Wolff Preparing to Sell Stake Pricing Mercedes F1 at £4.6bn
Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to sell a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
The deal values the Mercedes team at £4.6 billion – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – following the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5bn in a change of ownership structure last September.
Wolff, who holds a 33% stake of the Mercedes F1 operation, plans to divest a shareholding in the region of 5%.
The 53-year-old would stay on as team principal and chief executive officer should the deal proceed.
Shareholder Structure
Remaining partners in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and chemicals giant Ineos Group, who each also own a third of the enterprise.
An official representative stated: "We are providing no official statement on this. The management structure of Mercedes F1 will remain unaltered, and each shareholder are fully committed to continued achievements of the brand in F1."
Valuation Increase
The deal would represent a substantial rise in value of Mercedes F1 after Ineos acquired its share for £208m in 2022.
The rise reflects the growth in market values of Formula 1 outfits in the past few years due to the increasing appeal of Formula 1 around the world.
This trend was evident with the success of the F1 movie featuring Brad Pitt, which debuted in summer 2023 and earned more than $630m (£458 million) at cinemas worldwide.
It is Pitt's most successful movie and the most successful sports film ever released.
Present Standings
The Mercedes team are second in the team standings, trailing McLaren Racing, with three races left this season.
Mercedes' primary racer George Russell has secured victory in two of the 21 races this year and is in fourth place in the individual standings behind McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
Mercedes won a record eight consecutive team titles and seven driver championships, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 and 2021.