Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to offload a portion of his ownership stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
The deal values the Mercedes team at £4.6 billion – a record for a Formula 1 squad – following the McLaren team were valued at £3.5bn in an adjustment to ownership structure last September.
Wolff, who owns a 33% stake of Mercedes F1, would sell a shareholding in the region of five percent.
The 53-year-old will remain as team principal and CEO should the deal proceed.
Ownership Structure
The other shareholders in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes and industrial group Ineos Group, who each also own one-third of the company.
An official representative said: "We will be making no official statement on the matter. The governance of Mercedes F1 stays unchanged, and each shareholder are fully committed to continued achievements of the brand in Formula One."
Valuation Increase
The deal would represent a substantial rise in value of the Mercedes team after Ineos Group bought its stake for £208m in 2022.
This surge demonstrates the growth in market values of F1 teams in the past few years due to the increasing appeal of Formula 1 around the world.
This was also seen in the success of the F1 movie featuring Brad Pitt, which debuted last summer and has grossed over $630 million (£458 million) at the box office.
It is Pitt's most successful film and the highest-earning sports movie ever released.
Present Performance
Mercedes are second in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren, with three Grands Prix left this season.
Mercedes' primary racer George Russell has won 2 of the 21 grands prix so far and is fourth in the individual standings after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
The team won a record eight consecutive constructors' championships and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, between 2014 and 2021.
