Have you ever heard of the price of a car driving over the 1 billion mark? Or find the price of a car wing worth more than 2 billion? If not, welcome to Formula 1 (F1), the most expensive sport in the universe.

Tens of billions of rupiah are not enough to build an F1 car. It takes hundreds of billions of rupiah to make an F1 car worthy of being pitted on the racing track. Even then, there is no guarantee that you will always win.

Not to mention the costs for research, development, crew salaries, driver salaries, production costs, operational costs, and so on. Maybe, this fantastic number does not matter for big teams like Ferrari or McLaren. However, for a small team, it is a tough problem. Curious? The following is information about the estimated costs required to build an F1 car.

Machine

The engine is the most important component in F1. Each team is competing to formulate powerful machines so that they can provide sufficient speed to lead racers and constructors to become champions.

Therefore, the costs incurred by the F1 team to build a powerful 1.6-liter turbo-charged V6 engine are quite expensive, around 8 to 10.5 million US dollars (150 billion), depending on the team’s needs. However, that price could go up to around US $ 14 million or more than 200 billion, if a team wants a faster engine.

The high cost of an F1 engine is not only calculated from the material, but also includes research, development, use of technology and other costs. Then, what you need to know is, the age of an F1 engine is not like a car engine in general which can be used for decades. On average, this land jet engine can only last up to 7 races. So, like it or not, it must be replaced.

Gearbox

The gearbox in F1 is made of carbon titanium, which has a semi-automatic transmission with a total of 9 speeds, i.e. eight forward and one reverse. Usually, the speed changes are controlled by the buttons on the F1 steering wheel. The cost spent by an F1 team when building a gearbox is about 450 thousand dollars, which equals more than 6.4 billion. However, this does not include the upgrade costs so that the gearbox can achieve higher performance. It can cost up to 160 thousand dollars, or about 2.2 billion.

Steering wheel

In addition to the constructor team, the steering wheel is the brain behind the success of F1 drivers to win while competing on the circuit. Almost all F1 controls are on the steering wheel, from transmission changes, radio switches, pit stop features, to overtaking features on the F1 steering wheel. Therefore, the costs incurred to make an F1 steering wheel are not kidding. A team can disburse funds of 60 thousand to 100 thousand dollars (875 million – 1.4 billion), depending on the needs of the drivers.

Tire

Tires are the only F1 component that will provide direct traction to the asphalt. There are five types of tires supplied by Pirelli in F1 races, namely superhard, hard, medium, soft, and supersoft types. The five tires are distinguished by the color on the walls. Superhard type uses orange, then hard is given green, while medium is white. Two other tires, namely soft and supersoft, each get yellow and red. On average, one F1 tire costs US $ 1,715, if it is converted into Rupiah, it is around 24.5 million, or the price of 1 Honda Vario 150 motorbike.

Front and rear wings

Finally, the wings, which help F1 to get a balanced ride, especially when turning. At the front, the F1 wing will be attached to the nose cone, which is a funnel that functions as an aerodynamic system. The price of the front wing and nose cone is around 160 thousand US dollars or 2.87 billion. Sadly, this price does not include the rear wing. So, the team had to dig deeper into the pockets to add a rear wing to F1.

The price of the F1 rear wing is around 150 thousand US dollars (2.14 billion), including the Drag Reduction System (DRS), which is a feature that helps the car get more speed when in a straight line. If you’ve ever seen the rear wing of F1 open and close during a race, that is a performance of the DRS, which is set by the driver via the buttons on the steering wheel.