Toto Wolff gives Mercedes F1 future update after $300m share sale

Toto Wolff says he has “no plan” to leave his team principal role in the wake of him selling part of his ownership.

Wolff’s sale of 15% of his 33.3% share could have been seen in some quarters as the start of a possible exit strategy for the 53-year-old but he insists that is not the case.

Toto Wolff reveals motives behind Mercedes F1 sale

Wolff is unique on the grid in that, as he’s not only team principal and CEO, he is also part owner having purchased 30% of the Mercedes F1 team in 2013.

In 2021, he upped his stake to 33.3% as INEOS purchased the same amount of shares but Wolff has now sold, a small stake in the holding company, which houses his ownership stake in Mercedes, to CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz for a reported $300m. It gives Kurtz a 5% stake in the F1 team.

That sale raised questions over whether Wolff, the longest serving team principal on the grid following Christian Horner’s departure, would be stepping away or selling more but he insists that is not in his plans.

“I have no plan to sell the team and no plan to leave my role,” he said after the Las Vegas GP. “I’m actually in a good space, and I’m enjoying it, and as long as I feel I’m contributing, and others feel that I’m contributing, there’s no reason to think in that direction.

“What I did is we – in my investment holding – I sold some shares to George, who is a racer, who is a tech entrepreneur, someone that is going to help us leverage the US market. That was the reason behind it, and nothing else.”

Wolff’s sale values the team around $6bn, a remarkable rise from a decade ago and a sign of how much both Mercedes and F1 in general has grown.

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Asked about that rise, Wolff said the cost cap has been crucial to making teams profitable.

“If someone would have told us five years ago what valuations would be, we would have never believed it,” Wolff said.

“But it’s a simple extrapolation of the profitability of the teams because of the cost cap. Our business case changed fundamentally. Rather than outspending each other with no matter what, we protected us from ourselves.

“We were able to increase the revenues and increase the free cash flows and that put on the multiples that the industry has, led us to these valuations.”

As for the sport’s future, Wolff said there was no reason to suggest it cannot continue to grow and pointed to the NFL as an example of an already popular product only getting bigger.

“When you look at the US American teams. The Dallas Cowboys five years ago, were $3 billion. Today, they are 12 because of the underlying figures that have changed. That’s why I don’t know where the future leads us.

“If we continue to try to understand what makes the sport enjoyable and entertaining and putting up a great show, then there is no reason that the sport can continue to grow as it is.

“But the most important [thing] is we need to look after our sport in the right way.”

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