How much does it cost to run a F1 team?

The Motoring News & Motor Sport supplement for the 1994 British GPgives some rough figures (converted to US $ ) for this.

o Drivers: The market is depressed after Prost's retirement and Senna'sdeath. Berger gets about $ 13M from Ferrari, Schumacher about $ 5Mfrom Benetton. Mansell got nearly $ 1.2M for a single race forWilliams. After the top rank, the drivers are much cheaper down toabout $ 80K for a test driver.

o Cars: After paying for the wind tunnel testing and other research,wear & tear and accident damage, you will be `lucky' to have spentless than $ 7M.

o Engines: Some teams get free engines and rebuilds from amanufacturer. Hart's budget is about $ 3M. Cosworth or Ilmor enginescould cost $ 5M -- $ 6.5M.

o Tyres: Goodyear supply Williams, McLaren, Benetton, Ferrari andSauber for free. The rest pay $ 600 per tyre. With seven sets foreach car for 16 meetings and more for testing, tyres could cost $800K for a season.

o Fuel: Free for many teams, $ 400K for the rest.

o Travel: Flying 30 team members to Brazil, Japan twice, Canada, andAustralia as well as hotels and hire cars will cost about $ 1.5M.

o Freight: The top 10 teams get two cars and five tonnes of equipmenttransported by FOCA for the races outside Europe but you still needtrucks for the European races. For the teams outside the top 10, orbigger teams which take extra equipment, the bill could come to $1.5M.

o Staff: Most teams have between 50 and 150 staff to design, build, andrun the cars, run the business etc. This anything upwards of $ 5M.

o Testing: Essential to remain competitive. Budget for $ 2M+

o Equipment: CAD systems, CNC lathes etc. They can be used for severalyears, but a new team needs them right away. Start at $ 1M -- $ 2M.

o Total: A reasonable top 10 team with no engine, fuel or tyre dealsand a couple of drivers who cost $ 1.5M together, will cost $ 23M,just to go racing.

Teams at the back of the grid probably spend lessthan $ 10M.

Teams at the front spend $ 50M, at least.