How Much Does a 2025 F1 Car Cost?

F1 is considered the cutting edge of technology and innovation in motorsport. With the technical regulations in place, all 10 teams on the grid have bespoke cars to themselves that can cost a whopping fortune.

The cost of a single F1 car can often fluctuate depending on the era of the sport it is being built in. Furthermore, factors like inflation and developmental costs are also an integral part of the total cost of making an F1 car from scratch.

But how much does an F1 car actually cost in 2025.

According to veteran photojournalist Kym Illman, who has been in the sport for decades, its cost is around $120 million. Here’s a breakdown of all the components of an F1 car and how much they cost.

Tires

The current generation of F1 cars is highly dependent on their tires. More often than not, despite having a fast package, teams struggle to get results if they can’t keep their tires within the right operating window. This leads to increased heat and a faster rate of tire degradation — ultimately resulting in slower lap times.

Pirelli is the official tire supplier of the championship and offers three different dry tire compounds each race weekend: the red-walled soft tires, the yellow-walled medium tires, and the white-walled hard tires.

In addition, for wet-weather running, Pirelli provides the green-walled intermediate tires and the blue-walled full wet tires. According to Illman, each team can spend around $35,000 per driver per race weekend on tires.

Aerodynamics

F1 cars produce enough downforce, enough to theoretically enable a car run upside down. This is because F1 cars behave in the exact opposite way to airplanes. While the wings on an aircraft produce lift, aerodynamics in F1 are optimized to channel air in a way that sucks the car toward the ground, increasing grip.

This is where all the cornering grip comes from, in addition to the sticky Pirelli rubber. Naturally, teams fight for every bit of downforce they can generate to shave off crucial tenths from their lap times.

The aerodynamic effect of downforce is most prominently generated by the front and rear wings. In 2025, a front and rear wing pair can set a team back a whopping $250,000.

Gearbox

F1 gearboxes are complex machines designed to deliver seamless gear changes in a sport where every millisecond counts. According to FIA regulations, each driver is allowed only five gearboxes per season — with any additional units resulting in grid penalties. Therefore, these components must be both efficient and durable.

Gearboxes go hand-in-hand with the power unit and are typically manufactured by the power unit suppliers. They can cost teams up to $350,000.

Chassis

Well, all the components listed above are pretty useless without a body to hold them together. This is where the chassis comes into play. The F1 chassis forms the structural core of the car and is often the most recognizable part for fans at the track or watching from home.

Certain appendages on the chassis, such as the sidepods and floor edges, also aid aerodynamics—working in tandem with the front and rear wings. This season, a single chassis can cost teams around $700,000.

Engine

F1 engines are beasts compared to regular road-going ones. Capable of producing over 1,000 bhp, they are limited to 13,000 rpm under the current regulations. These engines are also hybrids, powered by both combustion and electrical energy.

In the sport, the efficiency and power of an engine often decide the fate of championships. This was evident during Mercedes’ dominant run from 2014 to 2021. And with the 2026 regulations set to focus once again on the engine side, it’s safe to say these components are the most expensive in the paddock.

An F1 engine costs somewhere around $10.5 million per unit.

Halo

Safety has improved by leaps and bounds in F1 since Jules Bianchi’s tragic death at the 2014 Japanese GP. But safety also comes at a steep price. The revolutionary Halo device — credited with saving Romain Grosjean’s life during the fiery crash at the 2020 Sakhir GP — costs around $17,000.

Steering Wheel

F1 steering wheels are among the most high-tech pieces of equipment on the car. They are connected to the engine through sophisticated software and function almost like a computer system in their own right.

Drivers don’t just steer with them — they can also make real-time adjustments to engine braking, power deployment, brake bias, brake migration, and more, using the myriad of buttons placed on the wheel.

Naturally, such innovation and precision come at a cost. An F1 steering wheel costs teams about $50,000 apiece.

Other components

There are many other components that go into making an F1 car which are not visible to fans. These internal components, such as the brake ducts, hydraulics, fuel tanks, etc., also cost a lot of money to fabricate and develop.

Development

Finally, while all the components listed above are fitted onto the car, they are not something that can be bought off the shelf. F1 teams invest a significant amount of resources in research and development, using CFD and other technologies to create each bespoke component for their own cars.

R&D is crucial for a team to either climb up the field or dramatically fall behind. For instance, Red Bull’s recent fall from grace has been attributed to the Milton Keynes-based team hitting a development ceiling with their current car concept.

In F1, each team must constantly improve or risk being swallowed up by the competition. Naturally, in this development race, teams spend upwards of $100 million each year.