Inside the accounts · How does McLaren really make its money?
McLaren's title year: share-based pay of £57m came to more than the profit
McLaren won the Formula 1 Constructors' Championship in 2024 for the first time in 26 years. Its 69-page annual report shows what a season costs, how the money comes in, who got paid and who owns the team. Where a figure says something about life inside the team, we explain it.
In 60 words
The answer
The title year lifted turnover 23% to £530m, almost all of it from the Formula 1 team, and more than tripled pre-tax profit to £38m. Share-based pay of £57m took more than the profit did, and one director received £37m. Much of the £237m cash pile is matched by sponsors' money paid or invoiced in advance, and £179m of investor loan notes fall due within a year.
The rhythm of the business
How a racing season shows up in the accounts
An F1 team's year runs on the racing calendar, and the accounts follow the cars round. Four policies in the notes set the rhythm: build over the winter, take sponsors' money up front, earn prize money through the season, pay bonuses once the results are in.
Accounting policies 3(g) and 3(r), pp34 and 40; notes 15 and 18.
Build next year's car
An F1 car "usually [has] an expected life of one year". Development on next season's car sits in stock until the car races.
£20.3m in stock at Dec 2024Sponsors pay up front
Sponsorship is booked over each contract. Money paid or invoiced early waits as deferred income.
£155m deferred at year endPrize money, set a year earlier
It depends on "the prior year ranking of the team and the current year profits of F1". 2024's was set by P4 in 2023.
US$121m sold forward for £94mBonuses follow results
Every employee's bonus is "predominantly linked to on-track performance". Managers' long-term plans count it too.
Accruals up £54m to £129mThe profit and loss account
The business on one page
- Totals
- Costs and charges
- Income and credits
Consolidated profit and loss account, p25; notes 6, 9 and 10.
of every £100 of turnover went on staff, and £10.78 of that was share-based pay.
of every £100 was left as pre-tax profit, after £3.78 of net interest, mostly on the investors' loan notes.
- Staff · £33.93
- Other costs, net of other income · £55.21
- Net interest · £3.78
- Pre-tax profit · £7.08
Profit and loss account p25; notes 6, 7 and 9.
Turnover
Where the money comes from
Formula 1 is the business. The F1 team brought in £488m of the £581m the series earned before sales between group companies are removed, and £48.5m of the £57.6m operating profit.
Formula E and Extreme E are small but earned the best margin: £10.6m of profit on £36.8m, or 29%. IndyCar, run from the US, turned £45m of sales into £1.3m.
Outside turnover, R&D tax credits added £19.6m and selling heritage race cars made £4.7m of profit. Without the tax credits, operating profit would have been about £38m, not £58m.
- 2023
- 2024
Note 5, pp44–45.
- Services: prize money, sponsorship, royalties, licensing, consultancy · 97.4%
- Sales of goods · 2.6%
Note 5, p44.
The question everyone asks
Does McLaren say what sponsors pay?
Not as a number. There is no sponsorship figure, no split from prize money and no sponsor names. Here is what the accounts do say.
- Sponsorship drove the growth. The directors credit "an increase in commercial activity, notably increased sponsorship in the year".
- Sponsors pay ahead. Sponsorship "is deferred and recognised over the period in which the Group performs its obligations". Deferred income reached £155m.
- Some pay in kind. Suppliers provide "goods and services … in exchange for various sponsorship and marketing activities", counted at fair value.
- Deals run for years. The directors aim for "medium and long-term agreements with key partners and sponsors" to steady income "determined largely by on track performance".
- Insiders buy hospitality. Companies linked to directors and shareholders bought £1.6m from the group; what they owed at the year end was for hospitality tickets.
- Dec 2023
- Dec 2024
Notes 18 and 19, pp58–59.
Costs
Where it goes
Staff. Staff costs rose by a third, to £179.9m. Wages and salaries were £106.6m. The fastest-growing line was share-based pay, a cash-settled scheme tied to the value of the company's shares, at £57.2m, up from £20.3m.
That averages £140,000 a head with the share scheme, or about £96,000 without it.
- Wages and salaries
- National Insurance and pensions
- Share-based pay
Note 7, p47.
- Production, design and engineering: 835
- Administration: 448
Note 7, p47.
The highest-paid director
Up from £26.4m. The accounts don't name them. The non-executive directors draw no pay from the company.
Key management
Directors and senior managers together. All £57.2m of share-based pay sits in this group.
The average employee
The top director's pay would cover about 390 employees at the £96,000 average without the share scheme.
Getting to the races. The accounts don't give a figure for travel and freight, but the environmental report shows the scale. In 2023 business travel and freight made up a third of the group's 63,087 tonnes of CO2e.
Scope 3 emissions rose 16%, driven by "the expansion of the F1 calendar", Formula E and more staff. The team is moving freight "from air to sea where possible". It spent £1.1m in 2024 on travel from Axtman Aviation, a company linked to a director.
Environmental report, table 1, p11.
Investment
Spent on buildings and equipment, down from £34.7m, with £16.0m more contracted. In 2025 the team is buying Andretti Autosport's Indianapolis headquarters for IndyCar.
