Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff takes £27m stake in Aston Martin as ‘Mercedes B team’ talk gathers pace
Wolff owns 30% of the Mercedes F1 team but his share of the British sportscar manufacturer will reduce to less than 1% next week in what is described as ‘purely an investment’
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Your support makes all the difference.Mercedes Formula One boss Toto Wolff has purchased a reported £37m stake in British sportscar maker Aston Martin, whose executive chairman Lawrence Stroll runs the Racing Point F1 team, according to company filings.
A Mercedes F1 spokesman said Wolff’s move was purely an investment on the Austrian’s part and would be diluted by a rights issue on Monday from 4.77 per cent to less than 1 per cent.
“Fully diluted following the pending rights issue, this investment will represent a 0.95 per cent stake in the company,” he added.
“It is a financial investment and Toto’s partnership and executive role with Mercedes are unaffected by the transaction.”
Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli has also bought a 3.38 per cent stake which will be similarly diluted.
Wolff previously had a 16 per cent shareholding in former champions Williams but sold that after he joined the Mercedes team, where he serves as principal and owns 30 per cent.
Canadian billionaire Stroll, whose son Lance drives for Racing Point alongside Mexican Sergio Perez, is close to Wolff. The Silverstone-based team – to be renamed Aston Martin next year – use Mercedes engines and gearboxes.
Mercedes-Benz’s parent Daimler also has a small stake in Aston Martin.
“It’s clear that Aston are now Mercedes’ B team,” the Daily Mail quoted one Formula One insider as saying.
Wolff’s future at Mercedes has been the subject of some media speculation, with the 48-year-old linked variously to senior management roles with Liberty Media-owned Formula One and at Aston Martin.
His Aston Martin shares were bought from Yew Tree Overseas Limited, a vehicle controlled by Stroll who acquired a roughly 25 per cent holding in Aston Martin with a consortium of investors.
Mercedes have won the past six Formula One drivers’ and constructors’ titles but have six times world champion Lewis Hamilton out of contract at the end of the 2020 season, which has yet to start due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hamilton, who has also been linked to Ferrari, had told reporters before the global crisis changed the sporting and financial landscape that his decision would depend on Wolff’s plans.
The Briton is now expected to stay at Mercedes, with a radical overhaul of Formula One’s sporting and technical regulations postponed to 2022.
Reuters
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