Toto Wolff is engaged in final negotiations to sell a portion of his ownership stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
The deal values the Mercedes team at £4.6bn – a record for a Formula 1 squad – after the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5bn in an adjustment to ownership structure last September.
Wolff, who holds one-third of Mercedes F1, plans to divest a shareholding approximately 5%.
The 53-year-old will remain as team principal and chief executive officer should the deal proceed.
Shareholder Structure
The other shareholders in the team are Mercedes-Benz and chemicals giant Ineos, who each also own one-third of the company.
A Mercedes spokesperson said: "We will be making no official statement on the matter. The management structure of Mercedes F1 stays unaltered, and each shareholder are dedicated to the ongoing success of the brand in F1."
Financial Growth
The deal signifies a substantial rise in worth of the Mercedes team after Ineos bought its share for £208m in 2022.
The rise reflects the expansion in market values of F1 teams recently as a consequence of the increasing appeal of the sport globally.
This was also seen in the box-office performance of the F1 movie featuring Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and earned more than $630m (£458m) at the box office.
The film represents the actor's top-grossing movie and the highest-earning sports movie ever released.
Current Performance
Mercedes are second in the constructors' championship, behind McLaren, with three Grands Prix left in the current championship.
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 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen.
The team secured a record eight straight constructors' championships and seven driver championships, six for Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, from 2014 and 2021.
