Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is engaged in final negotiations to sell part of his ownership stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
The deal values Mercedes at £4.6 billion – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – after the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5 billion in an adjustment to ownership structure in September.
Wolff, who owns a 33% stake of Mercedes F1, plans to divest a shareholding in the region of five percent.
The 53-year-old will remain as team principal and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.
Ownership Breakdown
Remaining partners in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and chemicals giant Ineos Group, who each also own a third of the company.
A Mercedes spokesperson said: "We will be making no official statement on the matter. The governance of the team stays unaltered, and each shareholder are fully committed to continued achievements of the brand in F1."
Valuation Increase
The deal would represent a substantial rise in value of Mercedes F1 after Ineos acquired its share 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 increasing appeal of Formula 1 globally.
This trend was evident with the success of the F1 movie starring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and earned over $630m (£458 million) at the box office.
It is the actor's top-grossing movie and the most successful sports film to date.
Present Standings
Mercedes are second in the team standings, behind McLaren, with three races left in the current championship.
Mercedes' primary racer George Russell has secured victory in two of the 21 races so far and is in fourth place in the drivers' championship behind McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
Mercedes won a unprecedented eight consecutive constructors' championships and seven driver championships, six for Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 to 2021.
