Wolff Set to Divest Shareholding Pricing Mercedes F1 at £4.6bn
Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to offload a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
The deal values Mercedes at £4.6 billion – a record for an F1 team – following the McLaren team were valued at £3.5bn in an adjustment to ownership structure in September.
Wolff, who holds one-third of Mercedes F1, plans to divest a stake in the region of 5%.
Wolff, aged 53 would stay on as team boss and CEO if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Breakdown
The other shareholders in the team are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos, who both hold a third of the enterprise.
An official representative said: "We will be making no comment on the matter. The management structure of Mercedes F1 stays unaltered, and each shareholder are fully committed to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in F1."
Valuation Increase
This arrangement would represent a significant increase in value of the Mercedes team after Ineos Group acquired its share for £208 million in 2022.
The rise demonstrates the growth in valuations of Formula 1 outfits in the past few years due to the growing popularity of Formula 1 globally.
This was also seen in the success of the Formula 1 film starring Brad Pitt, which debuted 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
The Mercedes team are second in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren Racing, with three Grands Prix left this season.
Their lead driver British driver George Russell has won two of the 21 races so far and is in fourth place in the drivers' championship after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
The team won a record eight straight team titles and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 and 2021.
