Toto Wolff is thought to be in advanced talks to sell a small portion of his 33 percent stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team. An insider has suggested that Wolff is negotiating a sale of between five and 10 percent of the team to an external investor.
If the deal goes ahead, it would value the F1 team at around £4.5billion, resulting in Wolff receiving a nine-figure sum. Despite the potential sale, Wolff will continue in all his roles and a spokesperson for Mercedes stated: “The governance of the team will remain unchanged.”
However, Mercedes declined to comment on the proposed change to the ownership structure, which is currently divided equally between Wolff, the Mercedes-Benz Group and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s petrochemicals company INEOS , reports The Mirror.
“All three partners are fully committed to the ongoing success of Mercedes-Benz in Formula 1,” added the team spokesperson. The deal, which was initially reported by Sportico, would set a record-high valuation for an F1 team.
McLaren were valued at over £3bn back in September after Mumtalakat, a Bahrain sovereign wealth fund, took full ownership of the Woking-based outfit, along with Emirati investment group CYVN Holdings. The investment came after McLaren won the constructors’ title in each of the last two seasons.
All F1 teams have seen their values skyrocket in recent years, thanks to a massive surge in the sport’s global audience. Commercial rights holder Liberty Media have been promoting the personalities of the drivers which has generated significant success in making F1 more appealing to a wider audience.
Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive series has been a major factor in the increase in popularity of the sport, which gained significant popularity during the first Covid lockdown back in 2020. An increase in audience in the United States has followed, which has led to the country now hosting three races per year, in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas.
INEOS spent around £200million for a third of the Mercedes F1 team in January 2022. Less than four years later, the new valuation given by Wolff’s proposed stake sale would represent a whopping 650 percent increase.
Less successful teams have also enjoyed the benefits from the increased interest in F1. For example, it is understood that American businessman Gene Haas has, in the last year, turned down several approaches from interested parties who were willing to offer significantly more than £1bn for his team.