Lewis Hamilton's Formula One world championship victory last year drove his McLaren team from the red to a £14 million pre-tax profit according to its accounts to 31 December 2008.

It comes as good news for the outfit after Mercedes said on Monday that it is selling its 40% stake in McLaren to the team's co-owners and investing in rival Brawn GP, which took the F1 title this year.

Mercedes is said to be annoyed at the scandals which have dogged McLaren over the past two years. In April the team was given a suspended three-race ban for misleading officials and in 2007 it was fined $100 million

(£60 million) by F1's governing body the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for spying on Ferrari. The fine led to McLaren making a £34.5 million loss in 2007 but last year it got a boost as sponsors such as Vodafone and Exxon paid it bonuses for winning the world championship. This accelerated McLaren's revenues by 9% to £139.1 million and, along with £500,000 of cost cuts, brought the team into profit.

However, the FIA fine had a lingering effect as the team owed a total of £30.7 million to group companies at the end of last year. This left it with net liabilities of £12 million but the accounts state that the team's owners will “continue to make available such funds as are needed by the company” for at least 12 months.

McLaren may have an even bigger burden on its balance sheet next year. The co-owners need to foot an estimated £200 million for Mercedes' stake and its prize money will be cut for finishing third in the standings this year.