Toto Wolff’s Partial Sale and Formula1’s Gold Rush

---

Watching Formula 1 evolve from a niche motorsport into a global entertainment powerhouse has been fascinating. When I first started following the sport in the early 2000s, teams often changed hands for almost nothing – Honda’s F1 team was famously sold for just one pound in 2009. Fast forward to today and valuations have soared.

Reports from Sportico and the Financial Times suggest that Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is in talks to sell a small portion of his 33% stake in Mercedes-AMG Petronas, valuing the team at around $6 billion. Reuters adds that CrowdStrike co-founder George Kurtz is among the interested parties. Despite the discussions, Mercedes-Benz, Wolff and Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS are expected to maintain the team’s existing governance model. The valuation exceeds the $5 billion benchmark set by McLaren’s ownership deal earlier this year – a remarkable rise given that Wolff bought into Mercedes just over a decade ago at roughly $165 million.

So how did Formula 1 go from one-pound teams to six-billion-dollar juggernauts? Liberty Media’s commercial reinvention, Netflix’s Drive to Survive and a truly global race calendar have all played a role. The sport’s reach across social media is vast, and race weekends have become cultural events as much as sporting ones. Having been to Silverstone and the Hungarian Grand Prix, it’s been striking to see full grandstands and how far the sport’s appeal has spread.

With more institutional investors circling, will F1 remain open to independent teams, or is it evolving into a sport dominated by corporate ownership?

For now, Mercedes remains steady. Wolff is set to continue as Team Principal, and the team’s governance structure is unchanged. That stability will comfort fans who saw Mercedes dominate with eight straight Constructors’ titles. But as McLaren, Red Bull, Aston Martin and now Cadillac attract global investors, Formula 1 finds itself in a financial surge. Whether that growth strengthens or distorts competition is the question ahead.