Constructors are people or corporate entities which design key parts ofFormula One cars that have competed or are intended to compete in theFIA World Championship. Since1981, it has been a requirement that each competitor must have the exclusive rights to the use of certain key parts of their car; in2018, these parts were the survival cell, the front impact structure, the roll structures and bodywork.[7]
Ferrari holds the record for the most Constructors' and Drivers' Championships won with sixteen and fifteen, respectively.[8][9] Ferrari also holds the record for the most wins by a constructor with 248,[10] the most pole positions with 254,[11] the most points with 10722,[12] and the most podiums with 836.[13] Ferrari has also entered more Grands Prix than any other constructor with 1124 entries and also maintains the record for the most Grand Prix starts with 1122.[14] The most recent constructor to make their debut wasRacing Bulls, which debuted at the2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.[15]
InFormula One racing the terms "constructor" and "entrant" have specific and differing meanings. An entrant is the person or corporate entity that registers a car and driver for a race, and is then responsible for preparing and maintaining that car during the race weekend. As a result of this preparation role and active involvement in the running of the race, the term "team" has become commonly applied to an entrant organisation.[citation needed] Statisticians do not always agree on how to count statistics related to these entities.[16]
Under Article 6.3 of the FIA Sporting Regulations, "A constructor is the person (including any corporate or unincorporated body) which designs the Listed Parts set out in Appendix 6. The make of an engine or chassis is the name attributed to it by its constructor."[7] These "listed parts" include the survival cell, the front impact structure, the roll structures and bodywork. However, if the chassis and engine are made by different entities, the constructor comprises both (e.g.McLaren-Mercedes,Lotus-Climax etc.), with the name of the chassis constructor being placed before that of the engine constructor.[7][17] As both chassis and engine are included in the constructor name, chassis run with different engines are counted as two separate constructors and score points separately.[7] This occurred for the last time in the1985 season when theTyrrell team ran their chassis powered by bothFord andRenault engines, scored points with both engines and thus finishing 9th asTyrrell-Ford and 10th asTyrrell-Renault in the World Constructors' Championship.
Under article 6.2 of the FIA sporting regulations, "The title of Formula One World Champion Constructor will be awarded to the competitor which has scored the highest number of points".[7] From the inaugural season of theWorld Constructors' Championship in1958 up until the1978 season only the highest-scoring driver in each race for each constructor contributed points towards the World Constructors' Championship (then officially as theInternational Cup for Formula One Constructors); since the1979 season points from all cars entered by each constructor have counted towards their championship total.
Since the1981 season theFIA have required that Formula One entrants own the intellectual rights to the chassis that they enter, and so the distinction between the terms "entrant" and "constructor", and hence also "team", have become less pronounced, though the intellectual rights of engines may still be owned by a different entity.[a] That season also saw theInternational Cup for Formula One Constructors be officially renamed to theWorld Constructors' Championship.
Before this time, constructors were free to sell their chassis to as many other teams as they liked.Brabham andLotus chassis were used extensively by other teams during the 1960s and 1970s and several quite competitiveprivateer teams never built their own chassis.Rob Walker Racing Team was the most successful example, being responsible for the first victories in Formula One for bothCooper and Lotus. The concept of a"works" or "factory" team (i.e. the official team of the company producing the cars, as opposed to a customer team which buys them off the shelf) therefore applied to chassis in the same way as it does inrallying andsports car racing.
There have been some recent exceptions where a specialist company, not itself entered in the championship, has been commissioned to design and build a chassis for a team, e.g.Lola built cars for theLarrousse team (1987-1991) and theScuderia Italia team (1993) andDallara built cars for the Scuderia Italia team (1988-1992). Larousse had their points from the1990 season erased after the FIA decided that they had falsely nominated themselves and not Lola as the chassis constructor. In1978, the newArrows team which had been established by formerShadow personnel was sued by Shadow on the grounds that the Arrows FA/1 car was a copy of Shadow's DN9 – a view upheld by the UKHigh Court, which placed a ban on Arrows racing the FA/1. There have been more recent cases withLigier (1995),Sauber (2004),Scuderia Toro Rosso (2006–2007) andSuper Aguri (2007–2008) where teams have been accused of using a chassis produced by another constructor (respectivelyBenetton,Ferrari,Red Bull Racing andHonda). No action was taken against any of these teams, the sporting authorities being satisfied in each case that the team owned the intellectual property to the chassis they raced.
