The Constructors' Championship
The Constructors' Championship is the title for teams. Each team's score is the points from both of its cars added together, across every Grand Prix and sprint of the season. The team with the most points at the end is world champion.
It has been awarded since 1958. The drivers' title is the one fans tend to remember, but for the teams, the constructors' title is often the bigger prize.
Why "constructors"?
Every F1 team has to design and build its own chassis, so the rules call them constructors. Teams don't have to make their own engines, and many buy them from another manufacturer. The title goes to the team, not the engine maker. You'll often see teams listed with their engine supplier attached, for example "Williams-Mercedes", which is the old convention of naming a constructor by chassis and engine. For more on who supplies whom, see engine manufacturers and customer teams.
How points are counted
The team scores whatever both of its drivers score, using the normal points system. So a one-two finish in a Grand Prix is worth 43 points to the team (25 plus 18).
A few things follow from that:
- Both drivers matter. A team with one star and a weak teammate can lose the constructors' title to a team with two solid drivers, even if the star wins the drivers' title.
- Stand-ins count. If a reserve driver races in place of a regular driver, their points still go to the team.
- Team penalties hit this table only. In serious cases the FIA can take points off a team without touching its drivers' totals. The most famous example is 2007, when McLaren were excluded from the constructors' standings over the "Spygate" affair, while their drivers kept their points.
Ties are broken the same way as for drivers: most wins first, then most second places, and so on, counting the results of both cars. See how ties are broken.
Why it's worth so much
Formula 1 pays a large part of its prize money to teams based on where they finish in this championship. The gap between one position and the next can be worth millions of dollars, which is a big deal under the cost cap. That's why you'll see teams near the back fighting hard over a single point in the final races.
Finishing position also affects how much wind tunnel and CFD time a team is allowed. Teams lower down the table get more time to develop their cars, as a way of helping them catch up. So finishing lower brings a small development advantage, though it's never enough to make that worth aiming for.
See prize money and how teams make money for more on the money side.
Records
Going into 2026, Ferrari had won the most constructors' titles, with 16. McLaren were next with 10, then Williams with 9.
Drivers' and constructors' champions don't always match
Because the constructors' title needs points from both cars, it doesn't always go to the champion driver's team. In 2008, for example, Lewis Hamilton won the drivers' title with McLaren while Ferrari took the constructors' championship. It's happened plenty of times, most often in seasons where two teams are close and one has the stronger pair of drivers.