Toto Wolff Set to Divest Stake Pricing Mercedes F1 at £4.6bn
Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to offload a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes F1 outfit.
This transaction estimates the Mercedes team at £4.6bn – a record for an F1 team – after the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5bn in a change of ownership structure last September.
Wolff, who owns one-third of Mercedes F1, plans to divest a shareholding in the region of five percent.
Wolff, aged 53 will remain as team boss and CEO if the sale goes through.
Ownership Structure
The other shareholders in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos, who each also own one-third of the company.
An official representative said: "We will be making no comment on this. The governance of Mercedes F1 will remain unaltered, and all three partners are dedicated to continued achievements of the brand in Formula One."
Financial Growth
The deal signifies a significant increase in worth of the Mercedes team after Ineos Group acquired its stake for £208m in 2022.
The rise demonstrates the growth in market values of F1 teams recently due to the increasing appeal of Formula 1 globally.
This trend was evident with the box-office performance of the F1 movie featuring Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and earned more than $630m (£458m) at cinemas worldwide.
It is the actor's top-grossing movie and the highest-earning sports movie ever released.
Current Standings
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the team standings, trailing McLaren, with three Grands Prix remaining this season.
Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has secured victory in two of the 21 races so far and is in fourth place in the drivers' championship behind McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
The team secured a unprecedented eight consecutive constructors' championships and seven driver championships, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, from 2014 and 2021.
