Formula 1 Grand Prix racing takes million dollars of budget!
Sport events have been one of the best mass attractions. In some countries, football has been worshiped for decades. In the global scale, Formula 1 (also known as F1) is definitely on top of the list.
Compared to other sport events with the same number of possible attendance, F1 racing is way more expensive. It is not just about the car and its acceleration. F1 racing offers a lot of entertainment for the fans.
So what makes this sport event so expensive? With great power comes great responsibility. With luxurious entertainment comes exclusive price.
We gathered 10 proofs why Formula 1 Grand Prix is considered as one of the world’s most expensive sport events. Buckle up and start your engine!
10. The Cars
Let’s start this off with the main object of the sport: the super-fast car. This beauty is incredibly expensive from front to rear. The most expensive part of it is the engine itself which each driver can only use up to eight of them in one season.
This means, they have to produce a very reliable engine to perform such grueling roars throughout the year. The material cost is just a small portion of the budget. What costs more is the development.
Each Formula 1 car is worth around $3 million for its engine and material cost only. Not to mention other factors that can add its value such as the sponsored content or the history of the car itself.
With 23 drivers, that gives around a quarter of a billion dollars per one F1 season spent on the cars only. Knowing this makes you wince a bit more every time you see an F1 car crashes out, doesn’t it?
9. The Drivers’ Paycheck
F1 Drivers are commonly known for their luxurious lifestyle. Not only they drive fast cars for a living on the race track, they do too on their leisure time. What a sweet life for adrenaline junkies.
It is no surprise that these men got incredible paycheck as a result of competing on the world’s most expensive sport. Keep in mind that they earn more than their regular paycheck. They also get bonuses, cash prizes, and sponsor deals.
The good looking guy driving a boat on the picture, Jenson Button, receives $11.6 million paycheck per year. The Formula 1 Grand Prix world champion, Sebastian Vettel, gets even bigger number: $50 million!
The total 23 drivers are currently making approximately $185 million for one season. This does not include test drivers’ salary. Remember, that is just the salary. Each driver may receive up to $10 million worth of bonuses in one season depending on their achievement in the championship.
8. The Rest of the Crews
F1 Race involves a lot of people besides the drivers. There are so many different roles even in the F1 team itself. Not to mention the race committee such as the race directors and marshals.
One F1 team can have more than 300 employees for its two drivers. There are pit crews, engineers, managers, and many others. A refueling person (the man in charge with refueling during pit stop) can make up to $70,000 per year.
If we count it roughly, with the $40,000 average paycheck of each crew (including refueling person, tire changer, wheel gun crew, and lollipop man), each team may spent around $20 million.
With 11 teams competing in one season of championship, that gives us a total of approximately $220 million a year spent on crews’ paycheck. Interested to apply for the job?
7. Tire and Other Usage
Tire is also an important part of a car. Same goes to F1 car. A slightest damage on its tire may cause a disastrous race for the team. Or worse, a disastrous accident for the drivers.
F1 car’s tires are designed to perform in high speed and immense G-force. However, they are also designed to wear out quickly in order to make the race more exciting with pit stops.
These special F1 tires cost around $1,500 per set of four tires. In one race, one F1 car can use up to 11 sets of tires. This includes free practice session, official practice session, qualifying session, and the race itself.
With 23 drivers and 21 races in one season, the whole F1 championship consumes approximately $8 million for tire consumption only. Not to mention other parts require maintenance of replacement during the season.
6. Engine Consumption
As mentioned earlier, each F1 car can only use 8 engines in one season. The engine is definitely the most expensive part of the car. Not just the material, but also the development costs.
An F1 car’s engine is limited to 1.6 liter turbocharged V6 with a rev limit of 15,000 rpm and a maximum fuel flow of 100 kg per hour. This is based on the latest F1 regulation for the car.
The regulation is made not just to keep the race interesting. But it is also made with the considerations of driver’s safety and natural resources efficiency.
