Toto Wolff Preparing to Divest Stake Pricing Mercedes Formula 1 Team at £4.6bn
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to offload a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes F1 outfit.
The deal estimates Mercedes at £4.6 billion – an unprecedented figure for a Formula 1 squad – following McLaren were valued at £3.5bn in a change of corporate structure in September.
The Austrian executive, who holds a 33% stake of the Mercedes F1 operation, would sell a stake in the region of 5%.
The 53-year-old will remain as team boss and chief executive officer should the deal proceed.
Shareholder Breakdown
Remaining partners in the team are Mercedes and industrial group Ineos Group, who both hold one-third of the enterprise.
An official representative said: "We are providing no comment on this. The management structure of Mercedes F1 will remain unchanged, and each shareholder are fully committed to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in Formula One."
Financial Increase
This arrangement signifies a significant increase in value of Mercedes F1 after Ineos Group bought its share for £208 million in 2022.
This surge reflects the growth in valuations of F1 teams in the past few years as a consequence of the increasing appeal of the sport globally.
This was also seen in the box-office performance of the F1 movie featuring Brad Pitt, which debuted last summer and earned more than $630m (£458 million) at the box office.
The film represents Pitt's most successful movie and the highest-earning sports film to date.
Present Performance
The Mercedes team are second in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren Racing, with three races left in the current championship.
Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has won two of the 21 races this year and is in fourth place in the individual standings behind McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
The team secured a record eight consecutive constructors' championships and seven driver championships, six for Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, from 2014 to 2021.