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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is in advanced talks to sell part of his ownership stake 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 an adjustment to ownership structure last September.

The Austrian executive, who owns a 33% stake of the Mercedes F1 operation, would sell a shareholding approximately five percent.

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

Shareholder Breakdown

The other shareholders in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes and industrial group Ineos Group, who both hold a third of the enterprise.

An official representative said: "We are providing no official statement on this. The governance of Mercedes F1 stays unaltered, and all three partners are fully committed to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in Formula One."

Financial Growth

The deal would represent a significant increase in worth of the Mercedes team since Ineos Group acquired its stake for £208m in 2022.

The rise reflects the growth in valuations of Formula 1 outfits recently due to the growing popularity of the sport around the world.

This was also seen in the box-office performance of the F1 movie starring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, which was released in summer 2023 and earned over $630 million (£458m) at cinemas worldwide.

It is Pitt's most successful film and the highest-earning sports film ever released.

Current Performance

The Mercedes team are second in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren Racing, with three Grands Prix left in the current championship.

Mercedes' primary racer George Russell has won 2 of the 21 races so far and is in fourth place in the drivers' championship after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.

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