Toto Wolff is engaged in final negotiations to sell part of his shareholding in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
This transaction values the Mercedes team at £4.6bn – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – after the McLaren team were valued at £3.5bn in a change of ownership structure last September.
The Austrian executive, who holds one-third of Mercedes F1, plans to divest a stake in the region of five percent.
Wolff, aged 53 will remain as team boss and CEO if the sale goes through.
Ownership Breakdown
The other shareholders in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos Group, who each also own one-third of the enterprise.
An official representative stated: "We will be making no comment on this. The management structure of Mercedes F1 will remain unaltered, and all three partners are fully committed to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in F1."
Valuation Increase
This arrangement signifies a substantial rise in value of the Mercedes team after Ineos Group bought its share for £208 million in 2022.
This surge reflects the growth in valuations of F1 teams in the past few years due to the growing popularity of the sport globally.
This was also seen in the box-office performance of the Formula 1 film featuring Brad Pitt, which was released in summer 2023 and earned more than $630 million (£458m) at cinemas worldwide.
It is Pitt's most successful movie and the most successful sports movie ever released.
Present Performance
Mercedes are second in the constructors' championship, behind McLaren, with three races left in the current championship.
Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has won two of the 21 races this year and is fourth in the individual standings behind McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Mercedes secured a record eight straight team titles and seven driver championships, six for Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 to 2021.