Heritage cars
Fifty years of race cars, never depreciated because "the Directors do not consider the value of the car to decrease". Some are pledged as security. Selling a few made £4.7m.
Dividends
None in 2024 or 2023. The tax line was a £16.6m credit, from £21.2m of past tax losses now on the balance sheet.
The balance sheet
The cash pile, and what's owed against it
- Totals
- Costs and charges
- Income and credits
Consolidated statement of cash flows, p31.
The group ended 2024 with £237.4m in the bank, plus £21.1m on deposit with the National Bank of Bahrain at 4.8%. The directors say the jump came "largely from increased deferred income".
Against it sit £155.3m of deferred income, for sponsorship and services not yet delivered, and £179.0m of loan notes. The notes moved into amounts due within a year during 2024, after £40m was repaid in February. Only £5.5m of their interest was paid in cash; the rest builds up on the notes.
Balance sheet p27; notes 17–18, p58.
Ownership
Who owns it, and what they take out
- McLaren Group Limited · 70.75%
- Investor group led by MSP Sports Capital · 29.25%
Note 31, p69.
The shareholders
McLaren Group holds all the issued shares. Since December 2020 an investor group led by MSP Sports Capital, with UBS O'Connor, Caspian, Ares (ASME Holdings I) and The Najafi Companies, has held loan notes and 1p warrants that carry votes and dividend rights.
What they take out
No dividends. The investors' return comes through the loan notes, valued at £179.0m, which earned £20.1m of interest in 2024 and rose £8.9m in value. The team bought £0.2m of circuit services from Bahrain International Circuit, which Mumtalakat owns.
Since the year end
Abu Dhabi's CYVN Holdings agreed in December 2024 to take a non-controlling stake. 1.87m warrants became shares in early 2025. The register shows the December 2020 charges satisfied on 18 October 2025, and new directors in April and October 2025.
In the directors' words
The risks they name
As ever the key direct risks and uncertainties faced by the business are continuing to be competitive in all operations, ability to gain and retain sponsorship, control of the cost base of developing the competitive cars and staff recruitment and retention.
Strategic report, p4
The Group is primarily funded through prize money and its sponsorship agreements, and the risks around these are determined largely by on track performance.
Strategic report, p4
…the FX rates have been incredibly volatile in 2024 and therefore not always produced a favourable result.
Strategic report, p4, on hedging dollar, euro and Saudi riyal income
Two years side by side
Year on year
Profit and loss account p25, balance sheet p27, notes 5, 7 and 20.
Show the figures as a table
| Measure | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover | £530.3m | £431.1m |
| of which Formula 1 | £488.4m | £387.0m |
| Operating profit | £57.6m | £30.5m |
| Operating margin | 10.9% | 7.1% |
| Pre-tax profit | £37.5m | £11.6m |
| Profit after tax | £54.2m | £12.9m |
| Staff costs | £179.9m | £134.9m |
| of which share-based pay | £57.2m | £20.3m |
| Average employees | 1,283 | 1,147 |
| Highest-paid director | £37.3m | £26.4m |
| Cash at bank | £237.4m | £138.9m |
| Loan notes | £179.0m | £194.7m |
| Net liabilities | £5.8m | £50.2m |
2023 is restated: £20.3m of share-based pay moved from administrative expenses to cost of sales. Operating profit is unchanged.
Quick answers
Questions about McLaren
How does McLaren really make its money?
The title year lifted turnover 23% to £530m, almost all of it from the Formula 1 team, and more than tripled pre-tax profit to £38m. Share-based pay of £57m took more than the profit did, and one director received £37m. Much of the £237m cash pile is matched by sponsors' money paid or invoiced in advance, and £179m of investor loan notes fall due within a year.
Does McLaren say how much sponsorship it earns?
No. Sponsorship, prize money, royalties, licensing and consultancy are one line, 'rendering of services', worth £516m in 2024. The directors say the growth came mainly from increased sponsorship, and £155m had been paid or invoiced in advance at the year end.
Who owns McLaren Racing?
McLaren Group Limited holds all its shares; on an as-converted basis McLaren Group has 70.75% and an investor group led by MSP Sports Capital 29.25%. McLaren Group's majority owner is Bahrain Mumtalakat.
How much was McLaren's highest-paid director paid?
£37.3m in 2024, up from £26.4m. The accounts don't name them.
Keep going
Read next
Winning paid: F1 turnover rose by £101m and operating profit nearly doubled. But the gains went mostly to the team's people and to its investors' loan notes, not to shareholders as dividends, and the year-end cash is matched by sponsors' prepayments and loan notes coming due.
- All figures come from McLaren Racing Limited's consolidated accounts for the year to 31 December 2024, signed on 21 March 2025 and audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Page numbers are the ones printed in the filing.
- Group figures cover McLaren Racing and the companies it owns, including the IndyCar team. McLaren's road car business, McLaren Automotive, is a separate company and isn't included.
- Figures are rounded from the £000 figures in the accounts. The £100 split divides each cost line by turnover. Hover over, or tab to, any bar for its exact value.