Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to sell a portion of his ownership stake in the Mercedes F1 outfit.
The deal values Mercedes at £4.6bn – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – following the McLaren team were valued at £3.5bn in an adjustment to ownership structure last September.
The Austrian executive, who holds a 33% stake of Mercedes F1, plans to divest a stake approximately 5%.
The 53-year-old will remain as team principal and chief executive officer should the deal proceed.
Ownership Structure
The other shareholders in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes and chemicals giant Ineos Group, who each also own one-third of the enterprise.
A Mercedes spokesperson stated: "We are providing no official statement on this. The management structure of Mercedes F1 will remain unaltered, and each shareholder are dedicated to the ongoing success of Mercedes-Benz in F1."
Valuation Growth
This arrangement signifies a substantial rise in worth of the Mercedes team after Ineos Group acquired its stake for £208m in 2022.
This surge reflects the expansion in market values of F1 teams in the past few years as a consequence of the growing popularity of the sport around the world.
This was also seen in the success of the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, which debuted last summer and has grossed more than $630 million (£458 million) at the box office.
It is Pitt's most successful movie and the highest-earning sports film ever released.
Current Performance
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the team standings, behind McLaren, with three Grands Prix left this season.
Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has won two of the 21 grands prix this year and is fourth in the drivers' championship behind McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
The team secured a record eight consecutive team titles and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, from 2014 and 2021.
