Red Bull’s entry fee for the 2023 F1 season is almost as high as the team’s fine for breaching the cost cap earlier this year.
Formula 1 team’s entry fees are calculated based on the number of points they scored in the constructors’ championship. Red Bull’s haul of 759 points means they face a bill of $6,242,636 (£5.05 million) to enter the 2023 season.“I didn’t realise how much we had to pay the FIA for the points,” team principal Christian Horner laughed during the FIA Gala last week. “I got the bill the other day, it was incredible.”
Red Bull were fined $7 million by the FIA in October for breaching the budget cap during 2021. Such fines, as well as entry fees, are not among the items of expenditure which are covered by the cap.
The FIA will earn a total of $21.6m (£17.6m) from the 10 teams’ entry fees. However while the cost teams pay per point has risen and the total points awarded has increased, five teams whose points hauls fell this year will pay less than they did 12 months ago.
Deposed champions Mercedes see their bill fall by over $1m to $3.7m. That’s twice as much as McLaren and AlphaTauri have registered, their totals falling by more than half a million dollars each.
Ferrari was the only team to see their fee rise by anything like as much as Red Bull’s $2.2m hike. Their climb to second place in the championship sees their entry fee for next year rise by $1.5m to $4m.
F1 teams’ 2023 season entry fees
| Team | 2022 points | 2023 fee | 2021 points | 2022 fee | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Bull | 759 | $6,242,636 | 585.5 | $3,952,728 | $2,289,908 |
| Ferrari | 554 | $4,038,083 | 323.5 | $2,440,988 | $1,597,095 |
| Mercedes | 515 | $3,797,297 | 613.5 | $4,822,916 | -$1,025,619 |
| Alpine | 173 | $1,685,789 | 155 | $1,471,628 | $214,161 |
| McLaren | 159 | $1,599,353 | 275 | $2,164,028 | -$564,675 |
| Alfa Romeo | 55 | $957,257 | 13 | $652,288 | $304,969 |
| Aston Martin | 55 | $957,257 | 77 | $1,021,568 | -$64,311 |
| Haas | 37 | $846,125 | 0 | $577,278 | $268,847 |
| AlphaTauri | 35 | $833,777 | 142 | $1,396,618 | -$562,841 |
| Williams | 8 | $667,079 | 23 | $709,988 | -$42,909 |
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Red Andy (@red-andy)
12th December 2022, 11:07
Just think of all the catering you could buy with that.
johnt1788 (@johnt1788)
12th December 2022, 12:06
Oh no, leave the poor multi-billion dollar corporation alone!
Dr.D
12th December 2022, 13:08
So they could have saved about 1,5 million If they didn’t went to the last couple of races.
Very strange rules.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th December 2022, 17:44
Very strange indeed, merc and ferrari were fighting for 2nd but they would have more of an advantage to end 3rd for more wind tunnel, hence self-sabotaging.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th December 2022, 17:45
Just as a joke, you see they had tampered with hamilton’s car in order to make it fail just before the race ended, when merc has been otherwise perfectly reliable all season, just in case they risked to end up 2nd in the championship!
Kribana (@krichelle)
12th December 2022, 18:20
Surprised they did not do so, since they actually don’t care about their reputation. Oh wait a second… their reputation has already been damaged anyway.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
12th December 2022, 14:07
When did this start? I didn’t know points scored calculated entry fees for the following season.
What a strange process. Did they get the idea from Kimi’s 50k a point or whatever it was that pushed Enstone to brink a bankruptcy because they built a half decent car.
Max had the title wrapped up pretty early, they could have just sent him off to a beach somewhere with a few races to go, put a junior in the car, given them some experience and saved a few penny’s along the way.
Lancer033 (@lancer033)
12th December 2022, 15:25
haven’t really kept up with it, but i remember at one point the cost to renew a driver’s super-license was done the same way, just with driver’s championship points obviously.
