Mercedes saw its financial performance accelerate throughout the F1 2024 season despite slipping to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Accounts for the 2024 calendar year reveal the Brackley-based operation enjoyed a 16 per cent increase in income over the previous year, totalling £636 million ($858m).

Mercedes finances improve despite lower championship result in F1 2024

Mercedes finished fourth in last year’s Constructors’ Championship after ending the F1 2023 campaign second behind the all-conquering Red Bull operation.

Though it dropped in the points standings, it was ostensibly a more successful campaign, with four race wins – two apiece for George Russell and Lewis Hamilton – and a total of 468 points. That marked an increase over 2023 when it ended the year without a victory and 409 points.

The net result was a strong £120.3 million profit for the year, marking a £36.5 million improvement on F1 2023.

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“In terms of key business performance metrics, turnover grew by 16% to £636.0 million (2023: £546.5 million),” it reported. “This resulted primarily from higher commercial revenues from sponsorship and licensing, which accounted for over 60% of income in 2024.”

In addition to sponsorship and licensing income, a key revenue driver for teams is prize money payments from Formula One Management.

Payments are made to teams based on the sport’s commercial revenue for the current calendar year; a team’s entitlement is based on the finishing order of the previous year’s Constructors’ Championship.

Exact prize money payments are defined in the Concorde Agreement, details of which are not public, but key details have become known, allowing a fair approximation of each team’s income.

Mercedes finished second in the 2023 Constructors’ Championship, entitling it to the second-largest slice of the prize money pie in 2024, worth an estimated $242.3 million – a $13 million increase over the previous year.

Part of that increase was a reflection of the team’s improved Constructors’ Championship position in 2023 (second, versus third in 2022), and partly because Formula One Management’s financial performance saw team payments increase from $1.215 billion to $1.266 billion.

In addition to the improved financial performance, Mercedes also enjoyed greater coverage as part of the Formula 1 telecast with 15.2 per cent across the year, leading to an Advertising Value Equivalent of $5.7 billion – up eight per cent on 2023.

As turnover accelerated, so too did the operation’s costs, rising to £448.8 million for the year, an increase of £35 million.

Car development costs were largely stable, listed at £54.3 million versus £52.2 million for the year prior. Staffing costs also remained largely unchanged at £125 million, a £1.9 million decrease over 2023.

The report also notes a significant investment in key infrastructure projects.

“During the year the redevelopment of the Brackley campus began with major infrastructure works, prior to the planned construction of two new buildings in 2025 which will help optimise operational efficiency,” the report outlined.

Last May, it had plans approved for a new carpark for nearly 700 cars, landscaping, pedestrian and cycle infrastructure, a new structure for marketing, financial, and commercial departments, and a separate employee well-being facility.

That will see a three-story ‘health and well-being’ building constructed, with a restaurant, gym, yoga studio, change rooms, and a pedestrian bridge to the team’s main facility.

There will also be a two-storey addition to the main building and a separate building, adding a combined total around 1,400 square metres of floor space.

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