Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff has set the record straight after his recent stake sale led to speculation that he could be preparing to make an exit from the championship.
After George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli secured P3 and P5 in Las Vegas, Wolff told the media that he has no plans to leave his role.
"Yeah, I have no plan to sell the team or no plan to leave my role," he 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."
Wolff sold a 15% stake in his holding company, which translates to a 5% share in the Brackley outfit, to CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz.
"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 US market," Wolff added. "That was the reason behind it, but nothing else."
The stake sale valued the Mercedes Formula 1 team at £4.6billion.
"Yeah, I mean, if someone would have told us five years ago what the valuations would be, we would have never believed it," Wolff continued. "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 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 US-American teams, the Dallas Cowboys five years ago were $3billion. Today, they are $12billion 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 up a great show, then there is no reason that the sport can't continue to grow as it is. I don't know. Or... Most important is we need to look after our sport in the right way."
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