Toto Wolff Preparing to Sell Shareholding Valuing Mercedes F1 at £4.6 Billion

Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to sell part of his shareholding in the Mercedes F1 outfit.

The deal values the Mercedes team at £4.6 billion – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – following the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5 billion in an adjustment to ownership structure in September.

The Austrian executive, who owns one-third of the Mercedes F1 operation, plans to divest a shareholding approximately five percent.

The 53-year-old will remain as team principal and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.

Shareholder Structure

Remaining partners in the team are Mercedes and chemicals giant Ineos Group, who both hold a third of the enterprise.

A Mercedes spokesperson said: "We will be making no official statement on the matter. The governance of Mercedes F1 stays unchanged, and all three partners are fully committed to the ongoing success of Mercedes-Benz in F1."

Financial Growth

This arrangement would represent a substantial rise in worth of the Mercedes team since Ineos Group acquired its stake for £208 million in 2022.

The rise reflects the expansion in market values of F1 teams in the past few years due to the increasing appeal of the sport globally.

This was also seen in the box-office performance of the Formula 1 film featuring Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and has grossed over $630m (£458m) at cinemas worldwide.

It is Pitt's most successful movie and the most successful sports movie ever released.

Present Standings

The Mercedes team are second in the team standings, behind McLaren, with three races remaining in the current championship.

Their lead driver George Russell has secured victory in two of the 21 grands prix so far and is in fourth place in the drivers' championship after McLaren's 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 for Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 to 2021.