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Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to offload a portion of his ownership stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team.

This transaction values Mercedes at £4.6bn – an unprecedented figure for an F1 team – after the McLaren team was appraised at £3.5bn in an adjustment to corporate structure in September.

The Austrian executive, who owns a 33% stake of the Mercedes F1 operation, would sell a stake in the region of five percent.

Wolff, aged 53 would stay on as team boss and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.

Shareholder Structure

The other shareholders in the team are Mercedes and industrial group Ineos Group, who each also own one-third of the company.

A Mercedes spokesperson said: "We will be making no official statement on the matter. The governance of Mercedes F1 stays unchanged, and all three partners are fully committed to the ongoing success of Mercedes-Benz in F1."

Financial Increase

The deal signifies a significant increase in value of Mercedes F1 since Ineos bought its stake for £208 million in 2022.

This surge reflects the growth in market values of F1 teams in the past few years due to the growing popularity of the sport 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 the box office.

The film represents Pitt's most successful film and the highest-earning sports film ever released.

Present Standings

The Mercedes team are runner-up in the constructors' championship, trailing McLaren Racing, with three races left in the current championship.

Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has won two of the 21 races so far 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 team titles and seven drivers' titles, six won by Lewis Hamilton and one by Nico Rosberg, from 2014 to 2021.