F1 News: Former Driver Challenges Rumours of Toto Wolff's Mercedes Stake Sale
Former F1 driver Timo Glock casts doubt on the recent reports about Toto Wolff considering the sale of his Mercedes shares.
Key Takeaways
- Market Peak Concerns: Sky Sports F1 reporter Craig Slater raised concerns among F1 team owners about the diminishing value of their stakes, fearing that the current boom in F1 popularity might not last.
- Andretti Cadillac's Market Impact: The entry of Andretti Cadillac as the eleventh F1 team suggests a shift in the sport's economic balance, potentially prompting owners like Wolff to sell their shares while the market is favourable.
- Wolff's Financial Gain: Toto Wolff, after nearly a decade of investment in Mercedes F1, could see a significant financial return, given the team's substantial increase in value.
There has been recent speculation following reports that Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff might be considering selling his 33% stake in the team. This news, initially reported by Sky Sports F1 journalist Craig Slater, has brought on discussions about the sport's financial future and potential strategic shifts.
Former Formula 1 driver Timo Glock expressed his views on these rumours during an interview set up by BettingSites.co.uk, stating:
"I can’t imagine he would stop F1 in the situation he is in now. He is still desperate to show everyone that he can and will bring Mercedes back to the top. But you never know what is going on politically in the background. The pressure on him and all those whose teams aren’t winning is immense. He has made fundamental changes to the team to get it back in the right direction."
Craig Slater, in his commentary on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, delved deeper into the situation, saying:
"One or two well-placed insiders have told me that maybe some ownership within Formula 1 have looked at the value of their team has increased and have asked the question, has the sport peaked? Might this be not a bad time to kind of sell out?
"If you're talking about Williams being sold for about £140million and now being worth towards maybe even a billion pounds, never mind dollars nowadays. It's interesting that [the] Andretti [family] have tried to get in, maybe would be put off by the price tag of buying a team. Are they good value to buy right now an F1 team?
"Why are the big sovereign wealth funds... and I suppose people are talking about [the rumours of] Aramco buying Aston Martin from Lawrence Stroll and paying top dollar for that.
"If you were Dorilton or Toto Wolff or Lawrence Stroll, who bought it via liquidation, yes, he paid off a lot of the creditors, but you’ve maybe paid a couple hundred million, or I think Toto paid 50million euros for his stake, it’s now worth three billion or whatever.
"Does that have its own incentive to sell, when in a few years you’ve made such a big gain, which is why I question, it must be quite tempting for some of these owners to maybe think about offloading it in the present climate, which is certainly benign compared to where it was a few years ago."