Which F1 team is the most British? I scored the 2026 grid out of 100

Ask most people which Formula 1 team is British and they will say McLaren or Williams. Fair enough. But six of the eleven teams on the grid have their main base in Britain: McLaren at Woking, Williams at Grove, Mercedes at Brackley, Aston Martin at Silverstone, Red Bull Racing at Milton Keynes and Alpine at Enstone. Four more have a second base here, and only Ferrari has no base in Britain at all. So, taking everything into account, calling a team “British” is harder than it sounds.

I decided to settle it properly, in my own head at least, and I thought I would share my thoughts with you. I scored all eleven teams on the 2026 grid out of 100 on eight simple tests, added up the points and ranked them. Some of the results are what you would expect. A few are not. You might not agree, so feel free to cast your vote in the poll below.

Open the snapshot: the whole story in five points ▾

• Six of the eleven teams on the 2026 grid have their main base in Britain, and four more have a second base here.
• I scored every team out of 100 on eight tests: where it is based, who owns it, the racing licences of its two drivers, the licence the team races under, its team boss, where its engine is built and where it was founded.
• McLaren comes first on 60. Williams also scores 60, but McLaren wins the tie-break because Lando Norris races under a British licence and neither Williams driver does.
• Mercedes is third on 52 and Aston Martin fourth on 50. British bases and engines lift Mercedes, while Aston Martin’s Canadian owner, Japanese engines and non-British drivers hold it back.
• Ferrari, Audi and Cadillac share last place on 10 each. No team comes close to 100: even McLaren has no British owners, an Italian boss and only one British driver.

How I scored them

Test	Points
Main base and factory in Britain	2010 if Britain is only a second base
British owners	20In proportion, so a one-third British stake scores about 7
Driver racing under a British licence, first seat	10
Driver racing under a British licence, second seat	10
Races under a British licence	15
British team boss	10
Engine built in Britain	10
Team first founded in Britain	5
Total	100

Where a team scores part points, I have rounded its total to the nearest whole number.

A team’s licence is the flag it races under on paper, and it does not always match where the team is based. Drivers are scored the same way, by the licence they race under. Some drivers have more than one nationality, so this is the fairest test I could find. It says nothing about who they are, only which flag they race under. That rule matters more than you might think, as you will see in the results.

If two teams finish on the same score, they share the place. The one exception is first place, where a tie is broken by the drivers’ racing licences. For most fans, the drivers are the people they follow and cheer for, so I felt that was the fairest way to decide it.

Here is the countdown, from least British to most.

Joint 9th: Ferrari, Audi and Cadillac (10 points each)

Ferrari is about as Italian as anything on four wheels. Italian base at Maranello, Italian licence, an Italian engine. Its team boss, Fred Vasseur, is French. Every one of its 10 points comes from one man: Lewis Hamilton. Without him, Ferrari would score nothing at all.

Turn the test around, though, and Ferrari comes into its own. Scored the same way for the most Italian team, it would get about 56: 20 for Maranello, 15 for its licence, 10 for its engine, 5 for being founded in Italy, and about 6 more because the Agnelli family’s company, Exor, and Piero Ferrari, son of the founder Enzo, own about a third of it between them. That would put Ferrari top of the Italian list by a distance, with Racing Bulls, the old Minardi team from Faenza, second on 40.

Audi builds its car in Hinwil, Switzerland, on the old Sauber site, and its engines in Neuburg, Germany. It races under a German licence. Its 10 points come from a technology centre in Bicester, Oxfordshire. Its drivers, Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, are German and Brazilian.

Cadillac joined the grid in 2026 as a new American-owned team, with its headquarters in Fishers, Indiana. But its race team works out of Silverstone, which earns it 10 points. The British link at the top has gone: Marcin Budkowski, a Polish-French engineer, took over as team boss in August 2026 from Graeme Lowdon, who is British.

8th: Haas (20 points)

Haas is an American team owned by Gene Haas, with its main base in Kannapolis, North Carolina, and a Ferrari engine in the back. It races under an American licence and its team boss, Ayao Komatsu, is Japanese.

It picks up 10 points for its forward base in Banbury, Oxfordshire, and another 10 for its British driver, Oliver Bearman.

Joint 6th: Red Bull Racing and Alpine (35 points each)

Red Bull Racing is a team that most British fans would struggle to call British. It is owned by an Austrian drinks company and races under an Austrian licence. Its drivers, Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, are Dutch and French, and its team boss, Laurent Mekies, is French too.

But the whole operation is in Milton Keynes, which earns it 20 points. In 2026 Red Bull started building its own engines, badged Red Bull Ford, in an engine hall on the same Milton Keynes campus. That is 10 more. And the team began life as Stewart Grand Prix, Sir Jackie Stewart’s British team, which first raced in 1997. That adds the final 5.

Alpine wears French blue, races under a French licence and is mostly owned by Renault. Its drivers are Pierre Gasly, who is French, and Franco Colapinto, who is Argentinian. Flavio Briatore, who is Italian, leads the team overall, with British managing director Steve Nielsen running it day to day. Briatore is in charge, so the team boss points go to Italy.

