The only upsides that temper Red Bull’s “hate” of being beaten in Formula 1

Red Bull may confess to ‘hate’ being beaten in Formula 1 this year, but there are two notable upsides that compensate a little for seeing McLaren and Ferrari finish ahead of it.

The first is a $2.7 million saving that the squad will have on its entry fee compared to what it forked out last year.

But perhaps more importantly, there is also a boost to its wind tunnel running which could be hugely valuable ahead of F1’s major rules revamp for 2026.

Entry fee slashed

Ever since 2013, as part of a revised Concorde Agreement that came into force that year, the FIA has based entry fees for each competitor on the number of points scored in the previous season.

This originally started with a base fee of $500,000 plus $5000 per point scored, apart from the constructors’ champion which had to pay $6000. 

However, with inflation having been taken into account, for the 2025 season the figures are a base fee for everyone of $680,203 plus an extra $8161 per point scored for the constructors’ champion. Every other team must pay $6799 per point scored.

This means that title winner McLaren will pay a total of $6,115,429, with Ferrari set to fork out $5,113,151 and third-placed Red Bull a sum of $4,684,814.

Red Bull’s fee is, however, a significant drop on last year when it was left with a whopping bill to pay off the back of its truly dominant season where it had won 21 out of 22 races. The record breaking 860 points that it scored left its entry fee for 2024 as $7,445,817.

That means off the back of the 2024 campaign, where it finished third rather than first, it has an entry fee saving of $2,761,003 – although that pails into insignificance compared to the estimated $20 million in lost commercial rights income that comes from dropping two places in the standings.

The full 2025 entry fees are below

Aero boost

It is not just a saving on entry fees that Red Bull gets from not being so dominant this season, because there…