Forbes Formula 1’s Most Valuable Teams 2025 List

With investors racing to get into F1, the ten teams on the grid are now worth $3.6 billion on average, and the leaders of the pack even outpace some NFL and NBA franchises.

When the news broke last week that Toto Wolff, the billionaire team principal of the Mercedes Formula 1 team, was in advanced talks to sell a minority stake to billionaire CrowdStrike cofounder George Kurtz, it was the clearest sign yet that the sport has found a new financial gear.

The price in Wolff’s agreement—roughly $6 billion—is a 58% jump from Forbes’ valuation two years ago and places Mercedes among the world’s most valuable teams from any sport. The Silver Arrows now rank higher than eight franchises from the NFL, 24 from the NBA, 28 from MLB and all 32 in the NHL—not to mention every European soccer team besides Real Madrid and Manchester United.

And Mercedes isn’t even sitting in Formula 1’s pole position. That would be Ferrari, the sport’s most storied team, which is worth $6.5 billion given its unique place in the sport, according to Forbes estimates.

Across the grid, F1’s ten teams are all valued at $1.5 billion or more—a threshold cleared by only four organizations two years ago—and the average valuation has revved up to $3.6 billion, up 89% since 2023.

That increase reflects the velocity in Formula 1’s business, with the ten teams’ average revenue reaching an estimated $430 million last year and continuing a multi-year stretch with double-digit compound annual growth rates. Mercedes’ series-best $799 million in 2024 revenue ranks tenth among the world’s sports teams during the equivalent season.

But the accelerating valuations have more to do with the shift in profitability since the 2021 implementation of a cost cap. The system, which limits teams’ spending in many areas related to the design and construction of their racecars to roughly $170 million this season, was meant to help level the playing field after an arms race sent top teams’ annual budgets soaring past $400 million.

With the big spenders saved from their worst impulses, six teams were profitable last year, according to Forbes estimates, and those still losing money are all “one sponsorship or two or three away—no one is that far from profitability,” says a Formula 1 insider. McLaren, which had a $137 million loss in 2018, posted operating profit of $61 million in 2024. Mercedes was at $202 million, making it one of the world’s most profitable sports teams.

As a result, investors are racing to get into a sport where financial solvency wasn’t necessarily assured just five years ago. The energy drink maker Red Bull, which controls two Formula 1 teams in Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, is believed to have fielded—and turned down—a $2.3 billion offer for its junior team. Meanwhile, the impending Mercedes stake sale was priced at approximately 7.1 times the previous season’s revenue, and three other recent Formula 1 transactions carried similarly robust multiples.

In September, the owners of McLaren Racing—the group that includes the McLaren Formula 1 team, as well as entries in other motorsports, such as IndyCar—bought out its minority shareholders at a valuation of around $4.5 billion, or 6.4 times the group’s 2024 revenue. (Forbes estimates that the F1 team alone accounts for $4.4 billion of that value.) That purchase followed two deals involving Aston Martin: a minority stake sale last year at a reported enterprise value of about $2.3 billion—7.4 times the previous season’s revenue—and an agreement in July for a reported $3.2 billion, 8.6 times the prior season’s revenue.

Compare those figures with the 2023 sale of another Aston Martin minority stake at about $1.2 billion—5.3 times the previous season’s revenue—or a roughly $900 million deal for a minority stake in Alpine the same year at a 2.8x multiple. Forbes’ latest valuations for the ten Formula 1 teams are around 8 times average trailing-year revenue—up from 2.3x in 2019 and 4.9x in 2023.

“That’s a huge increase in valuations, but that’s just what’s happening,” an F1 investor says. “At some point, you have to just accept reality.”

Still, that level of multiple continues to sit below the averages in the NFL (10.7x) and the NBA (12.9x), and there are reasons to remain skeptical. For one thing, Formula 1 team owners ultimately don’t control the series or its intellectual property—Liberty Media Corporation has owned F1 since 2017. Most in the sport also acknowledge that while the series is poised for continued growth, it won’t be as rapid as it has been the past few years, leading some investors to wonder if teams are overpriced right now. Certainly, the teams in the lower half of the financial standings are not yet justifying their lofty valuations with their commercial operations and may be years away from getting into the black, especially with the cost cap set to climb to $215 million next season.

Then there is the question of inventory. Formula 1’s calendar features 24 Grand Prix races—far fewer events to offer to broadcasters than the NFL’s 272 regular-season games or the NBA’s 1,230, and fewer opportunities to sell premium tickets—and there is only so much room on a car chassis to cover in sponsor logos. In fact, under next year’s technical regulations, F1 racecars will be getting smaller.

To top it all off, even with Apple TV becoming the United States home for all Formula 1 races in a five-year agreement reportedly worth around $140 million annually—replacing ESPN’s roughly $85 million-a-year deal—the series has yet to crack the world’s most lucrative media market. An average of 1.4 million American viewers tuned in to races this year through September—about half of Nascar’s average audience.

But Formula 1 insiders believe that the valuation floor is elevated given that Cadillac is paying more than $1 billion (between startup costs and a $450 million antidilution fee) to join the series as its 11th team next season, and some are cautiously optimistic that a team with American branding might help cultivate the U.S. fan base, which has already grown with help from Netflix’s docuseries Drive to Survive and the 2025 blockbuster movie F1, starring Brad Pitt.

