🔗 Share this article

Toto Wolff is engaged in final negotiations to offload a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes F1 outfit.

This transaction values Mercedes at £4.6 billion – a record for a Formula 1 squad – after McLaren were valued at £3.5bn in an adjustment to corporate structure last September.

Wolff, who holds one-third of the Mercedes F1 operation, plans to divest a shareholding approximately 5%.

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 and industrial group Ineos Group, who each also own one-third of the company.

A Mercedes spokesperson said: "We will be making no official statement on the matter. The management structure of the team stays unaltered, and all three partners are fully committed to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in Formula One."

Financial Increase

This arrangement would represent a significant increase in value of Mercedes F1 since Ineos Group acquired its share for £208 million in 2022.

The rise demonstrates the expansion in valuations of Formula 1 outfits in the past few years as a consequence of the increasing appeal of the sport globally.

This trend was evident with the box-office performance of the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, which debuted last summer and earned over $630 million (£458m) at cinemas worldwide.

It is Pitt's most successful movie and the most successful sports film to date.

Current Performance

The Mercedes team are second in the constructors' championship, 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 fourth in the individual standings after McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

The team secured a unprecedented eight straight constructors' championships and seven driver championships, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, from 2014 to 2021.