Ever wondered how much you would need to spend in order to get a f1 championship level F1 card ? Well the vogue answer is as much as a team willing to spend. For example in 2019 Formula 1 season, Ferrari and Mercedez spent around $400 million in Formula 1 car cost which obviously include the running, maintaince and R&D costs. While William and HAAS merely spent $150 million.
However the actual cost of a working Formula 1 level car is estimated to be around $12 million in year 2020. That excluding any R&D, running and maintenance work. We take a look at how much every component of F1 car can cost and what is the end financial cost.
Formula 1 Car Engine Cost: Formula 1 car represent speed and power and its all generated with A turbocharged 1.6-liter V6 engine gets 29% fuel efficiency for a top tier F1 car. Obviously the engine price would vary team to team as Ferrari and Mercedez can fork out much more than the other participating teams. Both Mercedez and Ferrari also sell their engines to other teams.
Other Formula 1 Car components: Now we know that engine makes up most of the cost of a Formula 1 card. However unlike the other normal road cars, F1 cards come with rear and front wings plus the state of the art hydraulics system. The gear box, carbon fiber sides, steering wheel and the halo which protects drivers made compulsory by F1. below is the unit by unit details of all Formula 1 car components.
| Components | Single Price | Lifetime cost |
| F1 V6 Engine Unit | $10.5 Million | |
| Carbon Fiber Body | $650,000 | $650,000 |
| Monocoque | $117,000 | $117,000 |
| Gearbox | $440,000 | $440,000 |
| Telemetry Software | $110,000 | $110,000 |
| Rear Wing | $13,900 | $85,000 |
| Steering Wheel | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| Exaust | $13,000 | $255,000 |
| Front Wing | $21,500 | $150,000 |
| Tyres | $2700 | $300,000 |
| Cooling System | $200,000 | $200,000 |
| Brakes | $3600 | $220,000 |
| TOTAL COST | $13 Million |
Now race ready f1 car price is different than a car which is going to race for the entire Formula 1 season. Formula 1 car’s actual manufacturing cost is merely a drop in the ocean compared to how much it cost for a team to run in the Formula 1 season.
Like we mentioned before Ferrari and Mercedez have annual budget of around $500 million every year that include cost of assembling a potential championship winning car and that can only be achieved by putting together a best possible car after years of R&D work behind the scenes. To have a extensive R&D team year round cost much more than the car itself.
Formula 1 car engineers & crew members: Industry’s best motor engineers are hired by the top teams and are paid big bucks to help make the Formula 1 car more reliable and obviously as fast as possible. Average salary of a f1 engineer working for a Formula 1 team is a 7 figure number while the crew members and mechanics are paid handsomely as well.
Transportation & Motorhome Costs: There are usually 20 Formula 1 races in a single season in 20 different venues across the world. So to transport the cars and entire crew comes with a huge financial cost for Formula 1 teams. Plus arranging the motohomes on the race weekend at the venue is another costly expense. However teams are paid very well thanks to F1’s global tv deals which is shared with a certain distribution system across all participating teams.