Toto Wolff Preparing to Divest Stake Pricing Mercedes F1 at £4.6 Billion
Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to sell a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
The deal values Mercedes at £4.6 billion – an unprecedented figure for a Formula 1 squad – after McLaren were valued at £3.5bn in an adjustment to ownership structure in September.
The Austrian executive, who holds one-third of the Mercedes F1 operation, plans to divest a stake in the region of five percent.
The 53-year-old would stay on as team principal and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Structure
The other shareholders in the team are Mercedes and chemicals giant Ineos, who both hold a third of the enterprise.
An official representative stated: "We will be making no comment on the matter. The management structure of the team stays unaltered, and each shareholder are dedicated to the ongoing success of the brand in F1."
Valuation Growth
The deal would represent a significant increase in value of Mercedes F1 after Ineos acquired its stake for £208 million in 2022.
This surge reflects the expansion in valuations of F1 teams recently as a consequence of the growing popularity of Formula 1 globally.
This was also seen in the box-office performance of the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and earned more than $630m (£458 million) at the box office.
It is Pitt's most successful movie and the highest-earning sports film ever released.
Present Standings
Mercedes are second in the team standings, trailing McLaren Racing, with three races remaining in the current championship.
Their lead driver George Russell has won two of the 21 races so far and is fourth in the individual standings after McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
The team won a unprecedented eight straight team titles and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, between 2014 and 2021.
