Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to sell part of his ownership stake in the Mercedes F1 outfit.
This transaction values the Mercedes team at £4.6bn – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – after McLaren was appraised at £3.5 billion 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%.
The 53-year-old will remain as team principal and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Structure
Remaining partners in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and chemicals giant Ineos Group, who both hold a third of the enterprise.
An official representative stated: "We are providing no official statement on this. The governance of the team will remain unchanged, and each shareholder are fully committed to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in Formula One."
Valuation Increase
This arrangement signifies a significant increase in value of Mercedes F1 after Ineos Group bought its share for £208m in 2022.
This surge demonstrates the growth in valuations of F1 teams in the past few years as a consequence of the growing popularity of Formula 1 globally.
This was also seen in the box-office performance of the F1 movie featuring Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and has grossed over $630 million (£458 million) at the box office.
The film represents Pitt's most successful movie and the highest-earning sports film ever released.
Current Performance
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the team standings, trailing McLaren, with three races left in the current championship.
Their lead driver George Russell has won 2 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's Max Verstappen.
The team secured a record eight consecutive team titles and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, between 2014 to 2021.
