Forget everything you thought you knew about who calls the shots in the Formula 1 paddock. As The Race reports in a deep dive into corporate filings and available shareholding information, today's grid is a wild hybrid of manufacturers, private equity, billionaire controllers, and institutional investors, with modern teams serving three distinct masters: those who want to race purely for glory, those using racing to fuel another business, and those treating the team itself as a pure moneymaker.
Take Aston Martin, where Lawrence Stroll controls the operation without owning a majority. UK Companies House records the Stroll-led consortium holding vehicle Racing Point UK Holdings Limited as owning between 25% and 50% of AMR GP Holdings, yet it holds 75% or more of the voting rights and the power to appoint or remove directors. Other major players including Arctos Partners, HPS Investment Partners, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson via Green Racer LLC, and Adrian Newey (who holds roughly 4.7% through special shares) have poured in capital while Stroll retains the keys.
Ferrari operates under a different playbook altogether. Scuderia Ferrari lives inside the broader Ferrari publicly listed company, meaning thousands technically own a piece of it. Yet control is firmly anchored by Exor, the Agnelli family's investment company, which held 21.33% of ordinary shares (equating to 32.32% of voting power) as of February 2026, alongside Piero Ferrari's trust holding 10.67% economically and 16.17% of the votes. Meanwhile, Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls tie directly back to the Red Bull empire and the Mateschitz and Yoovidhya families via Austrian parent Red Bull GmbH, beautifully illustrating the model of racing to sell an unrelated product.
Mercedes keeps things seemingly straightforward with Mercedes-Benz, INEOS (Sir Jim Ratcliffe), and Toto Wolff each holding a clean one-third stake. But a recent footnote saw CrowdStrike founder George Kurtz acquire a 15% minority interest in Wolff's ownership entity in November 2025, granting an indirect economic interest equivalent to about 5% of the team while leaving governance untouched. McLaren's situation simplified drastically in September 2025 when minority shareholders MSP, O'Connor Capital Solutions, Ares, and Caspian were bought out, leaving Bahrain's Mumtalakat and Abu Dhabi's CYVN Holdings owning 100% of McLaren Racing between them in a transaction that reportedly valued the outfit at over $4 billion.
Cadillac presents a fascinating puzzle, with General Motors confirmed as an equity owner alongside TWG Motorsports, though UK corporate records list Mark Walter as the sole active person with significant control through TWG Cadillac Formula 1 Team Limited. Sauber's transition to Audi features a works team backed by a significant minority investment from the Qatar Investment Authority, though Audi has explored potential 33% splits amid restructuring. Alpine sits with Renault Group owning 76% and an investor group led by Otro Capital holding the remaining 24%—a stake famously featuring celebrity backers like Patrick Mahomes and Rory McIlroy.
Williams has evolved far from the proprietor days of Frank Williams into a pure investment asset held by US-headquartered private investment firm Dorilton Capital since August 2020. At the exact opposite end of the spectrum sits Gene Haas. As the sole active person with significant control of Haas Formula UK with 75% or more of both shares and voting rights, Gene Haas stands alone as Formula 1's last traditional proprietor-owner on the 2026 grid.
