- Red Bull’s financial accounts include UK£6.2m fine for cost cap breach
- Turnover hits UK£474.5m for Mercedes, in comparison to UK£278m for Red Bull
The Mercedes and Red Bull Formula One teams have released their financial accounts for the year ending 31st December 2022, reporting profits of UK£89.74 million (US$110.1 million) and UK£2.06 million (US$2.53 million) respectively.
Red Bull may have dominated their rival on-track in recent years, but Mercedes still boasts considerable financial power over the Milton Keynes-based outfit.
Mercedes’ profit, which jumped 30 per cent year-over-year (YoY), resulted from a massive increase in turnover, rising from UK£383.3 million (US$470.25 million) in 2021 to UK£474.5 million (US$582.1 million) in 2022.
In contrast, Red Bull saw turnover rise from UK£238.3 million (US$292.4 million) in 2021 to UK£278 million (US$341.1 million) to 2022, resulting in a comparatively marginal profit.
Notably, 2022 saw the constructors’ champions pay a UK£6.2 million (US$7 million) fine for a minor breach of the sport’s financial regulations, which caused an increase in administrative expenses.
In the sponsorship sphere, both teams boast lucrative deals, with Petronas spending an estimated US$75 million per year with Mercedes and Red Bull receiving a reported US$300 million over the course of their five-year pact with Oracle.
Interestingly, Mercedes’ financial statement notes that their ‘a new process has been implemented with regard to new sponsors and partners’, which is perhaps in response to the team’s collapsed partnership with bankrupt cypto exchange FTX.
While Red Bull’s profits are considerably lower, the team had to make a sizeable investment into its new engine division, Red Bull Powertrains, following the departure of Honda – albeit briefly – from Formula One.
That new engine division recorded a profit of UK£5.8 million (US$7.1 million) for the year ending 31st December 2022, an increase of 3,393 per cent from 2021, although the company was only formed that year.
Mercedes’ financial figures do include their Applied Science division, whereas their rivals operate in this area through the Red Bull Advanced Technologies subsidiary, but that only generated UK£445,000 (US$546,000) in profit for Red Bull.