Hidden Costs For F1 Teams: Highest To Lowest Cost Of Crashes For Each Driver In 2023

Ranking of most to least expensive Formula One drivers based on their crashes throughout the 2023 F1 season.

With budget caps introduced to Formula One, big teams now cannot just pour 300 or 500 million into development and have to watch out for every single penny to make sure their money is spent effectively.

However, one of the hidden costs they face is repairing their own cars after their drivers crash them. As the chart below demonstrates, these repairs can be very expensive, and the teams must sacrifice money that would otherwise be spent on developing upgrades.

The most expensive drive in 2023 in terms of repair costs has been Logan Sargeant. While his salary has been estimated to be around one million, his team had to spend more for additional repairs after his multiple mistakes.

For a while, it was not clear whether the American driver would get a seat in Williams after 2023, but it was recently announced he would get a second chance in 2024.

Scuderia Ferrari team struggled with undrivable cars, and it shows that both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are in the top ten. The Italian team had to spend $5,558,000 on car repairs in 2023.

Only five drivers cost their teams less than one million dollars, and two of them were from Mercedes. Silver Arrows spent the smallest amount of money on repairs and can, therefore, put a lot more into radical car concept changes going into 2024.

The chart also shows that experience matters as the top five least crashing drivers include 3 World Champions - Fernando Alonso, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen had a flawless and probably the most consistent season Formula One has ever seen, and this is yet another stat that confirms the Dutchman's perfection in 2023.

On the other hand, his teammate Sergio Perez, who recently confirmed he had some really difficult moments in 2023, was the third most expensive driver in terms of crashes.

Source: @FDataAnalysis