Toto Wolff Preparing to Sell Stake Pricing Mercedes F1 at £4.6 Billion

Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks 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 – following the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5 billion in a change of ownership structure last September.

The Austrian executive, who holds one-third of Mercedes F1, plans to divest a shareholding in the region of 5%.

Wolff, aged 53 will remain as team principal and CEO if the sale goes through.

Ownership Structure

Remaining partners in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes and industrial group Ineos, who each also own a third of the enterprise.

An official representative said: "We are providing no official statement on this. The management structure of Mercedes F1 stays unaltered, and each shareholder are dedicated to the ongoing success of Mercedes-Benz in F1."

Valuation Increase

This arrangement signifies a substantial rise in worth of the Mercedes team after Ineos bought its share for £208 million in 2022.

The rise reflects the expansion in market values of Formula 1 outfits in the past few years due to the growing popularity of the sport globally.

This was also seen in the success of the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, which debuted last summer and earned over $630m (£458m) at the box office.

The film represents Pitt's most successful film and the highest-earning sports movie to date.

Present Performance

The Mercedes team are second in the team standings, behind McLaren Racing, with three Grands Prix left this season.

Their lead driver British driver George Russell has won 2 of the 21 grands prix this year and is fourth in the drivers' championship after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Mercedes won a unprecedented eight consecutive constructors' championships and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, from 2014 to 2021.