Red Bull parent company quadrupled its Formula 1 team spend in 2016

Red Bull GmbH provided £40.6million to Red Bull Racing last year, compared to a £10.1m payment during the previous season, according to its company accounts up to December 31 2016.

The squad's performance declined over the two campaigns before 2016; Red Bull went from constructors' world champion in 2013 to runner-up in '14 and a winless fourth the year after.

Red Bull also split with its previous title sponsor Infiniti at the end of 2015, although that was offset somewhat by a TAG Heuer branding deal for its Renault engines.

The team made a small profit overall last year, although that figure was down on its margin from 2015.

Red Bull Racing generated a turnover of £197m in 2016, nearly all of which was spent on its F1 programme.

It earned a combined £197,949,000 from outside sponsorship, prize money and bonuses from the F1 organisation, as well as payments from its ultimate parent company.

After taxes and expenses it registered a profit of just £385,000.

It increased its turnover from 2015 to '16 by £16.5m, but its profit the previous year was £2.14m.

Spending rose in 2016 in part due to the two grand prix victories for Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, and a return to second in the championship, which generated increased success bonuses for staff.

The team's true financial situation is hard to compare with rivals, because Red Bull Racing - in effect the race team - itself only employs 58 people.

Design, production and engineering is carried out by immediate parent company Red Bull Technology Group, which employs a further 700 people and also supplies services to Toro Rosso and outside projects such as its collaboration with Aston Martin on its Valkyrie hypercar.

RBT had a turnover of £247.7m in 2016 (including the RBR numbers outlined above), compared with £235.6m the previous year.

Its declared profit fell to £8.3m from £11.3m.