Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to offload a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes F1 outfit.
This transaction values the Mercedes team at £4.6bn – a record for an F1 team – after the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5 billion in an adjustment to ownership structure in September.
The Austrian executive, who owns a 33% stake of Mercedes F1, would sell a shareholding approximately five percent.
Wolff, aged 53 will remain as team boss and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Structure
Remaining partners in the team are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos Group, who both hold a third of the company.
An official representative stated: "We will be making no official statement on this. The governance of the team will remain unaltered, and each shareholder are fully committed to continued achievements of the brand in F1."
Valuation Growth
The deal would represent a substantial rise in value of Mercedes F1 since Ineos Group bought its share for £208m in 2022.
The rise reflects the expansion in valuations of Formula 1 outfits in the past few years due to the increasing appeal of Formula 1 globally.
This was also seen in the box-office performance of the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, which debuted in summer 2023 and earned over $630 million (£458m) at cinemas worldwide.
It is the actor's top-grossing movie and the most successful sports film to date.
Current Standings
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the team standings, behind McLaren Racing, with three Grands Prix left in the current championship.
Their lead driver British driver George Russell has won 2 of the 21 races this year and is in fourth place in the individual standings after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
The team secured a record eight straight team titles and seven driver championships, six for Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, from 2014 to 2021.
