Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed he has spoken to Sir Jim Ratcliffe about joining his bid to purchase a stake in Manchester United.
Ratcliffe, is set to buy a 25 per cent shareholding in the Old Trafford club, with the deal expected to see the 71-year-old billionaire have a significant say in sporting matters.
Ineos founder Ratcliffe, along with Wolff, 51, and Ola Kallenius own a third of the Mercedes Formula One team. Mercedes team principal Wolff has overseen six of Lewis Hamilton’s seven world championships.
Speaking to the PA news agency ahead of this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, Wolff, a close ally and business partner of Ratcliffe’s, said: “Jim has shared the trajectory with me.
Toto Wolff has overseen Mercedes’ Formula One success (Tim Goode/PA)
“I very much respect his values and we trust each other. If we felt it would make sense to be part of the investment group then I would certainly look at it.”
Austrian Wolff bought a share in Williams in 2009 before leaving the British team to become an executive director of Mercedes four years later. He spearheaded the team’s record of eight consecutive constructors’ world championships between 2014 and 2021.
He added: “I have never aimed for trophy investments but I like the competitiveness of the Premier League.
“Jim and Manchester United is a love story because he is born there. Our personal relationship is strong and with Ola Kallenius, they call us the Three Amigos because we live in the no bulls*** world.
“If felt I could contribute then I would consider joining him at Manchester United.”
Wolff also raised the prospect of going into business with Hamilton.
Wolff would consider a business relationship with Hamilton (Tim Goode/PA)
The seven-time world champion will continue with Mercedes until at least the end of 2025 after recently agreeing a new two-year deal worth £100million.
Wolff said: “I would consider Lewis to be in my very close circle of friends and we are talking about career planning a lot. I would like to be part of his future.
“Driving is the main priority, but whenever we call it a day, it will not be the end of our personal and business relationship.
“We can look at expanding our activities on investments in the sports field and doing that together.
“I have been doing this for 25 years and that is what I know. He is really smart from a business perspective so there is more to come.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here