Toto Wolff just misses world-record Mercedes takeover valuation as sale details explained

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Mercedes team principal and part-owner Toto Wolff might be about to showcase just how much Formula 1 has grown in the past few years.

Toto Wolff has been involved in Formula 1 for some time, initially buying a share in Williams in 2009.

However, in January 2013, he left to join Mercedes as an executive director, acquiring a 30% stake in the team in the process, with legendary driver Niki Lauda buying a further 10% as part of the same consortium.

According to PitPass, Wolff’s initial stake cost £30m, a bargain when considering how much Formula 1 teams now cost.

Cadillac had to pay more than 10 times that figure in an anti-dilution fee to enter Formula 1 next season, and Christian Horner recently learned how much setting up his own F1 team would cost.

Now, a report from Sportico suggests that Wolff is willing to part with what’s believed to be a single-digit percentage stake of Mercedes.

With the entire team now valued at nearly £5.3bn ($6bn), finance expert Adam Williams has shared exclusively with F1 Oversteer where Wolff’s sale would rank among the biggest deals in sporting history.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff

Where Toto Wolff’s partial Mercedes stake sale ranks among sport’s biggest deals

Williams, Head of Football Finance and Governance Content for GRV Media, spoke to F1 Oversteer about the deal.

He explained: “If this deal had been done a few months earlier, it would have broken the record for the biggest valuation of a significant stake sale in sports history.

“Only the Boston Celtics, LA Lakers and San Francisco 49ers deals that went through recently have eclipsed it, which I think says a lot about the value investors see in F1.

“On face value, you’d say football clubs are the most global assets in sport, so why don’t they fetch the biggest prices?

“Well, because unlike F1, the system they operate in is adversarial. They’re all competing against each other on the pitch and off it. In F1, there are obviously rivalries on the track, but financially, they know it’s in their interests to cooperate.

“Mercedes made a £120m profit last season. That would rank as one of the biggest profits in the history of football. And their earnings are reliable, unlike football, where a £100m transfer has a dramatic impact on your bottom line, which isn’t there the following season.

“In the finance business, they call that ‘quality of earnings’ and Mercedes and F1 have that in spades. So it has the twin benefits of having enormous brand appeal, with all the sponsorship benefits that entail, and a system that virtually guarantees profits every year.

“There’s nothing speculative about an investment like this. It’s a question of when you get your big return, not if.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Mercedes preparing for the 2026 Formula 1 season with high hopes of making a championship comeback

The interest in Formula 1, primarily driven by Liberty Media, Drive to Survive, and a greater American presence, means that even though Mercedes last won a constructors’ championship in 2021, the team are continuing to grow.

Even losing Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari is unlikely to have had a huge impact on their fanbase, with George Russell having the best season of his career and Andrea Kimi Antonelli impressing during his rookie campaign.

Mercedes are expected to have the best power unit in 2026, and as the works team, they should be one of the favourites to win the championship.

McLaren and Williams will be tough to beat, and the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin can’t be written off.

However, Wolff striking this deal now might tempt other teams into exploring similar situations, with Alpine rumoured to be open to selling a partial stake in the team, amid interest from the aforementioned Horner.