It is important to note this is the aggregate of two cars, not two drivers. The Sporting Regulations allow each team to use up to four drivers across the season, and all of their points will count in the Constructors’ Championship. Thus, in 2023 AlphaTauri (known today as Racing Bulls) had Yuki Tsunoda drive the whole season, with Nyck de Vries, Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson sharing the other car. The Italian team finished eighth in the championship with 25 points – Tsunoda scoring 17, Ricciardo six and Lawson two.
The scoring system awards championship points for the first ten finishers at each Grand Prix, with 25 points for the winner, before scaling down to 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, and a single point for 10th-place. There’s an additional point available for the driver with the fastest lap of the race (if they finish in the top ten), plus more points available for success in F1 Sprint races. The team with the most points at the end of the year wins the title. No end of season play-offs.
READ MORE: The beginner’s guide to the F1 Drivers’ Championship
What do F1 teams get for winning?
Formula 1’s prize money is allocated according to finishing position within the Constructors’ Championship, and usually this is reflected in the bonuses paid to team staff at the end of the year – but more than that, it’s bragging rights and the respect of peers – sometimes even a little bit more garage space if there’s an odd number of units in the pit-building!
F1 drivers don’t get prize money for winning, though they’ll likely also receive a nice financial bonus on top of the base salary they’re paid by their team, so the Constructors’ Championship is taken very seriously.
Even though an F1 team might clinch the title before the end of the campaign (when it’s no longer mathematically possible for anyone else to catch them), it’s at the end of the season that the team with the most championship points officially receives the historic FIA Formula One World Constructors’ Championship Trophy.
