Wolff has no plans to sell additional stake in Mercedes | RACER

Toto Wolff says he has no plans to sell most of his stake in Mercedes or change his role at the team, despite transferring 15% of his stake to CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz last week.

Kurtz acquired a 5% ownership share, after taking 15% of the share Wolff owns as an equal share of a third of the Mercedes team alongside Mercedes-Benz and INEOS. The deal values ​​the Formula 1 team at around $6 billion, and Wolff says it is not a harbinger of stepping down from his position as team boss and CEO.

“I have no plans to sell the team or resign from my position,” Wolff said. “I’m actually in a good situation and I’m enjoying it. And as long as I feel like I’m contributing and others feel like I’m contributing, there’s no reason to think in that direction.

“What I did is, in my investment interest, I sold some shares to George, a racer, a technology entrepreneur, someone who is going to help us tap into the US market. That was the rationale behind it, but nothing else.”

Mercedes’ valuation stood out as the sport continues to grow from a commercial perspective. With all teams estimated to be worth at least $1.5 billion according to Forbes, Wolff says this is a change mainly due to the introduction of the cost cap.

“If someone had told us five years ago what the valuations would be, we would never have believed it,” he said. “But it’s a simple extrapolation of the teams’ profitability. Because of the cost cap, our business case has fundamentally changed, rather than trying to outdo each other at anything.

“Just like Greg [Maffei] said: he protected us from ourselves. We managed to increase sales and free cash flows. And that has led to the multiples that the sector has brought us to these valuations.

“If you look at the American teams now, the Dallas Cowboys were $3 billion five years ago. Today they are $12 billion because the underlying numbers have changed. And so I don’t know where the future takes us.”

“If we continue to try to understand what makes a sport fun and entertaining and put on a great show, then there is no reason that the sport cannot continue to grow as it is… The most important thing is that we have to take care of our sport the right way.”