Underneath all that, though, is a very British team. Alpine is based at Enstone in Oxfordshire, the factory that was home to Benetton, Renault and Lotus before it. The team’s roots go back to Toleman, a British team that first raced in Formula 1 in 1981. And for 2026 Alpine switched to Mercedes engines, which are built at Brixworth in Northamptonshire. That is 35 points for a team most people think of as French.

5th: Racing Bulls (40 points)

Red Bull’s second team is the biggest surprise in my list. It started life as Minardi, a small Italian team from Faenza, and it is still based in Faenza and races under an Italian licence.

So how does it beat its big sister? Racing Bulls also has a base in Milton Keynes, which is worth 10 points. It shares the Red Bull Ford engine built there, another 10. Arvid Lindblad, who joined in 2026, races under a British licence, 10 more. And its team boss, Alan Permane, is British too. That is 40 points for an Italian team, five more than Red Bull Racing itself.

4th: Aston Martin (50 points)

A famous British name, a car in British racing green, a home at Silverstone and a British racing licence. Aston Martin gets 20 points for the base, 15 for the licence and 5 because the team started out as Jordan, which first raced in Formula 1 from Silverstone in 1991.

It also gets 10 for its British Team Principal, Adrian Newey, the designer behind some of the most successful cars in the sport.

So why only fourth? The team is owned by Canadian Lawrence Stroll. Its engines are Honda’s, built in Japan. And its drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, are Spanish and Canadian. Aston Martin is British in name and in address, but the money, the engine and the drivers all come from elsewhere.

3rd: Mercedes (52 points)

It would be easy to call Mercedes a German team, and on paper it is. It carries the Mercedes-Benz name, the car company owns a share of it, it races under a German licence and its team boss, Toto Wolff, is Austrian.

But look closer. The team is based at Brackley in Northamptonshire, worth 20 points. Its engines are built a short drive away at Brixworth, another 10. George Russell, who races under a British licence, scores 10. And the team’s family tree goes back through Brawn, Honda and BAR to Tyrrell, a British team, which adds 5.

There is one more twist. Ineos, the British chemicals firm founded by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, owns a third of the team. A third of my 20 points for British owners gives Mercedes about 7 more, and a total of 52.

2nd: Williams (60 points)

If any team feels British to the bone, it is Williams. Founded by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head in 1977, based at Grove in Oxfordshire, racing under a British licence and run by a British team boss, James Vowles. It also uses the Mercedes engine built at Brixworth.

Add it up and Williams scores 60, the same as McLaren.

Two things chip away at its score. The first is the owners. Since 2020 Williams has been owned by Dorilton Capital, an American investment firm, so it scores nothing for owners.

The second is the drivers. Carlos Sainz is Spanish. Alexander Albon was born in London and holds both British and Thai nationality, but he races under the Thai flag.

1st: McLaren (60 points)

On the 2026 grid, McLaren is the most British team in Formula 1, though only just.

It was founded in Britain in 1963 by Bruce McLaren, who was a New Zealander. It is based at Woking in Surrey, races under a British licence and uses the Mercedes engine built at Brixworth. That is 50 points before I even get to the drivers.

Then there is Lando Norris, the 2025 world champion, who raced with the number 1 on his car in 2026. He adds 10 more, for 60. His team-mate, Oscar Piastri, is Australian.

McLaren and Williams both score 60, but they get there in different ways. Williams has a British boss and no driver racing under a British licence. McLaren has a British driver and an Italian boss, Andrea Stella. On my tie-break, the team with more drivers racing under a British licence wins. McLaren has one, Williams has none, so McLaren takes first place.

What would make McLaren 100% British?

Even the winner only managed 60 out of 100. So what would it take to hit the full score?

British owners, 20 points. McLaren Racing is owned entirely by two investors from the Gulf. Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, is the majority owner, and Abu Dhabi’s CYVN Holdings has a smaller stake. Together they took full control of the race team in 2025.

A British team boss, 10 points. Andrea Stella has led the team to great success, but he is Italian.

A second driver racing under a British licence, 10 points. Partner Norris with another British driver in place of Oscar Piastri.

So a 100% British McLaren would need British money, a British boss and two drivers racing under British licences. No team on the 2026 grid comes close.

The final table

Facts correct as of 12 October 2026. Drivers and team bosses change, so I will update the scores when they do.

Over to you

Did I get it right, or would you pick a different team? Is a team really British if nobody British owns it? So tell me what you think in the poll below. Pick up to three teams you think are the most British.

Sources

Open the sources: all 14 links ▾

• Who are the 2026 Team Principals?, Formula 1
• 2026 Formula One World Championship, Wikipedia
• List of Formula One constructors, Wikipedia
• Inside Red Bull Powertrains, Motorsport.com
• Red Bull Powertrains, Wikipedia
• INEOS becomes a one-third shareholder in the Mercedes F1 team, INEOS
• Middle East funds take full control of McLaren Racing, Sportcal
• Williams Racing bought by US-based Dorilton Capital, SportBusiness
• Shareholder structure, Ferrari
• Alex Albon, Wikipedia
• Team Enstone, Wikipedia
• Adrian Newey to become Aston Martin Team Principal from 2026, Formula 1
• Alpine announces new F1 leadership figure Steve Nielsen, The Race
• Cadillac appoints Marcin Budkowski as new Team Principal, Cadillac