How is the prize money allocated?
- Alpine got 22 points total across the season and received $99.9m
- Williams got 127 points total across the season and received $77.2m
Why did Williams, who did significantly much better, get so little money?
Because the 2025 part is misleading. The money isn’t paid out in full at the end of the year. It’s money paid out over the course of 2025. And when you factor that in it should instantly make you question “how can pay out the prize money for the year that is still ongoing?” That’s because they don’t. The money that is being paid out over the course of 2025 is the prize money teams earned in 2024. So the graph isn’t actually showing prize pool of the 2025 season, it’s showing the prize pool of the 2024 season and in 2024 Alpine did finish ahead of Williams in the constructs.
Whoever made this graph doesn’t really understand what those numbers mean.
Thank you for the clarity you added on this. That makes sense. In 2024 Alpine was a significantly better performer than Williams.
Probably has something to do with ad money. Better teams make more money in ads. The only reason Alpine exists is because someone needs to lose. Essentially winners need to make sure the losers stay around.
I don’t understand how that is possible in any sensible prize money system. Does this include Ferrari getting some annual payment for being the oldest team?
Does this include Ferrari getting some annual payment for being the oldest team?
Under the terms of the current Concorde Agreement, Ferrari receives a payment that is at least 5% of the entire prize fund.
Basically yes. There’s a secret agreement between the teams and the FIA that determine how much money each team gets. Details are scarce, but Ferrari always gets the best deal because they have the brand image of being Thee exotic car company and F1 without them would probably lose half its viewership. I bet Ferrari still sold the most merch last year, despite it being one of the worst years in their history. The deal needs to be so profitable for Ferrari that they’d never think of leaving F1, even after bad years like last year.
Everyone wins here with a system like this. If Ferrari brings the viewers, but every car gets screen time, that boosts the advertising value for the other teams too.
