Where are F1 teams based? Ferrari, Red Bull and more

Though F1 race teams spend most of their year globetrotting, each one still has a place to call home. Usually known as the factory, it’s not as glamorous as the F1 pitlane – but it does offer a permanent base. This is where the cars are built. And, if there’s enough time between races during the frenetic season, it’s also the place to which they return for maintenance. Even on race weekends, teams run numerous operations remotely from the factory.

Here are the headquarters for every F1 team.

Red Bull – Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

• Founded: 2005
• National flag that Red Bull races under: Austria
• Grand prix wins: 122
• Constructors’ championships: 6 (2010-13, 2022-23)
• Drivers’ championships: 8 (2010-13, 2021-24)

Red Bull Racing joined F1 for the 2005 season after its parent company Red Bull GmbH, globally known for its energy drinks brand, bought the Jaguar team. This meant Red Bull moved into the Milton Keynes factory, which dates back to 1990 when Stewart Grand Prix – then an F3 outfit before joining F1 in 1997 – opened the facility that later became home to Jaguar after the team rebrand in 2000. 

Mercedes – Brackley, United Kingdom

Mercedes AMG F1 Brackley, factory sign at the entrance

Photo by: Mercedes-Benz

• Founded: 1954
• National flag that Mercedes races under: Germany
• Grand prix wins: 129
• Constructors’ championships: 8 (2014-21)
• Drivers’ championships: 9 (1954-55, 2014-20)

The current Mercedes F1 team started in 2010 after its owners Daimler AG, now the Mercedes-Benz Group, bought Brawn GP. This meant Mercedes moved into the Brackley premises that was previously home to Brawn in 2009, while before then it belonged to Honda who in 2006 took it over from British American Racing, the team that first moved into the factory for the 1999 season.

Mercedes also uses a base in the Northamptonshire village of Brixworth, where powertrains are developed not only for the works team but also customer outfits like McLaren, Williams and Aston Martin. 

Ferrari – Maranello, Italy

The Ferrari factory in Maranello

Photo by: Motorsport Images

• Founded: 1950
• National flag that Ferrari races under: Italy
• Grand prix wins: 247
• Constructors’ championships: 16 (1961, 1964, 1975-77, 1979, 1982-83, 1999-04, 2007-08)
• Drivers’ championships: 15 (1952-53, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1979, 2000-04, 2007)

As home to both F1’s oldest team and the world’s most famous road car marque, the northern Italian town of Maranello is synonymous with the Ferrari factory in a way that Brackley or Milton Keynes will never be. It’s no surprise to find reminders of the Scuderia’s heritage dotting the streets there.

Close to the factory is also Fiorano, a private test track that Ferrari opened in 1972. Though current regulations mean the F1 team can’t make use of the facility as it could in the past, it’s still important for Ferrari’s road cars and for marketing purposes. An example of the latter? Charles Leclerc signalled the end of the 2020 lockdown by driving his F1 machine out of the famous archway at the factory, then trundling through the town to the figure-of-eight test circuit.

McLaren – Woking, United Kingdom

The McLaren Technology Centre

Photo by: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

• Founded: 1963
• National flag that McLaren races under: United Kingdom
• Grand prix wins: 189
• Constructors’ championships: 9 (1974, 1984-85, 1988-91, 1998, 2024)
• Drivers’ championships: 12 (1974, 1976, 1984-86, 1988-91, 1998-99, 2008)

McLaren has been based in Woking for as long as most F1 fans can remember. Though the team only moved into its existing McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) in 2004, it had previously been based in a more modest location a little closer to the town. Old-timers who worked at those Albert Drive premises would hardly recognise the MTC, where the building itself represents a key part of McLaren’s innovation portfolio. Consisting of six 18-metre-wide ‘fingers’, the MTC is built around a lake. There’s a strong emphasis on sustainability in both its operations and philosophy.

Aston Martin – Silverstone, United Kingdom

Aston Martin Silverstone factory rendering

Photo by: Aston Martin Racing

• Founded: 2021
• National flag that Aston Martin races under: United Kingdom
• Grand prix wins: 0
• Constructors’ championships: 0
• Drivers’ championships: 0

The Aston Martin F1 operation began in 2021, but it is just one of many teams to have worked from a facility located just across the road to Silverstone circuit. This factory can be traced back to Jordan Grand Prix, who moved there for its F1 debut in 1991 before rebranding as Midland ahead of the 2006 season, with the Russian outfit therefore taking over the facility.

It has since gone through five additional rebrands with Spyker, Force India, Racing Point Force India, Racing Point and now Aston Martin all using the Silverstone headquarter. However, in 2023, Aston Martin moved into an upgraded, purpose-built campus that lies around what had previously been used. 

Alpine – Enstone, United Kingdom and Viry-Chatillon, France

Nicolas Prost, Development Driver, Lotus F1 Team, Davide Valsecchi, Third Driver, Lotus F1 Team, Kimi Raikkonen, Driver, Lotus F1 Team, Gerard Lopez, Chairman, Lotus F1 Team, Eric Boullier, Team Principal, Lotus F1 Team, Romain Grosjean, Driver, Lotus F1 Team, and Jerome D’Ambrosio, Reserve Driver, Lotus F1 Team with the E21

Photo by: Lotus F1 Team

• Founded: 2021
• National flag that Alpine races under: France
• Grand prix wins: 1
• Constructors’ championships: 0
• Drivers’ championships: 0

The Enstone factory in Oxfordshire is another headquarter to have ‘changed hands’ several times, with a particularly complex history of branding and ownership twists providing the backdrop. But, the facility’s story began with Benetton who moved there in 1992 and used that base when it won its championships with Michael Schumacher in 1994 and 1995. 

