Toto Wolff’s investment in the Mercedes team has seen his personal wealth blossom but now could be the time to cash out.
Since he invested in the company and assumed leadership of the Mercedes Formula One project back in 2013, Toto Wolff has practically become synonymous with the project. But with his 33% ownership in the team now valued at an estimated £1 billion ($1.26 billion), it might be time for the Austrian to sell up and move on.
The 52-year-old became a director at Silver Arrows after selling his shares in Williams, an F1 rival, and joining Mercedes more than ten years ago. Wolff invested an eight-figure amount to purchase his team share, and as a result, his net worth has increased to billions of dollars.
As per Forbes, the Mercedes team’s valuation increased to an astounding £3.02bn ($3.8bn) in 2023 from £1.07bn ($1.35bn) during Liberty Media’s takeover in 2017. Wolff’s personal net worth, which was most recently estimated to be £1.27 billion ($1.6 billion), has been impacted by this.
His 33% ownership in Mercedes accounts for about £1 billion ($1.26 billion) of his total net worth. Based on a number of factors, it appears that Wolff will have the ideal opportunity to arrange his departure from the team in 2024.
The condition of the Mercedes F1 team provides Wolff with the strongest justification for taking a profit on his investment. When the Silver Arrows unveiled their 2023 challenger, they reaffirmed the disastrous design philosophy of the W13, which resulted in a season without a victory for the first time in ten years.
As the development race went on, Mercedes’ lack of improvement became increasingly alarming because McLaren and Ferrari both offered a more reliable challenge to Red Bull, the defending world champions.
The departure of Lewis Hamilton, who has decided to join Ferrari at the end of the 2024 season in the hopes that a late-career change can spur a return to contention for the World Championship, is even more concerning. With no backup plan in place and the star driver out of the picture, one of the F1 hegemons’ futures appears uncertain.
The relative lack of drama the sport has produced over the last two seasons is another factor that could persuade any team owner to sell. F1’s popularity surged due to the combination of the 2021 title fight and the success of Netflix’s Drive to Survive.
But after Verstappen won 19 of the 22 Grands Prix last season, and Red Bull won 21, casual fans are losing interest in watching week after week. The sport’s broader appeal could be severely harmed by another biased campaign, which would result in declining viewership.
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