Before each F1 season, the drivers and teams must pay a fee to gain registration to the upcoming championship, but exactly how much do the F1 teams and drivers pay for entry into F1 in 2023?
The system works with a basic fee of $11,047 for the drivers, plus a fee per championship point. Drivers and teams pay an additional cost per championship point scored in the previous season, so in this case, 2022.
The more successful that a driver is, the more they will pay for entry into the championship, with current world champion Max Verstappen recently hitting out at the $1 million fee he will pay to compete in the 2023 F1 season.
“I find the sum absurd,” Verstappen told Motorsport-Total.com. “I don’t think it’s right that we have to pay so much. That’s not the case in other sports. And there are more and more races.”
Drivers pay an extra $2,230 per point, although those who did not compete in 2022 do not pay the fee-per-point and will only pay the initial registration fee.
The three drivers are Nico Hulkenberg, who returns to F1 with Haas after losing his seat in 2019, and the rookies Logan Sargeant (Williams) and the former F2 champion Oscar Piastri (McLaren).
How much will the F1 drivers pay in 2023?
Red Bull
We will begin with the defending champions. In Bahrain, Red Bull unleashed the eventually-dominant RB18 car which claimed 17 of the 22 wins available.
Red Bull started the season with concerns about reliability as the RB18 had four mechanical failures in three races, but the team quickly solved the issues, and as soon as weight fell off the car, the thing took off like a rocket and never looked back.
Red Bull secured the Drivers’ Championship in Japan as Max Verstappen went on to score 454 points. A highly successful season, the Dutchman claimed 15 wins and appeared on the podium in all but 5 races.
He proved to be the class of the field and at the Japanese Grand Prix when he won by 27 seconds consistently lapping nearly a second faster than his teammate, in torrential conditions, who finished behind him.
For a chance to defend his crown, Verstappen will pay $11,047 for the registration fee plus an extra $1,012,420 for a total of $1,023,467.
His teammate, Sergio Perez, racked up 305 points on his way to a 3rd place Championship finish which saw the Mexican take pole in Saudi Arabia and Singapore and claim victories in Mexico and Singapore. He managed to secure a P3 in Mexico after hounding Lewis Hamilton for most of the race.
For, statistically Perez’s best F1 year yet, he will pay a final total of $691,197.
Ferrari
Championship runners-up, Ferrari, saw a return to winning form following two years in the wilderness with their F1-75 chassis. Initially a highly competitive car, engine reliability became a worry and development seemed to stall or go backwards.
They fell further away from Red Bull and saw themselves slower than Mercedes at some tracks – failing to win in any of the last 11 races.
Despite the loss of pace, Charles Leclerc managed to hang on to second place in the championship – earning this by managing to keep ahead of a fast-closing Sergio Perez in the dying laps of the Abu Dhabi GP.
Leclerc scored 305 Championship points and in order to gain entry to the 2023 season he will pay $691,197.
His teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr, took his maiden win in F1 and his maiden pole position – both at the memorable British Grand Prix. Sainz went on to finish 5th in the Championship standings after collecting a total of 9 podiums overall.
The Spaniard would score 246 points meaning that his bill for the 2023 season comes to: $559,627.
Mercedes
Mercedes is looking to hit back in 2023 following the disappointment of the W13 car. The team believes that despite the troubles they had, being around 1s off the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull at times, they have learned valuable lessons and most importantly fixed a crucial design flaw in the car.
Despite being far away from where they would like to be, they had some good moments in 2022 nearly stealing a few races from under the nose of their rivals such as in Britain, the USA and the Netherlands before George Russell managed to claim their first win at the Brazilian Grand Prix as he led home a Mercedes 1-2 finish.
The Mercedes-debutant enjoyed a strong year, ever consistent he finished in the top five of every race until his scary first lap crash with Zhou Guanyu and Pierre Gasly. Russell managed to grab his first ever pole position at the Hungaroring on his way to finishing fourth in the driver’s championship with 275 points.
Russell’s fee for 2023 will be massively up from his Williams days as he will pay $624,297.
His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, had a challenging year. Sacrificing the first part of his season to help the team find the answers to the porpoising that plagued the car, the Brit struggled to maximise the car compared to Russell and had a surprising Q1 exit in Saudi Arabia and was lapped at Imola.
Despite the difficult start, he isn’t a seven-times champion for nothing and showed that his pace is still there. From Canada, he went on a run of five consecutive podiums – including from P8 in Austria – before his Belgian GP lap one retirement.
Hamilton scored 9 podiums and managed to put himself into a position to win several times, but the elusive victory kept slipping away.
Hamilton scored 240 points in 2022 so for 2023 he will pay $546,247.
Alpine
Alpine ended 2022 with the fourth-fastest package, ahead of McLaren. Alpine enjoyed some strong performances with their A522 car, with nine finishes inside the top six positions and a fourth place at Japan as Esteban Ocon held off Lewis Hamilton.
