Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is engaged in final negotiations to offload a portion of his ownership stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
This transaction estimates Mercedes at £4.6bn – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – after the McLaren team were valued at £3.5 billion in an adjustment to ownership structure in September.
The Austrian executive, who holds a 33% stake of the Mercedes F1 operation, would sell a shareholding in the region of five percent.
The 53-year-old will remain as team principal and CEO if the sale goes through.
Ownership Structure
Remaining partners in the team are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos, who each also own one-third of the enterprise.
A Mercedes spokesperson said: "We will be making no comment on the matter. The management structure of Mercedes F1 will remain unchanged, and all three partners are fully committed to the ongoing success of the brand in F1."
Financial Increase
The deal would represent a significant increase in worth of Mercedes F1 since Ineos Group acquired its share for £208 million in 2022.
This surge reflects the expansion in valuations of Formula 1 outfits in the past few years due to the increasing appeal of the sport around the world.
This trend was evident with the success of the Formula 1 film featuring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, which was released in summer 2023 and earned over $630 million (£458m) at the box office.
The film represents Pitt's most successful movie and the most successful sports movie ever released.
Current Performance
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren Racing, with three races left in the current championship.
Their lead driver George Russell has won 2 of the 21 races so far and is fourth in the drivers' championship after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
The team won a record eight straight team titles and seven drivers' titles, six for Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, from 2014 to 2021.