From the middle of the1973 season (the1973 Belgian Grand Prix)[18] until the end of the2013 season,each team had permanent racing numbers from race to race throughout the season. Between the1974 and1995 seasons the numbers were based on the teams' finishing positions in the 1973 Constructors' Championship (with slight modifications, e.g. Ferrari's traditional numbers were 11–12 until1980 and 27–28 from1981 onwards) and each team only changed numbers if they had the driver who had won the World Drivers' Championship in the previous season – the winning driver taking the number 1 and his teammate the number 2, and the team that had previously had those numbers switching to the newly vacated ones. Between1996 and2013 the numbers were based on the teams' finishing positions in the Constructors' Championship from the previous season, with numbers 1 and 2 assigned to the defending champion and his teammate. During the period of 1974–1995Tyrrell was the only team to keep the same numbers (3 and 4) every season. Since2014, racing numbers have been assigned to drivers instead of teams.
The number of cars entered by one team into a single race was not strictly limited in the 1950s and early 1960s. Since the1963 season teams were generally allowed to enter only two regular cars, with the third car reserved for an occasional driver. This rule was further promoted in the1974 season when the permanent racing numbers were assigned to each team in pairs, with the third car having the racing number out of the pair. Entering more than three cars was exceptionally tolerated, most notably regarding theBRM team in the1971 and1972 seasons. However, many teams during this period entered only two cars, e.g. Ferrari have entered no more than two cars (with one exception at the1976 Italian Grand Prix in connection withLauda's comeback)[19] every season since1973. Since the1985 season the FIA have required that teams enter no more than two cars for a race; during this seasonRenault became the last team to have entered three cars for a race at the1985 German Grand Prix, but only two of their cars were eligible for championship points.
Unlike drivers who are required to compete in the FIA Formula One World Championship under the nationality of their passport[20] and in case of amultiple citizenship they can choose their "official" nationality, the FIA'sInternational Sporting Code states that teams competing in the FIA Formula One World Championship shall compete under the nationality of their parentNational Automobile Club that issued their FIA racing licence.[21] On the basis of this regulation, despite the fact that most current teams are based in the UK, only the teams licensed by theBritish National Sporting Authority -Aston Martin,Williams, andMcLaren - represent Great Britain in Formula One.
Teams take the nationality of their parent National Automobile Club that issued their licence for the period of validity of that licence and the change of the nationality is allowed. Several teams changed their nationality during their competition in Formula One, some of them even twice (e.g.Shadow in1976 from American to British,[22]Benetton in1996 from British to Italian,[23]Red Bull in2007 from British to Austrian,[24]Renault in2011 from French to British and in2016 back to French[25]). At the1997 German Grand Prix Benetton became the only team to have achieved victories while racing under two nationalities. The team's nationality, determined by a racing licence that a team holds (and not by a team's base nor by a team's ownership), subsequently determines a national anthem played after a race on the podium in honour of a winning team following a national anthem played in honour of a winning driver, e.g. both in2000 and2001Benetton was owned by the French companyRenault and was based in Britain, yet in case of win an Italian anthem would have been played for a winning team because the French-owned British-based team held an Italian licence in both seasons.
