Toto Wolff has sold a portion of his ownership stake in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team to George Kurtz, the billionaire founder and CEO of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The transaction, announced Wednesday, marks the first partial exit by a team principal who acquired his 33% stake in 2013 alongside Mercedes' works entry. Financial terms were not disclosed. Wolff retains majority control of his remaining position and continues as team principal and CEO through his current contract, which runs through the end of 2026.
Kurtz, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $8.2 billion, joins Mercedes' ownership structure at a moment when the team is recalibrating after two consecutive seasons outside the constructors' championship fight. Mercedes finished second in 2024 but trailed Red Bull by 451 points at the constructor level, its widest margin since returning to F1 in 2010. Kurtz is not the first American billionaire to acquire a stake in a European F1 franchise—Liberty Media owns the commercial rights, and Michael Andretti pursued a failed team entry—but he is the first cybersecurity executive to hold equity in a works team. CrowdStrike, which trades on NASDAQ under ticker CRWD, posted $3.07 billion in revenue for fiscal 2024, up 37% year-over-year.
The sale restructures the ownership layers inside the team. Mercedes-Benz AG retains its 33% stake, acquired alongside Wolff's original equity investment. INEOS, the petrochemicals conglomerate controlled by Jim Ratcliffe, holds another 33% after entering in 2020. Wolff's reduced position and Kurtz's entry compress what had been a tripartite balance into a more distributed model. Wolff's remaining equity percentage was not disclosed, but team insiders familiar with the structure estimate it now sits between 15% and 20%. That leaves Kurtz holding a minority stake in the mid-teens, enough for board representation but not operational veto rights.
The transaction arrives as F1 franchise valuations continue upward. Aston Martin's majority shareholder Lawrence Stroll recently valued that team north of $1.2 billion in private placement discussions. Williams Racing sold to Dorilton Capital in 2020 for a reported $200 million; comparable teams now field bids closer to $800 million to $1 billion, according to advisors who work both the franchise and sponsor side. Mercedes, with eight consecutive constructors' titles between 2014 and 2021, operates at a valuation premium. One European family office that sized a minority stake in a midfield team last year estimated Mercedes would trade at $2.5 billion to $3 billion on a control basis, implying Kurtz's stake could have cost between $300 million and $450 million depending on the exact equity transfer.
Kurtz's entry also signals a broader trend of American technology wealth flowing into European motorsport ownership. McLaren counts MSP Sports Capital, a New York-based investment firm, as a major stakeholder. Red Bull's advanced analytics and simulation infrastructure runs on Oracle cloud, reflecting founder Larry Ellison's deep ties to team principal Christian Horner. Kurtz's background in endpoint detection and cyber resilience maps cleanly onto F1's escalating need for data integrity, particularly as teams centralize aero simulation, strategy modeling, and hybrid power unit development in cloud environments. Mercedes runs its Brackley factory on a private cloud with failover capacity in Stuttgart; any degradation in uptime costs wind-tunnel hours and lap-time development.
Wolff's partial exit also clears capital for other allocations. He maintains a 10% stake in Aston Martin Lagonda, the British luxury automaker, and sits on its board. That investment, acquired in 2020, has declined 48% since purchase as Aston Martin's stock struggled under high debt and low production volumes. Liquidity from the Mercedes stake sale could fund margin calls, personal real estate, or reinvestment into private technology companies. Wolff's wife, Susie Wolff, runs the F1 Academy women's racing series, which requires ongoing capital commitments for team subsidies and track rental.
Mercedes begins 2025 with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli as its driver lineup, the youngest pairing in the team's modern era. Antonelli, 18, replaces the retired Lewis Hamilton, who moves to Ferrari on a multi-year contract. The team's technical leadership remains stable: James Allison as technical director, Mike Elliott as technology director, and Andrew Shovlin as trackside engineering director. Mercedes' 2025 car, the W16, will be unveiled at Silverstone on February 18, two days before official pre-season testing begins in Bahrain.
Kurtz's first paddock appearance is expected at the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 2. Team insiders say he plans to attend eight to ten races this season, a schedule that matches INEOS chairman Ratcliffe's average attendance. Whether Kurtz takes a board seat immediately or waits until the next governance cycle in June remains unclear. His presence does shift the ownership composition toward pure financial performance rather than brand halo—CrowdStrike has no automotive division, no engine heritage, no consumer product to showcase. That makes him structurally closer to a family-office allocator than a strategic partner, which changes how the board debates sponsorship, driver salary, and capital-expenditure allocation.
Mercedes' title sponsorship with Petronas runs through 2026. Renewal negotiations typically begin 12 to 18 months before expiration, meaning preliminary terms will surface by late 2025. Wolff's reduced equity stake does not affect his authority over those talks, but Kurtz's board voice adds another data point in underwriting risk. If Mercedes remains outside the championship fight through 2025, Petronas may renegotiate downward or exit. That would open a naming-rights slot worth $60 million to $80 million annually, and CrowdStrike could be a natural replacement—if Kurtz wants to convert equity into branding. His presence makes that option cleaner than if he were simply a passive LP.
The next catalyst is the Bahrain shakedown. If the W16 shows pace within 0.3 seconds of Red Bull and Ferrari during pre-season testing, Mercedes' commercial value rises and Kurtz's entry looks well-timed. If the car struggles and finishes the season fourth or fifth in the standings, the equity conversation shifts toward operational changes, budget reallocation, or further minority sales to fund driver upgrades. Wolff's contract expires in 2026. Whether he renews depends on results, but also on whether his reduced stake still justifies the workload. Kurtz now holds part of that answer.
The takeaway
Wolff monetizes part of his stake while keeping control; Kurtz's cyber background and board seat could reshape sponsor and cloud-infrastructure priorities.
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