Inside the accounts · How does McLaren make its money?
McLaren's back-to-back title year: a £136m share payout turned a 20% rise in turnover into a loss
McLaren kept the Formula 1 Constructors' Championship in 2025, its first back-to-back titles since 1991, and Lando Norris won the Drivers' Championship. Turnover rose by a fifth, yet the team made a loss, because a share scheme for some of its staff vested and paid out. This edition reads the 2025 accounts: what changed, where the money came from and where it went.
In 60 words
The answer
The back-to-back title year lifted turnover 20% to £588m, almost all of it prize money, sponsorship and other services. But a share scheme that vested in 2025 cost £136m, turning 2024's £34m pre-tax profit into a £44m loss. The investors' loan notes were repaid, McLaren Group took full ownership and cash fell from £214m to £140m.
Since the 2024 edition
What changed in 2025
Turnover £588.5m, up from £488.4m. A pre-tax loss of £43.8m, after a £34.2m profit. 1,246 staff, up from 1,123. Cash £139.7m, down from £214.0m. All four compare McLaren Racing Limited with itself: the 2024 figures are the ones printed in the 2025 accounts.
- Commercial income grew £110m. Prize money, sponsorship and other services rose from £466.9m to £577.3m. The directors put it down to "increased commercial activity after a strong season of on track performance" (p1).
- The share scheme vested and paid out. £136.2m was charged and £140.2m paid in 2025; "As at 2025, the scheme is fully vested" (note 8, p29). Before that charge, operating profit would have been £93.5m, up from £86.6m on the same basis in 2024.
- The investors were bought out. In September 2025 the loan notes, valued at £179m a year earlier, were repaid and McLaren Group bought the investors' shares, "granting them full ownership" (p2). Net interest fell from £14.3m to £1.1m, and loans from group companies rose from £14.0m to £110.6m.
- Directors' pay tripled. Directors received £110.9m, up from £37.3m, of which £101.9m was long-term incentive payments. The highest-paid director received £81.9m (note 7, p28).
2025 accounts p12 and note 2.3, p16; 2024 group accounts note 5, p44.
Read the 2024 edition: McLaren's 2024 title year, from the 2024 group accounts.
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. In 2025 the winter build was bigger than usual, because the rules change for 2026.
Accounting policies 2.6, 2.7 and 2.19, pp17, 18 and 23; notes 8, 16 and 19.
Build next year's car
An F1 car "usually [has] an expected life of one year". Work on the 2026 car, built for "a new era of regulations", sits in stock until it races.
£36.8m in stock at Dec 2025, from £19.7mSponsors pay up front
Sponsorship is booked over each contract. Money paid or invoiced early waits as deferred income.
£170.5m deferred at year end, from £131.3mPrize money, set a year earlier
It depends on "the prior year ranking of the team and the current year profits of F1". 2025's was set by the 2024 title.
The 2025 title sets 2026'sBonuses follow results
Every employee's bonus is "predominantly linked to on-track performance". In 2025 the managers' share scheme also paid out.
£140.2m paid under the share schemeThe profit and loss account
The business on one page
- Totals
- Costs and charges
- Income and credits
Profit and loss account, p12; notes 5, 7, 9, 10 and 11.
of every £100 of turnover went on staff in 2025, up from £33.84. £23.15 of it was share-based pay, up from £7.81.
per £100 was the pre-tax result, after £7.00 of profit in 2024. Net interest fell to 19p per £100 once the loan notes were repaid.
- Staff · £48.54
- Other costs, net of other income · £58.73
- Net interest · £0.19
- Staff · £33.84
- Other costs, net of other income · £56.24
- Net interest · £2.92
- Pre-tax profit · £7.00
Turnover
Where the money comes from
These accounts cover the F1 team only. All £588.5m of turnover "arose within the United Kingdom", wherever the races were.
Services, which cover prize money, sponsorship, royalties, licensing and consultancy, brought in £577.3m, up 24%. Sales of goods halved to £11.2m: the company sold heritage race cars in 2024 and said that "is not expected to continue beyond 2024".
Outside turnover, R&D tax credits added £26.0m, up from £16.7m. Without them, the operating loss would have been about £69m, not £43m.
- 2024
- 2025
Notes 1, 4 and 5, pp15, 26 and 27.
