Toto Wolff Set to Sell Shareholding Valuing Mercedes F1 at £4.6 Billion
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to offload a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes F1 outfit.
This transaction values the Mercedes team at £4.6bn – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – after McLaren was appraised at £3.5bn in a change of ownership structure in September.
The Austrian executive, who owns a 33% stake of Mercedes F1, plans to divest a shareholding in the region of 5%.
Wolff, aged 53 will remain as team boss and CEO if the sale goes through.
Ownership Structure
The other shareholders in the team are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos Group, who both hold a third of the company.
An official representative said: "We are providing no comment on this. The governance of the team stays unaltered, and all three partners are fully committed to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in Formula One."
Financial Growth
This arrangement signifies a substantial rise in worth of Mercedes F1 since Ineos Group bought its stake for £208m in 2022.
The rise demonstrates the expansion in market values of F1 teams 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 F1 movie featuring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and earned over $630 million (£458m) at the box office.
It is Pitt's most successful film and the highest-earning sports movie ever released.
Current Performance
Mercedes are runner-up in the constructors' championship, behind McLaren, with three Grands Prix remaining this season.
Their lead driver British driver George Russell has won 2 of the 21 grands prix so far and is in fourth place in the individual standings 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.
