Exclusive: Wolff weighs partial stake sale as Mercedes valuation tops $6bn
Toto Wolff is exploring a trim of his Mercedes investment — and, if the numbers stack up, it quietly crowns the Silver Arrows as the most valuable team in Formula 1.
Per Sportico, and corroborated by sources close to the situation, Wolff is in advanced talks to sell a small slice of his 33% interest in the Mercedes F1 operation. Crucially, this isn’t a sale of the team itself. It’s a minority carve‑out of Wolff’s holding company, Motorsports Investment Limited, a passive equity vehicle registered in Guernsey since 2013.
In plain terms: Wolff cashes in on a sliver, but the power structure doesn’t budge. He remains an equal partner in the three‑way ownership with Mercedes-Benz and INEOS, and he stays where he’s been since 2013 — on the pit wall and in the boardroom, running the team as CEO and Team Principal.
Mercedes declined to comment on the specifics but indicated there’s no change to governance, stressing all three partners remain fully committed to the team’s long-term success.
The eye-catching bit is the price talk. The stake on the table is described as “mid-single-digit” percentage points, implying a deal that pegs Mercedes around the $6 billion mark — a new high-water line for F1 team valuations. For context, McLaren’s recent recapitalisation saw a 33% stake change hands at a valuation near $5bn, a jaw-dropping leap from where F1 teams sat just a few years ago.
This is the sport’s new reality. The cost cap, booming global audience, and franchise-style security have turned F1 outfits into blue-chip sports properties. And few have been better run, or more bankable, than the Brackley squad Wolff has steered to eight straight Constructors’ titles from 2014 to 2021, plus seven Drivers’ crowns in the Hamilton/Rosberg era.
If the deal lands in the “mid-single-digit” window, it likely drops around $100m into Wolff’s pocket — a liquidity moment more than an exit. It also crystallises what’s been obvious to anyone tracking the sport’s economics: Wolff’s original entry, when he acquired close to 30% in 2013 as the team was valued at roughly $165m, has multiplied many times over. That’s not strategy — that’s timing, execution, and a little bit of F1 rocket fuel.
The mechanics matter. Because this is happening at the holding-company level, Wolff’s voting rights at Mercedes F1 wouldn’t be diluted, and nothing changes for day-to-day operations. Think of it as a cap table tidy-up rather than a shift in control.
One name has been whispered around the paddock as a potential buyer: George Kurtz, the CrowdStrike CEO. CrowdStrike is a visible Mercedes partner and Kurtz is a known motorsport enthusiast. There’s no confirmation, and neither party is commenting, but the linkage would make commercial sense.
Why now? Beyond the obvious “take some chips off the table,” the business is humming. Company filings for 2024 show Mercedes bringing in an F1-leading $858m in revenue, up 16% year-on-year, and booking a $158m profit. The team’s highest-paid director — widely assumed to be Wolff — earned just under £4.5m in salary, before bonuses or dividends.
So this isn’t a goodbye story. It’s more like a veteran investor doing what veteran investors do: rebalancing while the market’s hot.
Meanwhile, the racing carries on. The 2025 Formula One World Championship rolls forward with Mercedes still a pillar of the grid, its ownership triad intact, and Wolff — the constant through a decade of dominance and the turbulence that followed — still calling the shots.
If anything, the takeaway is how far F1 has come. In 2013, buying into a midfield curiosity was a gamble. In 2025, trimming a sliver of a super-team fetches nine figures and sets a new record. Formula 1 keeps rewriting its business playbook, and Mercedes is again at the sharp end — this time on the balance sheet.
