Mercedes F1 has revealed accounts for last season. In the championship-winning campaign, Mercedes spent a whopping £324 million. The amount is down substantially from the £333.2 million spent in 2019, owing to a reduced race schedule and a general effort by the sport to cut costs.
Even though the top spending amount includes numerous components that are not covered by F1’s overall cost limitation, it nevertheless demonstrates how much the team has had to downsize in order to stay within the budget this year. For 2021, the limit is set at £115 million.
The data also show that perhaps the team came out of the COVID-affected 2020 season in unexpectedly strong financial health, with a turnover loss of only £363.6 million to £355.5 million. While Mercedes, like its competitors, was affected by the overall decline in F1 revenue and thus payments to all teams, it still received considerable sponsorship revenue. The team made a profit after taxes of £13.6 million, down from £14.7 million in 2019.
Mercedes F1 Boss Toto Wolf said, “In 2021 the team will continue to develop its financial sustainability, aided by delivering maximum competitiveness under the new financial regulations and by diversifying and leveraging the capability of the team through the Applied Science division.”
The figures include a fixed £13 million price paid to the HPP division for the use of its engines, which is about the same amount paid by other Mercedes PU users. In accordance also with the team’s current success, the Mercedes brand has grown in value from $31.9 billion in 2013 to $49.3 billion in 2020, with F1 contributing significantly to the company’s brand position as the world’s eighth most highly valued. The team further claimed that during the 2020 season, it garnered 19.2 percent of TV coverage – down from 23.6 percent in 2019 – and produced $5.873 billion in total advertising value comparable for its corporate partners. In 2021, there could be reductions due to a lack of races as Singapore GP was once again cancelled.