Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to offload a portion of his shareholding in the Mercedes F1 outfit.
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 a change of corporate structure last September.
Wolff, who holds one-third of the Mercedes F1 operation, would sell a shareholding approximately five percent.
Wolff, aged 53 will remain as team boss and CEO if the sale goes through.
Ownership Breakdown
The other shareholders in the team are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos, who each also own a third of the company.
An official representative stated: "We are providing no official statement on this. The management structure of Mercedes F1 will remain unchanged, and all three partners are fully committed to the ongoing success of the brand in Formula One."
Valuation Increase
This arrangement signifies a substantial rise in value of the Mercedes team after Ineos acquired its share for £208m in 2022.
The rise demonstrates the expansion in valuations of Formula 1 outfits in the past few years as a consequence of the increasing appeal of the sport around the world.
This trend was evident with the box-office performance of the Formula 1 film featuring Brad Pitt, which debuted in summer 2023 and has grossed more than $630m (£458m) at the box office.
It is Pitt's most successful film and the highest-earning sports movie to date.
Current Performance
The Mercedes team are second in the team standings, trailing McLaren Racing, with three Grands Prix left in the current championship.
Mercedes' primary racer George Russell has secured victory in 2 of the 21 races so far and is fourth in the drivers' championship behind McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
The team secured a record eight straight team titles and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 to 2021.
