Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to sell a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
The deal values the Mercedes team at £4.6bn – a record for a Formula 1 squad – after the McLaren team were valued at £3.5bn in a change of ownership structure in September.
The Austrian executive, who holds one-third of the Mercedes F1 operation, would sell a shareholding approximately five percent.
The 53-year-old will remain as team boss and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Breakdown
Remaining partners in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes and chemicals giant Ineos, who both hold one-third of the enterprise.
An official representative said: "We will be making no official statement on the matter. The management structure of the team stays unchanged, and all three partners are fully committed to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in F1."
Valuation Growth
This arrangement would represent a substantial rise in worth of the Mercedes team after Ineos bought its share for £208 million in 2022.
This surge demonstrates the growth in valuations of F1 teams recently as a consequence of the increasing appeal of the sport globally.
This trend was evident with the success of the F1 movie featuring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, which debuted in summer 2023 and has grossed more than $630m (£458m) at cinemas worldwide.
It is Pitt's most successful film and the highest-earning sports film ever released.
Present Performance
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the constructors' championship, behind McLaren Racing, with three Grands Prix remaining in the current championship.
Mercedes' primary racer George Russell has won two of the 21 races this year and is in fourth place in the drivers' championship behind McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
The team won a record eight straight constructors' championships and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 to 2021.
