While the drivers' championship gets most of the focus and interest across the F1 season, the payday comes from the results of the constructors' title. The constructors' championship is the points standings that is based on the combined results of the two drivers of each F1 team.
Because of this, the winning driver is not always on the winning constructor. This happened in 2024: Max Verstappen was the driver champ, while McLaren took the constructor's championship.
Each position in that championship means millions of more dollars for that team and a more ideal spot on the pit lane. Inversely, the teams at the bottom get more wind tunnel testing time than the teams at the top.
What is the constructors' championship and who has won it recently?
The constructors' championship is a season-long points competition where teams accumulate points based on where their drivers finish in various race standings. While F1 drivers are typically some of the more well-known names in the sport, one could argue that the constructors' championship – in this case the main team award in F1 – is perhaps the most meaningful.
Often, the constructors' standings have winners in bunches by the team with the dominant car.
Last year, poor form by Sergio Perez at Red Bull opened the door for McLaren to win the title. But Red Bull won both championships in 2023 and 2022.
Another example of a different driver and team winner came in the controversial 2021 season, where Max Verstappen won the drivers' title, but Mercedes won their eighth constructors' in a row.
What is the projected payout the all 10 F1 teams so far in 2025?
The prize pot figures are not made public, but numbers can be estimated.
The Race calculated that the overall prize money is just short of $1 billion. The payments start off with about 14% going to the winner, and around 6% to last place.
There are other success bonuses and other figures involved, but for the purpose of this article, we will focus on the performance bonus only.
After the Spanish GP, McLaren looks to be cruising to the top payday, while Alpine finds themselves at the bottom, but there fight in the bottom half of the table remains close.
Here is the estimated payout based on The Race's projections:
Position | Team | |
|---|---|---|
1 | McLaren | $132.9 million |
2 | Ferrari | $124.4 million |
3 | Mercedes | $115.8 million |
4 | Red Bull | $107.3 million |
5 | Williams | $98.8 million |
6 | Racing Bulls | $90.2 million |
7 | Haas | $82.6 million |
8 | Sauber | $74.1 million |
9 | Aston Martin | $65.5 million |
10 | Alpine | $57.9 million |
These numbers can and will change as the season goes along, and should not be taken literally until F1 announces the results following the final race.