Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is in advanced talks to offload a portion of his ownership stake in the Mercedes F1 outfit.
This transaction values the Mercedes team at £4.6bn – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – after McLaren was appraised at £3.5 billion in an adjustment to ownership structure last September.
The Austrian executive, who holds one-third of Mercedes F1, would sell a stake in the region of five percent.
Wolff, aged 53 would stay on as team principal and CEO if the sale goes through.
Ownership Breakdown
The other shareholders in the team are Mercedes and industrial group Ineos Group, who each also own a third of the enterprise.
An official representative said: "We will be making no official statement on this. The governance of Mercedes F1 will remain unaltered, and all three partners are dedicated to continued achievements of the brand in Formula One."
Valuation Increase
This arrangement signifies a substantial rise in value of the Mercedes team since Ineos Group acquired its stake for £208 million in 2022.
The rise demonstrates the growth in valuations of F1 teams recently due to the growing popularity of Formula 1 globally.
This trend was evident with the box-office performance of the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and earned more than $630m (£458m) at the box office.
It is the actor's top-grossing movie and the most successful sports movie to date.
Current Performance
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the constructors' championship, behind McLaren Racing, with three Grands Prix remaining in the current championship.
Their lead driver George Russell has won two of the 21 races so far and is fourth in the individual standings after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
Mercedes secured a record eight straight team titles and seven drivers' titles, six for Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, from 2014 and 2021.