Each of the engine costs around $215,000. With 8 engines per driver maximum, and 23 drivers in a year, it means one season of F1 racing spends around $40 million for engines.
5. Fuel Consumption
The fuel used in F1 cars is similar to ordinary petrol. But it is a far more tightly controlled mix. Unlike most racing event, F1 regulates that the fuel used in F1 cars should only contain compounds found in commercial gasoline. The use of specific power-boosting chemical compounds is prohibited.
The average distance of one race in total is around 300 km. This requires a lot of fuels. With the regulation of maximum 100 kg of fuel per car in each race, one F1 race may consume up to 2,300 kg of fuel.
Let’s break it down to the three main sessions of F1 race. Practice sessions consume around 3,000 liters of fuel. Qualifying session takes around 1,500 liters. And for the race, 5,000 liters.
The total of F1 car’s fuel consumption in one race is approximately 9,500 liters. With 21 races in the calendar and 23 cars involved, it gives us around 4 million liters of fuel a year. Assuming the price is $2 per liter, this sport event costs $8 million for fuel.
4. The Gears
The safety of F1 drivers has been the most important aspect to consider by the regulators. Therefore, since 1975, the FIA requires it to be flame retardant to protect the drivers in the event of a fire.
Back in the days, the driver’s clothing was a thick five layers NASA-spec race suits. Today, it is made of a lightweight artificial fiber from Nomex. This suit can survive 11 seconds in a temperature of 840 degrees Celcius. That is nine times hotter than a sauna.
The suit is not the only thing researched and tested for the drivers’ safety. The helmet, the underwear, the balaclava (underneath the helmet), the gloves, the boots, and even the zips are also using this Nomex technology.
The modern technology fireproof racing suit cost more than $1,000 per piece. And the most indestructible helmet is around $60,000 per piece. Safety first, budget later?
3. Lightings During Night Race
Usually, sport event is held during the day. But in some occasion, it is also held during the night. This kind of race faces another level of challenge: lighting.
Obviously, they cannot simply race in the dark with additional headlights attached. It will be extremely dangerous for the drivers and also difficult to entertain the viewers. Hence the gigantic lighting system.
Let’s take a look at Formula 1 Singapore night race. This race uses 1,500 lighting projectors powered by 12 twin-power generators to simulate daylight conditions. It uses around 10,000 units of 2,000 watt white metal halide lamp.
Each lamp consumes around 1 kWh for the 5 hours racing event. 10,000 lamps mean 10,000 kWh. Singapore charges 17.68 per kWh of power consumption. This means the F1 Singapore night race spends around $176,000 on lighting only.
2. The Tickets Price
Each racing venue has different audience capacity. For F1 race, the average number of spectators is around 150,000 people. Let’s take a look at Formula 1 Grand Prix Monaco for detailed overview on F1 ticket expense.
The price ranges from $50 to $3,000. Or if you want to get as close as possible to the drivers and see what is going on in the pit stop closely, you need extra $6,300 for VIP paddock pass.
$6,300 is too expensive for a ticket to watch a race? You will be surprised to see that most of the tickets for F1 Monaco are sold out 47 days before the event.
Assuming the number of VIP spectators is 10% of the total numbers of spectator in one F1 race, the event collects approximately $100 million from the ticket revenues.
1. Transport between Races
Formula 1 Grand Prix is not just a one race event. It is a 21 races event held in 21 different spots of more than 15 different countries. The biggest challenge has finally arrived: transporting all the gears from one race to another.
What are there to transport during the F1 season? You cannot even imagine. The teams need to transport tons and tons of things (and people) many times in one year, such as the cars, the gears, the fuels, the components, the tools, and the crews.
As seen on the picture, each F1 team usually hires one whole airplane unit to transfer all of its goods. One team spends around $2 million for this transporting expense per year. 11 teams on board means $22 million spent on transports each season.
According to these 10 proofs only, this racing event spent more than a billion dollar per year. Which of these 10 expenses of Formula 1 Grand Prix racing shocks you the most? Do you think it is worth the excitement?