Since 2002, the Enstone facility has served as a home to Renault (twice) and Lotus-Renault before undertaking Alpine branding in 2021. Alongside its Enstone factory though, Alpine uses a facility in the Parisian suburb of Viry-Chatillon which is dedicated to engine design, assembly and testing.

Williams – Grove, United Kingdom

Williams factory hedge

Photo by: Motorsport Images

• Founded: 1977
• National flag that Williams races under: United Kingdom
• Grand prix wins: 114
• Constructors’ championships: 9 (1980-81, 1986-87, 1992-94, 1996-97)
• Drivers’ championships: 7 (1980, 1982, 1987, 1992-93, 1996-97)

Having grown up in Didcot – and been based in the shadow of its cooling towers for many of its most successful years – Williams moved a little way across Oxfordshire in 1996. This new base, where the team remains today, was previously owned by Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. But the ‘topiary’ (sculpted hedge) of a car making a pitstop – complete with mechanics – leaves no doubt that this is now home to an F1 operation!

RB – Faenza, Italy

Oleg Karpov, editor Motorsport.com, Franz Tost, Team Principal, Scuderia AlphaTauri at the AlphaTauri Faenza tour

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

• Founded: 2024
• National flag that RB races under: Italy
• Grand prix wins: 0
• Constructors’ championships: 0
• Drivers’ championships: 0

Though the RB branding is still young, the team’s Faenza base is strongly linked to the historic Minardi squad. Founder Giancarlo Minardi had in fact included the town’s crest – a rampant lion – in its team badge. The perennial F1 tail-enders were based there from 1985 until 2005, after which the location was taken over by Red Bull and morphed into Scuderia Toro Rosso. The factory underwent its switch to AlphaTauri colours ahead of the 2020 season, before the Red Bull-owned squad went through another rebrand for 2024, this time as RB. 

Sauber – Hinwil, Switzerland

The Sauber factory

Photo by: Motorsport Images

• Founded: 1993
• National flag that Sauber races under: Switzerland
• Grand prix wins: 1
• Constructors’ championships: 0
• Drivers’ championships: 0

F1 cars have been run out of the Hinwil facility since 1993, when Sauber entered the world championship under its own name. Since then, the squad founded by Swissman Peter Sauber has alternated between manufacturer partnerships (notably with BMW from 2006 to 2009, during which period it won the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix) and operating as a marque of its own.

Its latest manufacturer partnership came with Alfa Romeo from 2019 to 2023 before returning as Sauber in 2024 ahead of Audi’s takeover in 2026. When that happens, it is expected that the Audi F1 team will operate between two facilities: Hinwil and a power unit base in Neuburg, Germany.

Haas – Kannapolis, USA, Banbury, England and Maranello, Italy 

Haas F1

Photo by: Haas F1 Team

• Founded: 2016
• National flag that Haas races under: USA
• Wins: 0
• Constructors’ championships: 0
• Drivers’ championships: 0

Haas goes completely off-piste in terms of its ‘factory’ set-up. While other teams try to keep things under one roof or at least in the same area – and all are based in Europe – Haas has three bases spread across two continents!

As home to sister NASCAR team Stewart-Haas Racing, Kannapolis, a city in North Carolina, was chosen as location for the official base. But running an F1 team entirely out of the United States isn’t practical in the Europe-heavy calendar, so there’s a workshop in England where the cars are tended between races. This location, in Banbury, was formerly home to the Marussia team.

But it gets more complicated still, because Haas uses Ferrari engines and has close links with the Scuderia. Thus, Haas has a base in Maranello too. Simply put – and there is plenty of overlap – America does administration, England does operations and Italy does the design/build.

Why are so many F1 teams based in the UK?

The United Kingdom has been the hub of the F1 world for several decades now. Though the first great racing marques, such as Alfa Romeo, Mercedes and Ferrari, were European automotive giants, the 1950s saw the emergence of specialist British engineering operations able to take them on in F1. This was crucial in Britain’s emergence as a focal point for the industry.

Vanwall set the tone by winning the 1957 British GP and claiming the constructors’ world championship the following year. Success then began to flow for Lotus, Cooper, BRM and the Coventry-Climax engine. With most of these operations willing to scale up and sell their wares to privateers, an ecosystem grew up around F1 in the UK – and more specifically in the south-east of England. When Australia’s Jack Brabham and New Zealand’s Bruce McLaren founded their own teams in the 1960s, for example, it made sense for them to set up shop in that area too.

Patrick Head and Frank Williams at the launch of the Williams FW06 at their new Factory

Photo by: Sutton Images

It didn’t hurt that the UK offered plenty of circuits for testing and development. While there had been few places to go racing before World War 2, disused RAF airfields such as Silverstone were re-purposed into circuits when peace came. This played an important role in the motorsport industry taking root where it did: even today, teams like Mercedes, Red Bull and Aston Martin are based close to the British GP venue.

Though the majority of F1 races have always involved a trip across the Channel, and other locations may have been more geographically sound as a base, the UK offered little incentive for teams to move once an industry had developed around not just F1 but motorsport as a whole. The pool of mechanical and engineering talent available in the UK snowballed, and today the south-east of England is probably home to more skilled motorsport specialists than anywhere else in the world.

Now that entering F1 has become highly restricted and exceedingly specialised, there is almost no way to break into the series without buying out an existing team – including its premises. Therefore it looks likely that the majority of F1 teams will continue to be based in the UK for the foreseeable future.