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Toto Wolff says he doesn’t plan on selling the majority of his stake in Mercedes or change his role with the team, despite offloading 15% of his holding to CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz last week.
Kurtz gained a 5% ownership share, having taken 15% of the portion that Wolff owns as an equal-share one third of the Mercedes team alongside Mercedes-Benz and INEOS. The agreement values the Formula 1 team at around $6 billion, and Wolff says it’s not a precursor to him stepping back from his positions as team principal and CEO.
“I have no plan to sell the team or no plan to leave my role,” Wolff said. “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 in my investment holding, I sold some shares to George, who is a racer, who is a tech entrepreneur, who is someone that is going to help us leverage the U.S. market. That was the reason behind it, but nothing else.”
The valuation of Mercedes caught the eye as the sport continues to grow from a commercial standpoint, and with all teams now estimated to be worth at least $1.5bn according to Forbes, Wolff says it’s a change that is predominantly due to the introduction of the cost cap.
“If someone would have told us five years ago what the valuations would be, we would have never believed it,” he 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.
“Like Greg [Maffei] said, he 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.
“Now, when you look at the American teams – the Dallas Cowboys five years ago were $3 billion. Today they are $12 billion because of the underlying figures that have changed. And that’s why I don’t know where the future leads us.
“If we continue trying to understand what makes a sport enjoyable and entertaining and putting on a great show, then there is no reason that the sport can’t continue to grow as it is … Most important is we need to look after our sport in the right way.”
