Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to offload a portion of his ownership stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
This transaction values Mercedes at £4.6 billion – a record for an F1 team – after the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5bn in a change of ownership structure in September.
The Austrian executive, who holds a 33% stake of the Mercedes F1 operation, would sell a shareholding in the region of five percent.
Wolff, aged 53 will remain as team boss and CEO if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Breakdown
The other shareholders in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos Group, who both hold one-third of the company.
A Mercedes spokesperson stated: "We are providing no comment on the matter. The governance of the team will remain unchanged, and each shareholder are fully committed to the ongoing success of Mercedes-Benz in F1."
Valuation Growth
The deal would represent a significant increase in value of the Mercedes team since Ineos bought its stake for £208 million in 2022.
The rise demonstrates the expansion in market values of F1 teams in the past few years due to the growing popularity of the sport around the world.
This trend was evident with the success of the F1 movie starring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and earned more than $630 million (£458m) at the box office.
It is Pitt's most successful movie and the highest-earning sports movie ever released.
Present Performance
The Mercedes team are second in the team standings, behind McLaren Racing, with three races left this season.
Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has secured victory in 2 of the 21 races so far and is fourth in the drivers' championship behind McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
The team secured a unprecedented eight straight team titles and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 to 2021.
