McLaren Racing is preparing to file accounts showing revenue of £588 million ($779.6 million) for 2025, according to Sky News, a figure that would mark the team’s strongest commercial year on record. The filing, due with the UK’s Companies House this week, is also expected to confirm a record pay package for chief executive Zak Brown of more than £75.4 million ($100 million).
More than 90% of McLaren’s revenue came from its Formula 1 operations, with the remainder generated by its IndyCar programme in the United States, sources told Sky News. The scale of the figure has fuelled talk of McLaren becoming the first F1 team to cross $1 billion in annual revenue, though the 2025 accounts themselves fall well short of that threshold. The framing appears to reflect the team’s growth trajectory rather than a milestone already reached.
A pay package tied to a Gulf-backed buyout
Brown’s expected payout is linked to a share award triggered by a 2024 ownership change, in which Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat and Abu Dhabi’s CYVN Holdings acquired the remaining 30% of external shares in McLaren Racing. That deal valued the team at £3.5 billion. In 2024, Brown was paid a £6 million base salary plus a £31 million long-term incentive award, according to the brief cited by Sky News.
Separately, Bloomberg reported that McLaren’s 2024 accounts, filed with Companies House, showed Brown earning £37.3 million ($50.3 million) after the team won its first constructors’ championship since 1998. Total pay for the team’s key management more than doubled that year to £75.7 million.
From near-collapse to blue-chip sponsors
The turnaround has been dramatic. Forbes reported that McLaren’s F1 team posted an operating loss of $137 million in 2018, before recovering to an estimated $614 million in revenue and a $4.4 billion valuation by 2024. The team’s commercial roster now includes Mastercard, which became McLaren’s title sponsor in August 2025 in a deal reported by SportsPro to be worth roughly $100 million a year into the mid-2030s, alongside partners such as Google, DP World, Intel, OKX and National Lottery operator Allwyn.
“Our car has the best brands in the world, the Mastercards, the Googles, etc. The competition is amazing.” — Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing
Brown has also pointed to the team’s on-track form, which includes the extension of world champion Lando Norris’s contract until 2030, as central to sustaining investor and sponsor interest. Asked whether McLaren’s finances could keep climbing, Brown was blunt but cautious.
“I don’t think so... they’ve only been going north forever.” — Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing
Asked separately by Forbes whether McLaren could eventually reach $1 billion in annual revenue, Brown said it was possible, but added: “It won’t happen tomorrow.” McLaren is the only team in motorsport to have won the sport’s so-called Triple Crown: the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix.
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