Mercedes F1 CEO Toto Wolff Increased His Net Worth By 60% This Year: Report
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The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 squad may be hitting some bumps in the road, but CEO and team principal Toto Wolff is having an excellent year on the business side of things.
He’s now worth an estimated $1.6 billion, according to Forbes, a large leap from the magazine’s previous figure of $1 billion in March. And the executive can thank Mercedes F1’s growth for the boost, since the team now sits at an approximately $3.8 billion valuation. Two years ago, the enterprise—which Wolff, Ineos and Mercedes’s parent company each own 33 percent of—was worth just over $1 billion.
The average value for F1’s 10 teams has reached $1.88 billion, a massive increase of 276 percent from 2019. Ferrari holds a slim lead over Mercedes in its valuation at $3.9 billion. Those dollars aren’t the only cause for celebration in the high-speed sport: Its popularity saw a huge increase thanks to Netflix’s 2019 docuseries Drive To Survive, which benefited from content-hungry viewers amid the Covid-19 pandemic. To feed its expanding U.S. fanbase, F1 will host a third event, the much-anticipated Las Vegas Grand Prix, in November.
One factor deeply impacting money in the sport is the decision by Formula 1 and racing’s governing body, the F.I.A., to implement spending restrictions. Under the terms, teams can only use $135 million on equipment, engineering, and staffing (though driver salaries are not included). The rules have caused teams with deep pockets to be more strategic with how their dollars are allocated.
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These new regulations has helped make Mercedes F1 extremely profitable. Wolff told Forbes in May that he’s optimistic about his team’s economic future.
“Our business is pretty predictable on the income streams,” he said. “It’s a really good value proposition, and I generally believe that non-scripted content sports are crisis resilient, and if we do a good job in promoting it and providing a good show, which we are part of designing together with Liberty, we are continuing to outgrow other industries.”