Before the arrival ofsponsorship liveries in the1968 season the team's nationality also determined thecolour of a car entered by the team; thus, Italian teams' cars wererosso corsa red, French werebleu de France blue, and British (with several exceptions, such as cars entered by teamsRob Walker,[26]Brabham[27] andMcLaren[28]) wereBritish racing green. Since the licence is given to a team and not to a constructor,[29]privateer teams entering cars built by constructors from another country before the 1968 season painted cars in the national colour of their home country, e.g. the FrenchGuy Ligier's privateer team entered cars painted inbleu de France blue in1966 and1967 seasons despite the fact that they were built by the British constructorCooper.[30]
The fact that most teams are based in the UK has led to several mistakes occurred on official entry lists issued by orpodium ceremonies organized by theFIA or race organisers, e.g.Wolf[31][32] racing under a Canadian licence, andShadow (in1973)[33] andPenske,[34][35] both holding American licences, were all identified as British teams by official entry lists; theBritish national anthem was also played on the podium in honour of the Irish-licensedJordan team and the Austrian-licensedRed Bull team when they achieved their maiden victories at the1998 Belgian Grand Prix and2009 Chinese Grand Prix respectively.[36][37]
Note: Until1965 aworks team of every constructor was licensed in the country where it was in fact based. In 1965 Japanese-licensedHonda moved their works team from Tokyo, Japan to Amsterdam, Netherlands, followed in1966 by the American-licensedAnglo American Racers team which was based in Rye, East Sussex, United Kingdom.[38] Since the early 2000s most teams have been based in the United Kingdom, and either licensed there or in another country, with the rest based in Italy (Maranello and Faenza), Switzerland (Hinwil), and the United States (Kannapolis).[39]
Key:Licensed in = Country in which theworks team of respective constructor is licensed; Races Entered = Number of individual races entered; Races Started = Number of individual races started; Drivers = Number ofdrivers; Total Entries = Total number of race entries; Wins = Number of races won; Points = Number ofWorld Constructors' Championship points scored; Poles = Number ofpole positions; FL = Number offastest laps; Podiums = Number of podium finishes; WCC = World Constructors' Championships won; WDC = World Drivers' Championships won.
Key:Licensed in = Country in which theworks team of respective constructor was licensed; Races Entered = Number of individual races entered; Races Started = Number of individual races started; Drivers = Number ofdrivers; Total Entries = Total number of race entries; Wins = Number of races won; Points = Number ofConstructors' Championship points scored; Poles = Number ofpole positions; FL = Number offastest laps; Podiums. = Number of podium finishes; WCC = Constructors' Championships won; WDC = Drivers' Championships won.
From the inaugural1950 British Grand Prix until the1981 Spanish Grand Prix numerousprivateer teams entered cars, built by another companies as their constructors, in World Championship events. Some of them, such asTyrrell andWilliams, later began to build their own chassis and thus becameconstructors as well asworks teams. At the 1981 Spanish Grand Prix theEquipe Banco Occidental team became the last privateer team to have entered a car for a race alongside a works team when they entered a Williams car alongside the Williams works team.[68] During the period of the1950–1981 seasons, privateer teams won 20 World Championship races in total. Only once (theMatra International team in1969) a privateer team helped a constructor (Matra) to win theWorld Constructors' Championship and a driver (Jackie Stewart) to win theWorld Drivers' Championship. The following are privateer teams which never built their own chassis, and thus were notconstructors:
^From1993 to2005, from2010 to2018 and from2024 to2025 Sauber had a Swiss licence (in 2010 asBMW Sauber and from2024 to2025 asKick Sauber); from2006 to2009, a German one (asBMW Sauber).
^From1973 to1975 Shadow had an American licence; from1976 to1980, a British one.[63]
^"FIA International Sporting Code"(PDF).FIA.com.Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 13 October 2013. p. 34.Archived(PDF) from the original on 25 January 2015. Retrieved25 January 2015.9.5.2 All Drivers, irrespective of the nationality of their Licence, participating in any FIA World Championship Competition, shall retain the nationality of their passport in all official documents, publications and prize‐giving ceremonies.
Although World Championship races held in 1952 and 1953 were run to Formula Two regulations, constructors who only participated during this period are included herein to maintain Championship continuity. Constructors whose only participation in the World Championship was in theIndianapolis 500 races between 1950 and 1960 are not listed.
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AE Moss (1954)
BMS Scuderia Italia (1988–1993)
Camoradi International (1959–1961)
Ecurie Belge (1950–1953)
Ecurie Bleue [sv] (1950,1959–1960)
Ecurie Bonnier (1957–1958,1966–1971)
Ecurie Espadon (1950–1952)
Ecurie Maarsbergen (1957–1964)
Equipe Banco Occidental (1981)
Escuderia Bandeirantes (1951–1953)
John Willment Automobiles (1964–1965)
Otelle Nucci [de] (1962–1963,1965)
Scuderia Sud Americana (1958)
Team Gunston (1962–1963,1965,1967–1972,1974–1975)
