Toto Wolff is engaged in final negotiations to sell a portion of his ownership stake in the Mercedes F1 outfit.
The deal values the Mercedes team at £4.6 billion – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – following the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5bn in an adjustment to ownership structure in September.
The Austrian executive, who owns one-third of Mercedes F1, would sell a shareholding in the region of 5%.
The 53-year-old will remain as team principal and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Structure
The other shareholders in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos, who each also own one-third of the enterprise.
A Mercedes spokesperson said: "We will be making no comment on this. The governance of the team will remain unchanged, and each shareholder are fully committed to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in Formula One."
Financial Increase
This arrangement signifies a significant increase in value of Mercedes F1 since Ineos Group acquired its stake for £208m in 2022.
The rise reflects the growth in valuations of F1 teams in the past few years as a consequence of the growing popularity of Formula 1 around the world.
This was also seen in the box-office performance of the Formula 1 film featuring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, which debuted in summer 2023 and earned over $630m (£458m) at cinemas worldwide.
It is Pitt's most successful movie and the most successful sports movie to date.
Current Performance
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren Racing, with three Grands Prix remaining this season.
Their lead driver British driver George Russell has won two of the 21 grands prix this year and is in fourth place 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 for Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, from 2014 and 2021.