- Services: prize money, sponsorship, royalties, licensing, consultancy · 98.1%
- Sales of goods · 1.9%
Note 4, p26.
The question everyone asks
Does McLaren say what sponsors pay?
Still not as a number. There is no sponsorship figure, no split from prize money and no sponsor names. Here is what the 2025 accounts do say.
- Commercial activity drove the growth. The directors credit "increased commercial activity after a strong season of on track performance". In 2024 they said "increased sponsorship".
- Sponsors pay ahead. Sponsorship "is deferred and recognised over the period in which the Company performs its obligations". Deferred income due within a year rose 30%, to £170.5m.
- 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 still aim for "medium and long-term agreements with key partners and sponsors" to steady income "determined largely by on track performance".
- Insiders buy hospitality. Mumtalakat, Caspian and United Autosports bought tickets and services; what they owed at the year end was "the sale of hospitality tickets". McLaren Automotive, a sister company, bought £1.9m.
- Dec 2024
- Dec 2025
Notes 19 and 20, p37.
Costs
Where it goes
Staff. Staff costs rose 73%, to £285.6m. Wages and salaries rose 19% to £130.6m. The share scheme, a cash-settled plan tied to the value of the company's shares, cost £136.2m, up from £38.2m. It is now "fully vested", and the £53.2m still owed is "the final amount to be paid in 2026 and 2027".
That averages £229,000 a head with the share scheme, or about £120,000 without it, up from £113,000.
- Wages and salaries
- National Insurance and pensions
- Share-based pay
Note 7, p28.
- Production, design and engineering: 784
- Administration: 462
Note 7, p28.
The highest-paid director
£8.2m of pay plus £73.7m from long-term incentive schemes, up from £37.2m. The accounts don't name them. Two directors were paid; the non-executives draw nothing.
All directors
Up from £37.3m. £101.9m of it was payments and accruals under long-term incentive schemes. This year's accounts give no total for key management.
The average employee
The top director's pay would cover about 680 employees at the £120,000 average without the share scheme. In 2024 it was about 330.
Getting to the races. The accounts still don't give a figure for travel and freight, and the carbon figures that showed the scale last year have moved to McLaren Group's report. One line comes close: distribution costs rose from £7.5m to £12.5m.
The team spent £1.6m on travel from Axtman Aviation and £0.4m from Entertainment Travel, both linked to a director, and £0.3m on circuit services from Bahrain International Circuit, owned by its majority shareholder.
- 2024
- 2025
Note 5, p27; note 28, p44.
Investment
Added to buildings and equipment, £22.0m of it on assets still being built, with £32.9m more contracted, up from £7.2m. From 2027 the team will also race a Hypercar in endurance racing, designed by McLaren and built by Dallara.
Heritage cars
Most of the collection sits in a subsidiary, McLaren Triple Crown, where the cars "are currently held as security against borrowings". The company sold none in 2025, after a £4.4m profit in 2024.
Dividends
None in 2025 or 2024. The tax line was a £26.5m credit, as the deferred tax asset rose to £69.6m on "an upwards revision to management's forecast income".
The balance sheet
The cash pile, and what's owed against it
- Dec 2024
- Dec 2025
Balance sheet p13; notes 18, 19 and 21, pp36–38.
The company ended 2025 with £139.7m in the bank and nothing left on deposit, against £214.0m plus £21.1m on deposit a year earlier. The directors put the fall down to the loss and "the repayment of shareholder loan notes in September 2025, and introduction of a new loan". These accounts have no cash flow statement, so the amount paid to the investors isn't shown.
The loan notes are gone, but £110.6m of loans from group companies has replaced them. McLaren Racing is also owed £141.4m by group companies. Deferred income rose to £170.5m. Tax and social security owed at the year end rose from £4.5m to £74.5m; the notes don't say why.
Balance sheet p13; notes 17 and 19, pp36–37.
Ownership
Who owns it, and what they take out
- McLaren Group Limited · 70.75%
- Investor group led by MSP Sports Capital · 29.25%
2024 accounts, note 31, p69.
- McLaren Group Limited · 100%
2025 accounts, strategic report p2 and note 30, p45.
The shareholders
McLaren Group holds all the shares. The investor group led by MSP Sports Capital, which put in £155m from December 2020, has gone: its warrants became 2,073,167 shares, bought by McLaren Group. Four directors resigned on 2 September 2025.
