The race has maintained its original ideals since it began in 1985 by focusing on teamwork, camaraderie, physical fitness and competition. The number of participating teams have grown from the original 19 in 1985 to nearly 300 which includes over 8000 runners.
Investments into R&D are key to maintaining and/or improving competitiveness for the long term, and Honeywell spent about $2.1 billion on it in 2016. If You Can't Beat 'Em, Buy 'Em Honeywell has a market capitalization of about $99 billion.
As a result, the biggest spending F1 team Ferrari will run on an estimated budget of $470 million in 2013. This is more than 30 times the estimated $15 million budget of the leading IndyCar teams such as Ganassi and Andretti Autosport.