Mercedes finished second to McLaren in the 2025 constructors’ championship. On the balance sheet, the order was reversed.
Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Limited booked turnover of £633.4 million (roughly $846 million) for the year to December 2025 and a net profit of £125.9 million, up from a restated £116.9 million a year earlier. The team’s operating profit climbed to £166.7 million, and the filing marked the third consecutive year of rising profitability in Brackley.
Revenue was essentially flat on 2024, which cuts against the headline growth story. Lower Formula 1 prize money for the team’s fourth-place finish in 2024 wiped out most of the gain from new premium sponsors Adidas, Meta AI and Nasdaq, who helped push commercial income to around £415 million of the top line.
The team, owned in equal shares by Mercedes-Benz, Toto Wolff and INEOS, employed 1,348 staff at the end of 2025 and paid out £125 million in dividends.
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Champions McLaren lost money
The accounts of McLaren Racing Limited, filed with Companies House around the same window, make the gap starker still. McLaren posted a record turnover of £588.5 million in the season it won both the drivers’ and the constructors’ titles, up more than 20% from £488.9 million a year earlier.
The year still ended with a net loss of £17.4 million, against a £53.8 million profit in 2024. The swing was driven by a £136.2 million charge for share-based employee incentive arrangements, up from £38.2 million the previous year. According to the accounts, the highest-paid director received remuneration of £8.2 million alongside £73.7 million of payments linked to long-term incentive schemes. Wages and salaries rose from £109.9 million to £130.6 million, and the average headcount grew from 1,123 to 1,246.
The cost cap does not touch any of this
Formula 1’s budget cap, set at $215 million per team for 2026, restricts spending on activities tied directly to car performance: design, development, production, trackside operations and technical staff. Driver salaries, the pay of the most senior executives, marketing, HR, legal and travel sit outside the cap. The numbers in the two filings that make Mercedes and McLaren financial outliers from the rest of the grid, from executive share schemes to global sponsorship income, sit outside it too.
The gap in financial power is on course to widen. Mercedes is projected to break through $1 billion in annual revenue as early as this year, a milestone no Formula 1 team has reached, with the uplift expected when its 2026 accounts are filed next year.
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