Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams told reporters this week he wants to own a Formula 1 team after his playing career ends, becoming the latest North American athlete to publicly signal interest in a motorsport asset class that closed its last available entry door in 2024.
Williams joins Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes—who took a minority stake in Alpine F1 last October for an undisclosed sum rumored near $200 million—and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has explored ownership paths while simultaneously announcing he'll drive for Ferrari starting in 2025. The difference: Mahomes bought when a seat existed. Williams is declaring interest in a market with ten teams, a Concorde Agreement that runs through 2030, and no public signs any current owner wants to sell.
The timing matters because F1 team valuations have doubled since 2023. Andretti Global spent $200 million and two years trying to enter as an eleventh constructor, only to be rejected by Formula 1 Management in January 2024 on commercial grounds. The existing ten teams collect roughly $70 million each annually from the sport's prize fund; adding an eleventh dilutes that by approximately $6 million per team. Liberty Media, which owns F1's commercial rights, has made clear it views scarcity as a feature, not a bug. The anti-dilution fee for a new entrant now sits at $450 million, split among existing teams—a number designed to make entry unpalatable unless the applicant brings transformative commercial value.
What Williams likely watched: Mahomes's Alpine deal included trackside access, brand integration with his production company, and exposure to a paddock where sponsors pay $80 million annually for title partnerships. That's the athlete calculus—F1 offers brand elevation, global reach, and a financial instrument (the team itself) that appreciated 22% year-over-year in 2023 according to Forbes valuations. Haas F1, the smallest budget team, was valued at $710 million last spring. McLaren, mid-pack commercially, cleared $1.2 billion. Red Bull Racing, which won both championships in 2023, doesn't publish a valuation but investment bankers privately estimate $2.5 billion or higher.
The path forward for Williams is narrow. He either waits for an existing owner to sell—Haas is perpetually rumored, Sauber (soon to be Audi's works team) has changed hands three times since 2016—or he watches from the sidelines. The sport's current Concorde Agreement locks in ten teams through 2030, and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has said publicly he won't consider expansion applications until 2028 at the earliest. Meanwhile, the queue forming behind Williams includes NBA owners, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth allocators, and at least two Silicon Valley family offices that have quietly hired motorsport consultants in the past 18 months.
Worth noting: Williams is 22 years old and signed a four-year rookie deal worth $39.5 million fully guaranteed. If he plays fifteen seasons—roughly league average for a franchise quarterback—he'll be 37 in 2039, a decade past the current Concorde expiration. By then, F1 may have twelve teams, or it may still have ten and be worth triple what it is now. Either way, he's not the only one doing the math.
What to watch: Whether Mahomes's Alpine stake generates visible ROI in the next 24 months—trackside appearances, co-branded content, disclosed performance bonuses tied to constructor standings. If that model works, expect more athletes to formalize advisory roles or minority stakes in existing teams as a bridge to eventual ownership. Also watch Haas: Gene Haas is 71, his team runs on a $140 million annual budget (smallest on the grid), and he's never publicly named a succession plan. If he sells in the next 36 months, the buyer will likely come from this exact cohort—athletes with nine-figure liquid net worth, global brand leverage, and no other way into the sport.
The efficient market hypothesis says Williams already missed his window. The gossip register says he's early—someone always sells, and the longer he waits, the richer he gets. The reality is probably both.
The takeaway
Williams joins Mahomes in eyeing F1 ownership, but with ten teams locked through 2030 and no sellers in sight, the queue is growing faster than the grid.
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