Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to offload part of his shareholding in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
The deal values the Mercedes team at £4.6bn – a record for a Formula 1 squad – after McLaren was appraised at £3.5bn in an adjustment to corporate structure last September.
Wolff, who owns one-third of Mercedes F1, plans to divest a shareholding approximately five percent.
The 53-year-old will remain as team boss and CEO if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Breakdown
Remaining partners in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes and industrial group Ineos Group, who each also own one-third of the enterprise.
A Mercedes spokesperson said: "We are providing no official statement on this. The management structure of the team stays unaltered, and all three partners are fully committed to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in F1."
Financial Growth
The deal would represent a substantial rise in value of the Mercedes team since Ineos Group bought its share for £208 million in 2022.
The rise reflects the expansion in market values of F1 teams in the past few years due to the growing popularity of the sport around the world.
This trend was evident with the box-office performance of the F1 movie featuring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, which was released in summer 2023 and has grossed more than $630m (£458 million) at the box office.
It is Pitt's most successful film and the highest-earning sports movie ever released.
Current Performance
The Mercedes team are second in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren, with three races remaining in the current championship.
Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has secured victory in 2 of the 21 races so far and is fourth in the individual standings behind McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
The team won a unprecedented eight straight constructors' championships and seven driver championships, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, between 2014 and 2021.
