Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to offload part of his ownership stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
This transaction values Mercedes at £4.6bn – a record for an F1 team – after the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5 billion in a change of ownership structure last September.
The Austrian executive, who owns a 33% stake of Mercedes F1, plans to divest a shareholding in the region of five percent.
The 53-year-old would stay on as team principal and CEO if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Breakdown
Remaining partners in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos Group, who both hold a third of the company.
An official representative said: "We are providing no comment on this. The management structure of Mercedes F1 stays unaltered, and all three partners are dedicated to continued achievements of the brand in Formula One."
Financial Growth
This arrangement would represent a substantial rise in value of the Mercedes team after Ineos bought its stake for £208 million in 2022.
This surge demonstrates the growth in market values of F1 teams in the past few years as a consequence of the growing popularity of Formula 1 around the world.
This was also seen in the box-office performance of the F1 movie featuring Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and has grossed over $630m (£458 million) at the box office.
It is Pitt's most successful movie and the highest-earning sports film to date.
Present Standings
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren, with three Grands Prix left in the current championship.
Their lead driver British driver George Russell has won 2 of the 21 grands prix so far and is in fourth place in the individual standings behind McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
The team secured a unprecedented eight consecutive constructors' championships and seven driver championships, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 to 2021.