The Alpine was good, but highly unreliable, suffering 7 mechanical retirements, much to the bemusement of Fernando Alonso in Mexico as he said over the radio, “Unbelievable, mate. What a season, what a season.”
It is fair to say that Ocon and Alonso did not enjoy the best of relationships together, with their duels in Saudi Arabia and Hungary threatening to leave the team with a double DNF. Ocon, statistically, won their rivalry against the 41-year-old and Alonso departed for Aston Martin at the end of 2022.
As Ocon searches in pursuit of a second win in Formula 1, he will pay $216,207 to continue that quest into 2023.
He replaced by Ocon’s childhood rival and fellow Frenchman Pierre Gasly. Gasly had a challenging season at Alpha Tauri, before being released from his Red Bull contract, as the car proved to be more uncompetitive than the previous two seasons, but he will hope that the A522, at minimum, maintains the same kind of performance level as 2022.
To race in 2023, Gasly will pay nearly 3.5 times less than his teammate, just $62,337.
McLaren
McLaren had a difficult opener to 2022, finishing a lowly 14th and 15th in Bahrain but the team eventually found their feet and managed to land the only podium of the season that wasn’t from a Mercedes, Ferrari, or Red Bull driver.
McLaren would score 159 points in the 2022 season, with the overwhelming majority scored by Lando Norris, who has been with the team since his debut in 2019. Daniel Ricciardo was a long way behind, finishing with 37 points. Ricciardo failed to build on his already-disappointing 2021 season, save for that highlight at Monza of course.
Led by Lando Norris, the Brit’s consistency in his car shone as bright as ever. Norris recorded 13 finishes inside the top seven, finishing some 30 points ahead of Esteban Ocon with 122 points.
30 points doesn’t sound like a lot over 22 races but it is worth reminding that Norris should usually have only been fighting for 6 points per weekend at most.
Norris was typically fighting the Alpines on his own and perhaps with a more competitive teammate, McLaren might have been able to pip Alpine to winning the “best of the rest” championship.
Hoping to gain his maiden win in 2023, Norris will pay $283,107.
They will hope that this competition emerges in the form of Oscar Piastri. The Australian arrives at Woking to make his debut in Formula 1, and he arrives as a highly-rated talent.
In 2017, he won the F4 Championship; in 2019 he won Formula Renault; in 2020 he won Formula 3 and in 2021 he won Formula 2.
He joined McLaren following this meteoric rise and a contract dispute with Alpine. Alpine announced the 21-year-old as their replacement for Fernando Alonso; however, the Australian denied the deal with the team.
Alpine contested that he was still contractually obliged to them but a Contract Recognition Board found in Piastri’s favour and he was free to join McLaren.
As a rookie, he will only pay the registration fee of $11,047.
Alfa Romeo
A new-look line-up and solid car created the impression that 2022 might be a strong season for Alfa Romeo as they started with a P6 finish in Bahrain produced by Valterri Bottas, and a single point finish for Zhou Guanyu on his rookie debut. The team would produce several more good performances to sit on 51 points by the Canadian GP.
However, after this, the pace of the car appeared to vanish as the team collected just four more points throughout the remaining 13 races.
It was one Finn out, and one Finn in as Bottas replaced Kimi Raikkonen and he was hot on Lando Norris’ heels as best of the rest after the Canadian GP. Although when the car lost pace, so it appeared that Bottas also did.
The ex-Mercedes driver would only then score three more points with an impressive weekend at the Mexican GP. Bottas will hope that Alfa Romeo can build upon the solid start they had to last season and extend it to a whole season to fight for points.
Significantly down on his Mercedes days, Bottas will pay $120,317 as he enters the second year of his contract.
Zhou Guanyu was rather a bit of a paradox in 2022. The Chinese driver would only score 6 points throughout the season, some 43 points behind his teammate but his performances did not suggest that he was 43 points slower.
Zhou had a series of unfortunate retirements from points, or near-points, positions so he proved to be more competitive than the final standings showed.
With Audi on the horizon, and the rumours being that they are seeking a German driver line-up, Zhou will want the Alfa to have the performance so fight for the top ten positions so that he can show what he can do and stake his claim to remain with the team.
Of those who scored points in 2022, Zhou will pay the third-lowest amount to enter the upcoming season, at just $24,427.
Aston Martin
Aston Martin had high aims for 2022, seeking to be one of the teams that would utilise the new regulations to break into the exclusive club of regular race winners that Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari tended to be the only members of.
This did not happen, it was rather quite the opposite. Prior to introducing their B Spec car, popularly dubbed the ‘Green Bull’ for its likeness to the RB18, Aston Martin only had 6 points on the board.
They were 3 points ahead of 10th placed Williams and a distant 151 behind Ferrari. The B Spec car turned out to be significantly more competitive, collecting 15 points finishes, the team scored 41 of them and almost beat Alfa Romeo to 6th place.
When Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement in July, Aston Martin did not wait around to bring another World Champion through the door by recruiting Fernando Alonso.
With the combined trio of Lawrence Stroll’s financial power taking the form of a brand new state-of-the-art facility, Alonso’s excellent race-craft and Dan Fallows’ technical knowledge, the team hopes that it can now bridge the gap to the Big Three.
Fernando Alonso will pay $191,677 with his enthusiasm for the Aston project, I’m sure he won’t mind.
It can also be hoped by the team that Alonso will help develop Lance Stroll’s driving too. The Canadian enters his seventh season in F1 at the young age of 24 and developed significantly alongside Sebastian Vettel. Whilst he does not have the absolute talent of the German (I mean, very few do) he held his own with Vettel winning the h2h battle 10-9 and Stroll matching his best 6th placed finish.
Stroll will look to build consistency in qualifying and races and hone his race-craft to avoid rather silly accidents in 2023.
He will pay $51,187 to do this.
Haas
Haas’s Formula One seasons always tend to feature one thing – a strong opening performance. They got this in 2022 thanks to Kevin Magnussen’s 5th placed finish, a phenomenal effort considering it was his first race in over a year.
Haas would then range between being uncompetitive or scoring solid points until Austria. It was after this that they would lose the ability to pick up points and ended far from the promise of the first race of the season.
With their connection to Ferrari and two seasoned drivers at the helm in Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, Haas will want a car that can give their line-up the ability to battle for points because for Gene Haas, this will be a big aid.
The budget for the team is already known to be one of the smallest, and it appears Gene Haas has thought about leaving F1 in recent seasons, so those extra hundreds of thousands in Constructor’s money might go a long way.
Kevin Magnussen faced a tough test in Mick Schumacher for 2022, but he outscored the German 25-12 and ultimately managed to retain his seat.
Magnussen had a couple of opening lap tangles that cost him the shot at even more points, but he showed that his pace is still there and in Brazil landed a shock pole position thanks to an excellent first-lap before conditions worsened under a red flag.
Magnussen is now 30 years old and a seasoned driver, but will hope that he can compete at the front end of the grid and maybe build on the solitary podium he got with McLaren back in 2013.
Magnussen will pay $66,797 in 2023.
Nico Hulkenberg returns to F1 as his teammate for the next season. For a while, it seemed as though the 35-year-old would never return to the sport, owing to his age and the lack of competitive seats available.
The German will look to prove to the youngsters that he still has the speed he showed in previous years, and will certainly go in pursuit of that elusive podium that has evaded him so many times since Brazil 2012.
As he did not compete in 2022, Hulkenberg will pay the registration fee of $11,047.
Alpha Tauri
Following strong packages in 2020 and 2021, the Red Bull sister team was surprisingly off the pace in 2023. Particularly unusual owing to the connection to Red Bull, who enjoyed such a dominant year, the team scored just 35 points and finished 9th in the standings.
The bulk of the points came from long-time driver, Pierre Gasly, who has since departed the team to join Alpine. Gasly’s speed and experience managed to collect him 23 points although this was a long way down on his score of 110 in 2021 and without a podium.
Gasly was replaced by Nick De Vries, who produced a great showing when he filled in for Alex Albon at the Italian Grand Prix, finishing 9th. The ex-Formula E champion will look to show that he does deserve a spot on the grid after taking the long way to get here.
De Vries pays $15,507 in 2023.
It is a big year for Yuki Tsunoda. After struggling in 2021 and 2022 against a strong teammate, the Japanese driver will be under-pressure to step up this year. He is now against someone who is essentially a rookie in a team that he doesn’t know, so he will be expected to win that battle.
Failing that, Tsuonda may seem himself replaced by Liam Lawson, Ayumu Iwasa or Dennis Hauger. Of course, Red Bull does not need to look to its own programme to convince someone to join as most drivers will take the chance to join a generally solid team with a chance to join Red Bull.
In a big year for Tsunoda, he will pay $37,807.
Williams
Williams ended up slowest again in 2022 after appearing to close up to the pack in 2021. The British team did prove to be a threat on power-reliant circuits, owing to their low-downforce and solid Mercedes engine.
In essence, the only way is up for the team as they look to get a bit closer and find some more points finishes.
Alexander Albon silenced his critics last season. He outperformed Nicholas Latifi in qualifying and race head to heads and scored points on three separate occasions.
If he did not require surgery, he would’ve probably scored them at Monza too. Albon will look to add more points finishes and continue to demonstrate that the brutal 2020 season does not reflect his talent.
He will pay $19,963 to do this.
His teammate for next season will be a new face as Logan Sargeant steps up to Formula 1. Sargeant only had one stint in Formula 2 before graduating, and he impressed in that season finishing ‘Rookie of the Year’ and 4th in the standings with 2 wins to his name.
The American driver faces a strong test against Albon but will surely feel up for it and has the potential to be a surprise of the season in 2023.
He pays $11,047 in his debut season.
