Marcus Dudley
Mercedes Salary
Race Engineer to George Russell
Marcus Dudley's Salary as George Russell's Engineer at Mercedes
Marcus Dudley’s salary as George Russell’s race engineer is £100k-180k ($133k-239k) on our figures, the base band we use for race engineers. Add a bonus of £10k-54k ($13k-72k) and his year comes to £110k-234k ($146k-310k).
Mercedes doesn’t publish engineer pay. Russell’s own base salary is a reported $34m. Across the garage, Peter Bonnington sits in a higher £250k-600k ($331k-795k) band because he runs the race engineering department as well as Kimi Antonelli’s car.
Anonymous survey with a race engineer average near £69k, the starting point for Dudley's F1 band and bonus range.
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Insider · Issue 23
01 · The Last Race
Singapore by Salary
Pos
Driver
Pts
Salary
1
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
25
$70m
2
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
18
$34m
3
Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes
15
$3.4m
4
Lando Norris
McLaren
12
$30m
5
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
10
$13m
6
Insider+
7
Insider+
Our Take · Insider+
What Each Point Now Costs Red Bull
Dudley's Work on George Russell's Car and Radio
Dudley is the engineer on George Russell‘s radio and runs his car across a Grand Prix weekend. He owns its setup and turns Russell’s feedback into changes, with the car’s performance engineers feeding their analysis through him.
Peter Bonnington heads race engineering at Mercedes and engineers Kimi Antonelli. Before the Russell job in 2023, Dudley spent a decade as a Mercedes performance engineer, so he knows the data side of the role from the inside.
His old school's report of a visit by Dudley, which covers his Leeds degree and his route through Honda, Arden, and Marussia.
Lists Dudley as George Russell's race engineer for the 2026 season.
Confirms the Russell and Dudley pairing for 2026 and dates its start to 2023.
Dudley and the Other Race Engineers on the Grid
Dudley shares the £100k-180k ($133k-239k) band we give most F1 race engineers, including Ferrari’s Bryan Bozzi on Charles Leclerc’s car. Engineers with a department to run sit higher. McLaren’s Will Joseph, who also engineers Lando Norris, is on £200k-450k ($265k-596k).
How Marcus Dudley's F1 Career Led to Russell's Car
Honda gave Dudley his first F1 job at Brackley in 2006, and he returned to the same factory with Mercedes in 2013 after spells at Arden and Marussia.
Where Dudley Fits in the Mercedes Engineering Chain
Dudley is one of two race engineers with a staff page at Mercedes, and his band is the lowest on the team’s list. Andrew Shovlin, who runs trackside engineering, has a package of around £1m ($1.3m), and Toto Wolff tops the list on £4m-7m ($5.3m-9.3m).
Marcus Dudley and George Russell FAQs
George Russell’s race engineer is Marcus Dudley, who has run his car at Mercedes since the start of 2023. Dudley took over from Riccardo Musconi, Russell’s engineer in his first Mercedes season, after ten years as a performance engineer at the team. The pairing is in its fourth season in 2026.
In 2023, Marcus Dudley became George Russell’s race engineer, not in 2024 as some profiles say. It was Russell’s second season at Mercedes and Dudley’s first as a full-time race engineer. He’d spent the ten years before that in the team’s performance engineering group.
Marcus Dudley earns a base of £100k-180k ($133k-239k) on F1 Salaries’ figures, and a bonus of £10k-54k ($13k-72k) would take his year to £110k-234k ($146k-310k). Mercedes doesn’t disclose engineer pay. That’s the same band as most race engineers on the grid.
Honda, Arden and Marussia all employed Marcus Dudley before Mercedes. He joined Honda’s F1 team in 2006 after studying automotive engineering at Leeds, moved to Arden in GP2 and returned to Formula 1 with Marussia in 2012. Mercedes hired him the following year.
Yes, Marcus Dudley stood in as Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer when Peter Bonnington missed the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix, and Hamilton won that race. At the time Dudley was a performance engineer in Hamilton’s group. Before that he’d worked on Nico Rosberg’s side of the garage.