The other question is does this count towards the cost cap?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th December 2022, 17:48
From what I know it doesn’t, and red bull and others have so much money that 5 mil is insignificant.
grat
12th December 2022, 20:54
About the time Todt took over. 2012, maybe?
MichaelN
12th December 2022, 21:54
@bernasaurus It started for the 2013 season. Back in 2012, the FIA collected less than 5 million from all teams combined with a standard fee of just under US$400.000 for all teams. This scheme instantly tripled the money raised via the entry fees.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
13th December 2022, 7:55
Thanks @cashnotclass
Andy (@andyfromsandy)
12th December 2022, 14:08
With some creative accountancy the actual cost to go racing is probably still net in their favour. The same for all of the teams I expect.
Jonathan Parkin
12th December 2022, 15:28
What’s intriguing about this is not everyone is paying the same per point. Williams is paying about $83,000 per point, but Red Bull is paying over $100,000 per point. Shouldn’t it be the same for all
AlanD
12th December 2022, 15:32
Jonathan, I thought it was actually based on position in the final standings rather than points, but I may be mistaken.
Jonathan Parkin
12th December 2022, 18:47
The article does actually state the more points you score you pay more money. I actually made a mistake because I took the Red Bull calculation from the wrong column.
But even allowing for that my question still remains. Both teams are not paying the same amount of money per point. I thought it was the same cost
AlanD
12th December 2022, 19:02
Jonathon, there is a fixed component that they all have to pay, plus a fee per point. I think about one third of the fee is fixed, and two thirds based on the points scored, but I don’t know the actual formula. I vaguely remember this time last year that Mercedes had to pay significantly extra per point compared to everyone else because they had won the constructor’s championship. Presumably that is another reason Red Bull’s bill is higher than Horner anticipated.
MichaelN
12th December 2022, 19:58
It is the same for all except for the title winners. There is a basic fee of US$617,687 (as of now, in the 2023 regulations) that all teams have to pay. The title winner then pays an additional US$7,411 for each point in 2022, while everyone else pays US$6,174 for every per point in that season.
AlanD
12th December 2022, 15:41
I’ve long felt that teams don’t go racing for the money. If they did, they do a remarkably bad job at it. I feel teams at the blunt end of the grid, like Williams, are hampered badly by lack of funds, because sponsors want to be associated with the sharp end, and that lack of funds means they don’t score points, and don’t get the prize money. But when it comes to race day, those small supporting teams are vitally important. We’d have a very poor championship if it was just six cars from RB, Merc, and Ferrari, because no-one else considered it worth competing, and it really does the sport no good at all when minor teams collapse and have a closing-down yard sale.
Would the sport as a whole be better, I wonder, if they did away with all these fees and payments and instead took the pot of revenue available from TV etc, took the FIA running costs out of that, and with the remainder, split it equally amongst all the teams, subject to them turning up at and starting races, to ensure they are building a car of race quality.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
12th December 2022, 18:03
That’s far too simple / good idea for F1.
And Bernie would probably call you a communist.
AlanD
12th December 2022, 19:10
@bernasaurus, a communist? Yep, that’s probably how Bernie would see me. Maybe an alternative, less-communist more socialist idea, would be to tax teams at 2% of the value of all sponsorship deals. That would raise the same amount and ensure that teams with deep pockets were carrying the load.
Bruno Verrari
12th December 2022, 17:35
Is this fee included into the cost-capped operational expenses?
AlanD
12th December 2022, 19:18
Bruno, the entry fee does NOT come out of the budget. Items excluded from the cost cap are:
Salaries of drivers
Salaries of three highest-paid staff members
Travel costs
Marketing costs
Property costs
Legal costs
Entry and licence fees
Non-F1 activities
Maternity pay and sick pay
Employee bonuses
Staff medical benefits
Note, no mention of catering etc as being budget-exempt.
AlexTR (@petrucci)
12th December 2022, 19:20
The championship-winning team may pay the highest entry fees but this reflects to higher figures as well when it comes to revenues