Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is engaged in advanced talks to offload part of his ownership stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
The deal values Mercedes at £4.6bn – an unprecedented figure for a Formula 1 squad – after McLaren were valued at £3.5bn in an adjustment to ownership structure last September.
The Austrian executive, who owns one-third of Mercedes F1, would sell a stake approximately five percent.
The 53-year-old would stay on as team principal and CEO if the sale goes through.
Shareholder Breakdown
Remaining partners in the team are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos, who both hold one-third of the enterprise.
A Mercedes spokesperson said: "We are providing no official statement on this. The governance of the team stays unaltered, and each shareholder are fully committed to the ongoing success of Mercedes-Benz in F1."
Financial Increase
This arrangement would represent a significant increase in value of the Mercedes team after Ineos acquired its stake for £208 million in 2022.
This surge demonstrates the growth in market values of F1 teams in the past few years as a consequence of the growing popularity of Formula 1 around the world.
This trend was evident with the box-office performance of the F1 movie starring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, which was released last summer and earned over $630m (£458m) at cinemas worldwide.
The film represents Pitt's most successful movie and the most successful sports movie ever released.
Current Performance
Mercedes are runner-up in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren, with three races left in the current championship.
Their lead driver George Russell has secured victory in 2 of the 21 races so far and is fourth in the individual standings after McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Mercedes secured a record eight straight constructors' championships and seven driver championships, six for Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg, from 2014 to 2021.
