Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to offload part of his shareholding in the Mercedes F1 outfit.
This transaction estimates the Mercedes team at £4.6bn – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – after the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5 billion in a change of ownership structure in September.
Wolff, who holds a 33% stake of Mercedes F1, would sell a shareholding in the region of five percent.
Wolff, aged 53 will remain as team principal and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Breakdown
Remaining partners in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos Group, who both hold a third of the company.
An official representative stated: "We will be making no official statement on this. The management structure of Mercedes F1 will remain unchanged, and each shareholder are fully committed to the ongoing success of Mercedes-Benz in F1."
Valuation Increase
This arrangement signifies a significant increase in worth of Mercedes F1 after Ineos bought its stake for £208 million in 2022.
The rise demonstrates the growth in valuations of F1 teams in the past few years as a consequence of the increasing appeal of the sport around the world.
This was also seen in the success of the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, which was released in summer 2023 and earned more than $630m (£458 million) at the box office.
The film represents Pitt's most successful movie and the most successful sports film ever released.
Current Performance
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren, with three races left this season.
Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has won 2 of the 21 races so far and is fourth in the individual standings after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Mercedes won a unprecedented eight consecutive constructors' championships and seven drivers' titles, six for Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, between 2014 and 2021.
