In July 2025, carmaker Aston Martin Lagonda announced the sale of the remaining 4.6% minority stake in its Aston Martin Formula 1 (AMF1) team for approximately £110 million ($146 million). The deal valued the F1 outfit at £2.4 billion, making it one of the most valuable teams in the series, despite its return to the grid in 2021.
According to Forbes, the average F1 team is worth approximately $3.4-$3.6 billion, with every team now valued at over $1 billion. Ferrari leads with a valuation of up to to $6.5 billion, followed by Mercedes ($5.88 billion), McLaren ($4.73 billion) and Red Bull ($3.5–$4.32 billion), with Aston Martin rounding out the top five.
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The surge is fueled by cost caps, increased US popularity, and high profitability for top teams, with McLaren and Mercedes seeing the highest recent growth.
In September, Mumtalakat, the Bahraini sovereign wealth fund, and Abu Dhabi-based investment group CYVN Holdings acquired full ownership of McLaren Racing at a $5 billion valuation. This figure was quickly trumped, with Toto Wolff, principal and chief executive at the Mercedes F1 team, selling a 15% stake in his shareholding to US billionaire George Kurtz at a $6 billion valuation.
The large value of F1 teams demonstrates the ongoing demand from investors to enter the sport, whose popularity has soared on the back of the popular Drive to Survive Netflix series.
The agreed valuation of AMF1 represents a significant increase from Aston Martin’s last stake sale.
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By GlobalDataIn 2024, US firms HPS Investment Partners and Accel Partners invested in the team at a £1.8 billion valuation. In 2023, meanwhile, Canadian billionaire and controlling shareholder Lawrence Stroll sold a stake in the team to US investment firm Arctos Partners, valuing it at £1 billion.
Despite the considerable rise in the team’s valuation in a short space of time, Jefferson Slack, AMF1’s managing director of commercial and marketing, believes the figure should be higher and on par with major US sports franchises.
“It speaks to the health of the sport, and frankly, I think that's undervalued,” he tells Sportcal (GlobalData Sport). “Our revenue multiple is still smaller than an NFL or NBA team. We have fewer teams, and we're more global, so our risk profile is slightly de-risked.
“Our future growth is very good. So not only can you grow the top-line value of the organization as a revenue multiple, but you should also be able to grow the multiple. So that's in everybody's best interest that we're valued, from a financial standpoint, like an NBA or an NFL franchise.”
Commercial momentum
As well as the global growth of F1, the value of AMF1 has been boosted by the team’s commercial success, where it has capitalized on the sport’s surging presence in key markets such as the US.
Despite the team’s struggles on the track, its continued growth on the commercial front continues to deliver off-track returns, with expectations to post a “30 to 40% growth year-on-year” (YoY) in commercial revenue for the 2025 financial year.
“We've seen enormous growth on the commercial front,” Slack outlines. “We've grown every year – it's probably 20x from 2020, so it's been a huge growth for the organization based largely on the brand. It's a fantastic brand. The sport is growing significantly, and other teams are also doing very well commercially. The pie is getting bigger. It's not a zero-sum game; it's very much an additive.
“If you look back at our five-year plan from 2021, we would have never imagined getting to where we have so far commercially. That said, the team needs the revenue, as it continues to grow. Lawrence is a visionary who wants to build a world championship team, and that requires hiring some of the best people in the world.
“We've gone from 300 or 400 people to 1100 today. So, the money is still needed. But the sport is in great health and Aston Martin, as well as almost all the teams, are doing much better commercially.”
Slack, who was initially hired in 2020 to lead commercial operations for the Racing Point team before being given a wider remit with the shift to Aston Martin, puts AMF1’s commercial success down to multiple factors, including the work of F1 owners Liberty Media and the increased links between the sport and the tech industry.
The UK-based team has rapidly increased its commercial income, with overall 2024 revenue rising 14.7% YoY to £280.7 million, driven by a rise in sponsorship and licensing. The team's sponsorship portfolio, headlined by title partner Saudi Aramco and Cognizant, generates over $93 million annually.
AMF1’s top five partners, including Puma and LVMH, account for 70% of total sponsorship income. The team’s licensing revenue is also projected to quadruple in the coming years, driven by deals with companies like Lego.
“Firstly, Liberty has done an outstanding job managing the sport,” Slack says, explaining the reasons behind the team’s commercial performance. “If you were to look at F1 five to 10 years ago, you would've said it's a very European-focused sport with some Asian element and one race in the United States.
“Now there are three big races in the United States, and five in North America. With Drive to Survive and other initiatives like the F1 movie, the demographics have become much younger and more appealing to marketers. F1 has done an amazing job at that, especially cracking the US market. That is part of it, and why the pie is growing.
“Secondly, and concurrently with that, technology continues to accelerate. AI partners are coming into F1. If you have a global tech business, the number one place to start would be F1. It's global, and we’re a technology-based sport, authentically technology-based. So that's been another very good thing for the sport. Those things don’t relate specifically to us as an organization; that's the universe of F1.”
He adds: “Where we've had success in our world is the brand, and this was Lawrence's vision when he bought the company and did a long-term agreement. Many of our partners buy into the association with one of the most iconic brands.
“Additionally, we've executed well. We had the advantage of having an extremely small team in 2020 and were able to build a commercial marketing organization from the ground floor that was meant to be very rights holder-friendly. We do a lot around that, and it’s been very helpful for us. So those four elements have all contributed to it. We've been the beneficiary of an incredible boom in the sport, and we feel like we've executed well on that.”
