McLaren Racing, the division which oversees its Formula 1 and IndyCar operations, recorded a record loss of £96 million for the 2018 financial year.
The McLaren Group, which also includes its automotive brand and applied technologies company, reported a massive boost in turnover from £871.3m in 2017 to £1,256.6m in 2018 and a greatly reduced loss of just £4.8m last year, compared with £43.4m the year prior.
Much of that is down to McLaren Automotive which saw unit sales increase by 45 per cent, with 4,829 cars sold during 2018.
The F1 team saw a £1m profit in 2017 dramatically reverse, with a record loss of £96m, driven by the loss of engine partner Honda, which contributed a large sponsorship sum to the team during its three year technical partnership as well as free engines.
The switch to Renault for 2018 not only saw the loss of that sponsorship money, but also the loss of free engines which the team are now required to pay for – estimated at around £10m a season.
The team also saw its prize money drop by around £10m after it finished ninth in the Constructors' Standings in 2017, compared to sixth in 2016 – however with F1 paying its prize money a year in arrears, their sixth place finish in 2018 will see that drop reversed.
The loss and a recent company restructure has been funded by the issuance of 888,135 new shares which were purchased by Michael Latifi for £203.1m, with £100m of that received in 2018. Two further payments will be made in 2019 to complete the share sale.
The company also sold a number of historic racing cars totalling £10m and plans to further reduce the collection, which stands at 148 F1 race cars, four F1 road cars, four historic vehicles, 20 racing monocoque chassis and two P1 cars, valued at more than £60m.
McLaren released its latest financial statements on Thursday, click here for more information.
