Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is in final negotiations to offload part 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 – following the McLaren team were valued at £3.5 billion in an adjustment to corporate structure in September.
Wolff, who holds one-third of Mercedes F1, would sell a stake in the region of 5%.
The 53-year-old will remain as team principal and chief executive officer if the sale goes through.
Ownership Breakdown
The other shareholders in Mercedes F1 are Mercedes-Benz and industrial group Ineos Group, who both hold one-third of the enterprise.
An official representative said: "We will be making no official statement on the matter. The governance of the team stays unchanged, and each shareholder are dedicated to continued achievements of Mercedes-Benz in Formula One."
Valuation Growth
The deal would represent a significant increase in worth of the Mercedes team after Ineos Group bought its stake for £208 million in 2022.
This surge reflects the expansion in market values of F1 teams in the past few years due to the increasing appeal of the sport around the world.
This was also seen in the success of the F1 movie featuring Hollywood star Brad Pitt, which debuted last summer and earned over $630 million (£458m) at the box office.
The film represents the actor's top-grossing movie and the most successful sports film ever released.
Present Performance
The Mercedes team are runner-up in the team standings, trailing McLaren, with three Grands Prix remaining in the current championship.
Mercedes' primary racer British driver George Russell has won two of the 21 grands prix so far and is in fourth place in the drivers' championship behind McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull'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 to 2021.