Heading into the new season, AMF1 has announced several new partnerships as it further bolsters its commercial portfolio.
Earlier this week, AI firm Cohere was brought in as the team’s official generative AI partner. Other recent additions include energy drink brand Celsius, luxury Swiss watchmaker Breitling, artificial intelligence coding firm Cognition, and sleep technology company Eight Sleep.
Welcoming @cohere to the team as our Official Generative AI Partner to help accelerate AI innovation.
Learn more: https://t.co/LUnkYAw9Em pic.twitter.com/sEuWa3lmTI
— Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) March 4, 2026
In late 2025, the team added worldwide digital payments firm CoinPayments as a global partner on a multi-year deal, while also renewing its long-standing tie-up with construction manufacturer JCB. AMF1 will also begin its new works partnership with Honda this season.
The growing appeal of F1 to different sectors has allowed AMF1 to broaden its pool of partners, with Slack pointing to deals with Celsius and Breitling as evidence of more consumer-facing businesses entering the sport alongside traditional tech B2B companies.
At present, the team has almost 40 partners going into the 2026 campaign, with Slack stating that “there may be more coming during the season,” describing F1 as a “365-selling cycle”.
Breitling and Aston Martin.
Two names born from a fascination with speed: one measured it, the other mastered it.
Now @Breitling joins Aston Martin and @AstonMartinF1 as Official Watch Partner, connecting Aston Martin's world of high performance cars with the precision… pic.twitter.com/2YVlXLcUzR
— Aston Martin (@astonmartin) February 5, 2026
In a significant recent move, the F1 team acquired the exclusive right to use the iconic Aston Martin name, logo, and branding in perpetuity for its Formula 1 operations in a £50 million deal.
Notably, AMF1 – who finished seventh in the 2025 F1 constructors' standings – becomes a full works operation for the first time this coming season.
“Businesses that are rights-related are valued on the length of the rights,” Slack says, discussing the significance of the deal.
“Liberty has a 99-year deal with the FIA. If it were a five-year deal, that would be a very different valuation. We had a deal with Aston Martin Lagonda through 2055, but now we have it, technically not in perpetuity because we still don't own it, but it's a forever license, and that is an excellent thing because that's the value of the organization.
“Not that Lawrence is looking to sell, but if you were to sell, you know that you forever will be Aston Martin, which, with Ferrari, are two of the most iconic motorsports brands, so there's a value to that.”
New beginnings
F1 is stepping into a new era this year with new rules, cars, engines, and the addition of an 11th team.
The series welcomes its first start-up entry onto the grid since Haas 10 years ago, with the arrival of fellow American team Cadillac. Audi is also a newcomer in 2026, making its debut in the sport by acquiring the Swiss-based Sauber team.
Cadillac will be operated by US car giant General Motors (GM), which partnered with motorsports ownership group TWG Global to launch the new F1 team. The move means F1 will have an 11-team grid for the first time since the 2016 season, after which the Manor Racing constructor folded.
To enter the prestigious series in 2026, GM and TWG agreed to pay a $450 million anti-dilution fee, to compensate the other 10 teams ($45 million each) on the grid for income lost by sharing revenue 11 ways. The fee is more than double the legislated $200 million and represents the highest entry fee in the championship's history.
On paper, however, it can be viewed as a cut-price deal that will leave teams short-changed and ultimately hinges on a greater return on investment for the entire grid over the coming years.
“Selfishly, I don't like it, because we must divide up the pie,” Slack says of Cadillac’s entry. “There are some financial mechanisms. My job is to think about Aston Martin, and I understand that other people's job is to think more about the general element of the sport, so I must respect their view.
“But certainly, from an Aston Martin standpoint, it's not helpful to us. I also think it was sold at a sharp discount to the real market value. There are two things: should you have an 11th team, and then what should have been the price? That's not my job, and that's not our area to get involved with.
“It's nothing against Cadillac, General Motors is an amazing organization, but sitting where I sit, I would prefer not to have 11 teams. And if there was to be an 11th team, I would have preferred it to be auctioned off at a market rate.”
F1’s relationship with the tech world will be enhanced further in 2026, with industry giant Apple coming in as the competition’s new broadcast partner in the US for the next five seasons. The Apple TV streaming platform will exclusively hold rights through the 2030 season under a deal reportedly worth $700 million in total ($140 million annually).
The agreement represents Apple's most significant sports rights acquisition yet and sees F1 move on from its partnership with Disney-owned sports broadcaster ESPN, which held rights since 2018. ESPN played its part in growing the sport in the US and posted an all-time viewership record for its final year covering series in the US, with the 2025 campaign securing an average audience of 1.3 million per race.
The network’s last contract from 2023 to 2025 was worth $90 million annually. Despite the huge increase in the rights fee, it remains to be seen if the shift to streaming can attract a similar audience to a major linear sports broadcaster in the market.
“Liberty is taking a slight risk, because they're going from a much bigger universe of subscribers and viewers to a much smaller universe,” Slack explains.
“But I know Apple is very focused on delivering in a big way. F1 is their premium sports asset, so they need to deliver. Hopefully, that all happens, but it is a challenge going from ESPN with the number of households that it’s got to Apple TV, but I'm confident that Liberty and Apple will do a great job with it.”
The 2026 F1 season will incorporate 24 races across five continents, beginning with this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, and concluding with the traditional season-ending race in Abu Dhabi in early December.
