Ron Meadows
Mercedes Salary
Sporting Director
What Ron Meadows Earns as Mercedes Sporting Director
Ron Meadows earns a base salary of £200k-450k ($265k-596k) as Mercedes sporting director on our figures, the band we apply to sporting and racing directors. A bonus of £20k-135k ($27k-179k) would make his year worth £220k-585k ($292k-775k).
What Mercedes actually pays him has never been reported. His tenure is the unusual part. Meadows has held the sporting director title since the Honda years, so Brawn’s 2009 double and the eight Mercedes constructors’ titles from 2014 to 2021 all came with him in the job.
Anonymous motorsport pay survey behind the sporting director band and the 10% to 30% bonus range used for Meadows.
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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
Meadows, the FIA and the Mercedes Race Team
Meadows is responsible for how Mercedes operates under F1’s sporting regulations. He deals with the FIA on the team’s behalf at races, and the sporting administration and compliance work runs through his office too.
He reports to Toto Wolff and works alongside Andrew Shovlin, whose brief is car performance. Meadows looks after the race team itself, including garage personnel and recruitment, and he’s spoken in interviews about how much the rulebook has changed around that work. Few people in the pit lane have done more of the jobs he now oversees. He started as a mechanic.
Profile of Meadows' early years as a mechanic, his junior racing and IndyCar work, and his move to Brackley.
Interview in which Meadows explains how the sporting director's job covers garage staffing and keeps changing with the rules.
Meadows Compared With Other F1 Sporting Directors
Ferrari’s Diego Ioverno and McLaren’s Will Courtenay are on the same £200k-450k ($265k-596k) as Meadows, the band every F1 sporting director gets in our pay tables. Time in the job separates them. Meadows had the title in the Honda years, long before either of them took theirs.
Ron Meadows' F1 Career and the Years Before It
Meadows began as a TWR mechanic in 1980, later ran his own junior teams and managed in IndyCar, then helped BAR build its factory operation in 1998.
Meadows and the Rest of the Mercedes Management
Nobody on the Mercedes staff pages has been at Brackley longer than Meadows, who arrived in 1998, a year before Andrew Shovlin. His pay band is more modest. It sits under Shovlin’s package of around £1m ($1.3m) and well below Toto Wolff‘s £4m-7m ($5.3m-9.3m).
Ron Meadows FAQs
Ron Meadows is the sporting director of the Mercedes F1 team and one of the longest-serving figures at its Brackley base. The Liverpool-born former mechanic helped set up BAR’s factory operation in 1998, became team manager after the 1999 season and took the sporting director’s title during the Honda years.
As Mercedes sporting director, Ron Meadows earns a base salary of £200k-450k ($265k-596k) on F1 Salaries’ figures. A bonus of £20k-135k ($27k-179k) would take his year to £220k-585k ($292k-775k). Mercedes keeps his pay private, and no outlet has put a number on it.
Ron Meadows climbed through almost every job in a race team. He was a TWR mechanic from 1980, worked in Formula 3 and rallying, ran his own F3 and F3000 teams and managed at Walker Racing in IndyCar. BAR then hired him in 1998, and team manager and sporting director roles followed.
During a race weekend, Ron Meadows handles Mercedes’ dealings with the FIA. Sporting questions, regulatory paperwork and any matters in front of the stewards go through his side of the team. He’s also responsible for making sure the whole operation, in the garage and on the pit wall, complies with the sporting regulations.
Since 1998, Ron Meadows has worked for the team now called Mercedes, which was then being built as British American Racing. He stayed through its Honda, Brawn, and Mercedes identities, and he’s held the sporting director title since the Honda years, with sources dating it to between 2006 and 2008.