Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to sell a portion of his ownership stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
This transaction estimates Mercedes at £4.6 billion – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – after the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5bn in an adjustment to ownership structure last September.
The Austrian executive, who owns a 33% stake of the Mercedes F1 operation, plans to divest a stake approximately five percent.
Wolff, aged 53 will remain as team principal and chief executive officer should the deal proceed.
Shareholder Breakdown
The other shareholders in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and chemicals giant Ineos Group, who each also own a third of the company.
An official representative said: "We will be making no official statement on this. The governance of the team will remain unaltered, and each shareholder are fully committed to the ongoing success of Mercedes-Benz in F1."
Financial Increase
This arrangement would represent a substantial rise in worth of the Mercedes team since Ineos Group acquired its share for £208 million in 2022.
This surge demonstrates the expansion in market values of Formula 1 outfits in the past few years as a consequence of the increasing appeal of the sport around the world.
This trend was evident with the success of the Formula 1 film featuring Brad Pitt, which debuted last summer and earned over $630 million (£458m) at cinemas worldwide.
It is Pitt's most successful movie and the highest-earning sports movie ever released.
Present Performance
Mercedes are runner-up in the constructors' championship, behind McLaren Racing, with three Grands Prix remaining in the current championship.
Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has secured victory in two of the 21 grands prix 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.
Mercedes won a record eight straight team titles and seven driver championships, six for Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, between 2014 and 2021.