What they take out
No dividends. The investors' return came through the loan notes, which earned 12% a year, compounded, and £14.4m of interest in 2025 before repayment. The team bought £0.3m of circuit services from Bahrain International Circuit, which Mumtalakat owns.
Since the year end
In January 2026 a UK judge awarded McLaren Racing damages of more than $12m over IndyCar driver Alex Palou's breach of contract. Five directors were appointed on 28 October 2025, two of them returning after resigning in April. The board signed the accounts on 26 March 2026.
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, p2
The Company is primarily funded through prize money and its sponsorship agreements, and the risks around these are determined largely by on track performance.
Strategic report, p2
Naturally, residual USD exposures above the hedge designation levels have produced non-favourable results for cash inflows.
Strategic report, p2, on hedging dollar, euro and Saudi riyal income
Two years side by side
Year on year
Profit and loss account p12, balance sheet p13, notes 4, 7 and 19.
Show the figures as a table
| Measure | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover | £588.5m | £488.4m |
| of which services | £577.3m | £466.9m |
| Operating profit (loss) | −£42.8m | £48.5m |
| Operating profit before share-based pay | £93.5m | £86.6m |
| Pre-tax profit (loss) | −£43.8m | £34.2m |
| Profit (loss) after tax | −£17.4m | £53.8m |
| Staff costs | £285.6m | £165.3m |
| of which share-based pay | £136.2m | £38.2m |
| Average employees | 1,246 | 1,123 |
| Highest-paid director | £81.9m | £37.2m |
| Cash at bank | £139.7m | £214.0m |
| Loan notes | £0 | £179.0m |
| Loans from group companies | £110.6m | £14.0m |
| Net assets | £45.9m | £60.2m |
McLaren Racing Limited alone; 2024 as printed in the 2025 accounts, with staff costs restated (share-based pay now the amount charged, not the amount payable). The 2024 edition's group figures (turnover £530.3m, net liabilities £5.8m) aren't comparable. "Before share-based pay" is our sum: operating result plus the share-based charge.
Quick answers
Questions about McLaren
How does McLaren make its money?
The back-to-back title year lifted turnover 20% to £588m, almost all of it prize money, sponsorship and other services. But a share scheme that vested in 2025 cost £136m, turning 2024's £34m pre-tax profit into a £44m loss. The investors' loan notes were repaid, McLaren Group took full ownership and cash fell from £214m to £140m.
Does McLaren say how much sponsorship it earns?
No. Sponsorship, prize money, royalties, licensing and consultancy are one line, 'rendering of services', worth £577.3m in 2025, up from £466.9m. The directors credit increased commercial activity after a strong season, and £170.5m had been paid or invoiced in advance at the year end.
Why did McLaren make a loss in a championship year?
A cash-settled share scheme fully vested in 2025: £136.2m was charged to the profit and loss account and £140.2m paid out. That turned operating profit into a £42.8m operating loss and a £43.8m pre-tax loss. Before the share-based charge, operating profit was £93.5m.
Who owns McLaren Racing?
McLaren Group Limited has owned all of it since September 2025, when the loan notes held by the investor group led by MSP Sports Capital were repaid and their shares bought. Bahrain Mumtalakat is McLaren Group's majority shareholder and CYVN Holdings has a non-controlling stake.
How much was McLaren's highest-paid director paid?
£81.9m in 2025: £8.2m of pay plus £73.7m from long-term incentive schemes, up from £37.2m. The accounts don't name them. All directors together received £110.9m.
Keep going
Read next
Winning again paid: services turnover rose by £110m and, before the share scheme, operating profit edged up. But the year's money went to staff and directors through the share scheme and incentive plans, and to buying out the investors. That turned a title year into a loss, and loans from McLaren Group replaced the investors' loan notes.
- All figures come from McLaren Racing Limited's accounts for the year to 31 December 2025, signed on 26 March 2026, audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers and received at Companies House on 28 September 2026. Page numbers are the ones printed in the filing.
- These are the company's own accounts, not group accounts. They cover the F1 team; the electric racing and IndyCar businesses, and McLaren's road car business, are in McLaren Group Limited's accounts. The 2024 edition used the 2024 group accounts, so its figures don't line up with this page's 2024 column.
- 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.