Wolff Preparing to Divest Shareholding Pricing Mercedes F1 at £4.6 Billion

Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to offload part of his shareholding in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.

The deal values Mercedes at £4.6bn – a record for a Formula 1 squad – after the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5bn in a change of corporate structure last September.

Wolff, who holds one-third of Mercedes F1, would sell a stake in the region of five percent.

Wolff, aged 53 will remain as team principal and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.

Shareholder Structure

Remaining partners in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and chemicals giant Ineos Group, who each also own one-third of the company.

An official representative stated: "We will be making no official statement on this. The governance of Mercedes F1 stays unaltered, and each shareholder are fully committed to the ongoing success of Mercedes-Benz in Formula One."

Valuation Growth

This arrangement would represent a significant increase in worth of Mercedes F1 since Ineos Group acquired its share for £208m in 2022.

This surge demonstrates the expansion in valuations of F1 teams in the past few years due to the growing popularity of Formula 1 around the world.

This trend was evident with the success of the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, which debuted last summer and has grossed more than $630 million (£458 million) at the box office.

It is the actor's top-grossing movie and the highest-earning sports movie to date.

Present Performance

Mercedes are runner-up in the constructors' championship, behind McLaren, with three Grands Prix remaining in the current championship.

Their lead driver George Russell has won two of the 21 grands prix so far and is in fourth place in the individual standings after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Mercedes secured a unprecedented eight straight constructors' championships and seven driver championships, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, from 2014 and 2021.