Wolff sells 5pc Williams stake

Williams has a new co-owner.

Ever since he bought into Mercedes and became the Brackley squad’s team boss, Toto Wolff has been looking to sell his 15 per cent Williams stake.

5 per cent of the stake has been bought by a US businessman called Brad Hollinger, it emerged in Austria early on Friday. Hollinger has an option to purchase the remaining 10 per cent stake Wolff has later this year.

Hollinger is CEO of a company called Vibra Healthcare, and he also founded The Hollinger Group, operating multiple facilities around America.

The BBC quoted Hollinger as saying at the Red Bull Ring that he believes F1 is "right on the cusp of another explosion in growth" through exploitation of social media.

And Wolff said: "It was always the plan to reduce the shareholding in Williams towards a level that is clearly a financial investment. This was important to Daimler for conflict of interest reasons and for compliance reasons.

"But it was quite a task to find somebody who was good for the company, who was good for the family, and who had the spirit I had when I joined Williams as a financial investor."