There are also other countries around the world that could provide a business boost, not only with media rights deals but also with their willingness to pay higher hosting fees for a spot on the race schedule. (For instance, Jeddah has reportedly committed $55 million a year to host the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which is believed to be more than double what some European races shell out.)

The series’ greatest advantage, however, may be its scarcity, with only 11 teams on the grid after the expansion with Cadillac and a long line of investors still hoping to get in the door. “I think it’s a mistake to try to bring in very complex financial analysis to this,” says one F1 investor. “All bets are off when the market dynamics are like this.”

And of course, there are those profit figures at Mercedes, McLaren and the other top teams.

“For F1, you used to have an asset that was like certain baseball teams—they lost a ton of money every year,” says another series insider. “You now have an asset that, if I were to line up the average MLB, NBA, NHL and NFL teams, the closest [comparison] is the NFL. So you now have an asset [in top-tier Formula 1 teams] that is structurally profitable. It’s incredible.”

MOST VALUABLE F1 TEAMS 2025

#1. $6.5 billion

Ferrari

Revenue: $670 million | Operating Profit: $80 million | Team Principal: Frédéric Vasseur

This season saw Formula 1’s most successful driver—Lewis Hamilton, with a record-tying seven drivers’ championships to his name—join the sport’s most storied team, Ferrari, which has won a record 16 constructors’ titles since its first F1 appearance in 1950. But the Prancing Horse hasn’t been top of the podium since 2008, and Hamilton has had a frustrating debut in red after spending the past 12 seasons with Mercedes. “The flip between the dream of driving for this amazing team and the nightmare of the results we have had, the ups and downs, it’s challenging,” Hamilton, who is sixth in the drivers’ standings, told Sky Sports this month. The fans aren’t giving up, however. Ferrari’s engagement on social media is 31% higher than any other Formula 1 team’s, according to sponsorship analytics firm Blinkfire, and the media value it generated for sponsors was 44% beyond any other team.

#2. $6 billion

Mercedes

Revenue: $799 million | Operating Profit: $202 million | Team Principal: Toto Wolff

Mercedes moved on from the legendary Lewis Hamilton by pairing Italian teenage prodigy Kimi Antonelli with George Russell, and the results have been promising, with Russell fourth in the drivers’ standings and Antonelli in seventh, just behind Hamilton himself. The duo will return next season after the Silver Arrows renewed their contracts in October. As Mercedes, second in the constructors’ standings, looks to get back to the winning ways that brought it eight consecutive championships from 2014 to 2021, it is not lacking for sponsor interest. In January, Adidas signed on as the team’s apparel partner in a multi-year deal reportedly worth around $30 million annually.

#3. $4.4 billion

McLaren

Revenue: $614 million | Operating Profit: $61 million | Team Principal: Andrea Stella

Five years ago, McLaren was in dire straits, staving off insolvency by taking out a loan of roughly $185 million and then selling off a minority stake. Now, the team is back to burnishing its Formula 1 legacy as a back-to-back constructors’ champion, with Lando Norris in pole position to add a drivers’ title as the season enters the homestretch. The team’s business has similarly sped up under McLaren Racing’s commercially minded CEO, Zak Brown, who pocketed $50 million in total compensation last season as the F1 outfit’s revenue reached $614 million, up 26% year-over-year. Another jump is on the way in 2026, with Mastercard becoming the team’s title sponsor for a reported $100 million annually—“the biggest partnership that McLaren has ever put together,” Brown tells Forbes.

#4. $4.35 billion

Red Bull Racing

Revenue: $618 million | Operating Profit: $26 million | Team Principal: Laurent Mekies

Red Bull, the constructors’ champion in 2022 and 2023, has had a rougher ride this year. Adrian Newey, a gifted car designer who had been with the team since 2006, was lured to Aston Martin, and after just two races, driver Liam Lawson was demoted to Red Bull’s sister team, Racing Bulls. Then, Christian Horner, who had served as team principal since 2005, was fired in July, eventually agreeing to a severance deal reportedly worth $105 million. But Red Bull continues to employ Max Verstappen, winner of the past four drivers’ titles, and that fact alone should make the team plenty attractive to sponsors. In September, it announced a new deal with Carlyle that will see the investment firm’s logo featured on its car, its drivers’ suits, the pit wall and the team garage.

#5. $3.2 billion

Aston Martin

Revenue: $353 million | Operating Profit: -$18 million | Team Principal: Andy Cowell

Aston Martin is a disappointing seventh in the constructors’ standings this season, but the team is looking to the future with Adrian Newey installed as managing technical partner and continued investment from chairman Lawrence Stroll, who built an estimated $3.8 billion fortune in part by masterminding Michael Kors’ IPO in 2011 and now owns a significant piece of the luxury carmaker Aston Martin. The Formula 1 team of the same name is also being fueled by rapid growth with its partnerships, including a new deal this year with skincare brand Elemis that is helping pioneer a new sponsor category as the sport pursues more female fans.

#6. $2.5 billion

Williams

Revenue: $245 million | Operating Profit: -$36 million | Team Principal: James Vowles