other creditors would not start selling off assets in parts - in order to preserve the organization as a participant in Formula 1.
The team was taken over by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, with a fortune of $8.4 billion, and renamed it Racing Point. The following season, his son Lance joined it from Williams.
And two years later, Lawrence added the Aston Martin brand and plant to his portfolio: he paid about $238 million for 16 percent of the shares of the auto company, and later increased the stake to 20 percent. An additional $650 million was invested by a consortium consisting of friends of the billionaire. However, the plant does not formally own the team and is connected to it through partnership deals ($25 million per year until 2030) and through Stroll personally.
For the sake of Aston Martin, the billionaire sold a yacht, a penthouse, a collection of sports cars and a race track. Gained $450 million, and debt – another $1 billion
And before the Vegas Grand Prix in November 2023, news spread around the racing world: the investment fund Arctos Partners entered into the team’s capital, buying out a minority stake with a total valuation of $1.24 billion. The deal was concluded privately, the terms were not disclosed - much like the entry of the same company into the capital of the PSG football club.
On April 15, it became known that the Aston Martin plant had purchased a small share of the team for $25 million - the old license option with an unknown percentage was exercised.
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"Haas" - Gene Haas
Founded: April 2014, purchased the former Marusya base.
With the exception of Ferrari, only one active Formula 1 team has ever traded - but it has only been racing for six years. It is owned by American billionaire Gene Haas, the founder of the conglomerate for the production of machine tools and tools Haas Automation. The company is completely private and does not disclose any indicators on ownership and dividends, so Gene’s fortune can only be judged by the report for 2018, when sales hit a billion for the year.
Alpha Tauri is a Red Bull concern (49% belongs to Dietrich Mateschitz's son Mark - wealth is $20.7 billion according to the 2022 Forbes rating, 51% belongs to Chalerm Yuvidya - $20.2 billion according to the 2020 Forbes rating)
Purchased: end of 2005
Amount: unknown, estimated from $10 to 20 million.
Alpha Tauri used to be the Italian proud dwarf Minardi - and in the early 2000s, former owner Giancarlo Minardi could no longer finance it. In 2001, it was sold to Australian businessman Paul Stoddart, who previously sponsored Tyrrell, Jordan and Arrows. He was constantly trying to buy out a stake in some team (it would supposedly be cheaper to advertise European Aviation), and after several deals fell through, the chance to take Minardi for $10 million came up.
However, for 3 years, Stoddart was unable to improve the internal situation - F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone even personally saved the team from bankruptcy with an injection of $4 million. As a result, at the end of 2005 it was sold to Dietrich Mateshchitz and former driver Gerhard Berger (chief of DTM and the first Red Bull athlete) on a parity basis. It is unlikely that that deal cost the partners more than Stoddart’s contribution - after all, the main condition was to maintain the team’s base in Faenza, Italy, and the name in Italian. This is where the original “Toro Rosso” comes from – “red bull” in Italian, as well as “Red Bull” – in English.
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And in November 2008, all shares of the team were transferred to the Red Bull concern. All these years it served as a testing ground for young pilots for the program, and in 2020 the positioning was changed: now the team is officially a “sister” team, not a “daughter”, and promotes the Alpha Tauri clothing brand of the same conglomerate.
Williams – investment fund Dorilton Capital
Purchased: August 21, 2020
Amount: $179.5 million, including debt and repurchase of all shares from the stock exchange
The last purely racing private company of Formula 1 fell under the blows of Covid and the collapse of the sponsorship deal with ROKiT - the team urgently needed money, otherwise it would hardly have been possible to continue competing. The American fund Dorilton took the chance and immediately added another $100 million to the budget - so far without any visible return, but now the team is definitely worth more.
Who are Dorilton Capital? A small private fund looking for undervalued companies with operating income between 3 and 30 million - the expertise of third-party managers is expected to help accelerate growth.
Who can join?
Another brand from the portfolio of the Volkswagen conglomerate, Porsche, also announced its desire to enter F1. The brand even negotiated with Red Bull and approached Williams and McLaren, but so far all options have not worked out. Insiders consider the most realistic option to purchase Alpha Tauri.
Toyota is also among the potential rumors. Ford has already joined the Red Bull engine project.
For several years in a row, the main US racing family, the Andretti, has been trying to break into the Grand Prix. They seem to have money for a team (they raised $250 million through a SPAC company) and extensive experience, one However, in 2021, negotiations with Sauber broke down at the finish line, and now the series does not allow them to enter on preferential terms as the 11th organization and requires a 200 million entry fee. In 2023, they blew up the media space by announcing an alliance with Cadillac and submitting an application to create a new team, but their rivals were still skeptical about the arrival of the Americans. At the beginning of 2024, their application for membership was completely rejected and they were asked to apply in 2027 as a factory Cadillac.
