McLaren’s books look as sharp as its pit stops. Fresh off a title-winning 2024, the Woking outfit has posted a thumping set of numbers: £530.3 million in revenue and £54.2 million in post‑tax profit for the year, more than quadruple the bottom line it managed in 2023.
The surge mirrors the on‑track story. McLaren returned to the top of the Constructors’ pile last season for the first time since the late ‘90s, and the commercial tide that follows a dominant year flowed hard. Team accounts show the F1 program did the heavy lifting, contributing £488.4m of revenue, up from £387m the year prior. IndyCar chipped in £45.2m, with the remaining slice coming from McLaren’s electric racing efforts and corporate activity.
“2024 saw McLaren Racing Limited reclaim the Formula One Constructors’ Championship, marking a triumphant return to the top after 26 years,” CEO Zak Brown wrote in the directors’ report. “The season’s success was a testament to the hard work of the entire team, supported by our valued partners and passionate fans.” He also tipped a hat to the wider stable, name‑checking Pato O’Ward’s hat-trick of IndyCar wins and Sam Bird’s breakthrough Formula E victory in São Paulo.
The financial swing is stark when you zoom out just a few years. During the pandemic, McLaren Group stared down a cash crunch as supercar sales slowed, triggering painful headcount cuts across the business, racing included. Brown went looking for capital and found it; MSP Capital Partners took a minority stake that reportedly valued the team at around £560m at the time. Fast‑forward to this summer and that stake has changed hands in a deal said to put McLaren Racing’s value north of £3bn—some industry chatter even pegs the figure closer to £3.75bn. However you price it, that’s a monster return and a striking marker of what a competitive F1 team is worth in 2025.
The revenue mix also tells you how modern F1 works when you’re winning. Title success triggers richer prize money from Formula One Management the following season, and McLaren is set to bank a notable uplift for 2025 after its 2024 triumph—estimated to be worth in excess of £66m annually compared to the previous year. Add to that the commercial momentum: the team announced Mastercard as naming partner from 2026 in a deal understood to be worth roughly £74m per season, a blue‑chip addition that underlines the brand’s heat right now.
It’s not just new names on the car and a bigger cheque from FOM. Winning changes the way every negotiation feels. Hospitality sells out. Sponsor activation scales up. Fan engagement spikes. And crucially for the long game under the cost cap, the surplus gives McLaren choices—about facilities, about development tools, about the kind of incremental edges that decided last season’s title and will decide the next one.
None of this happened by accident. The team’s competitive climb from fourth in 2023 to champions in 2024 was built on sharper operations, a car that grew into a reference under the current regulations, and a driver pairing that leaves points on the table only when the table’s been cleared away. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri turned consistency into a weapon last year, and they’ve carried that form into 2025 as McLaren chases more silverware. The drivers’ title is the missing piece since Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 crown; that target isn’t exactly a secret in Woking.
The broader paddock view? McLaren has become the poster child for the sport’s new economics. In an era where the cost cap has curbed runaway spending and Liberty Media’s stewardship has turbocharged F1’s global pull, a properly run team that wins can be both competitive and wildly investable. McLaren nearly went under five years ago; now it’s a case study in how quickly fortunes can flip when performance, governance and timing line up.
There are, of course, the usual caveats. Valuations are theory until someone else pays them. The F1 midfield remains ferociously tight, and development wars don’t take holidays. But it’s hard to quibble with the trajectory. A title on track. A ledger in rude health. A sponsorship bench that keeps getting stronger. And a fanbase—old and new—that’s buying in.
McLaren’s accountants will love the headline figures. The racers will love what those figures enable. And the rest of the grid will be painfully aware: right now, Woking’s momentum has both a stopwatch and a balance sheet behind it.
