Wolff Preparing to Divest Shareholding Pricing Mercedes Formula 1 Team at £4.6bn

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is engaged in final negotiations to offload a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.

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

The Austrian executive, who holds one-third of Mercedes F1, would sell a stake approximately 5%.

The 53-year-old will remain as team principal and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.

Shareholder Structure

The other shareholders in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and chemicals giant Ineos, who both hold a third of the company.

A Mercedes spokesperson said: "We will be making no official statement on this. The management structure of the team stays unchanged, and each shareholder are fully committed to continued achievements of the brand in Formula One."

Valuation Growth

This arrangement signifies a significant increase in value of the Mercedes team since Ineos bought its stake for £208 million in 2022.

This surge reflects the expansion in market values of Formula 1 outfits recently due to the increasing appeal of Formula 1 globally.

This trend was evident with the box-office performance of the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, which was released in summer 2023 and has grossed more than $630m (£458 million) at the box office.

It is Pitt's most successful movie and the most successful sports movie ever released.

Present Performance

The Mercedes team are second in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren Racing, with three races remaining in the current championship.

Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has secured victory in 2 of the 21 races this year and is in fourth place in the drivers' championship after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Mercedes secured a unprecedented eight consecutive team titles and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 to 2021.