Despite his team being valued at £4.6bn, Toto Wolff believes that the golden goose that is contemporary F1 has room for further growth.

The Austrian sold 15% of his one-third stake in the German team to George Kurtz - founder and CEO of CrowdStrike - last week in a deal thought to be worth £230m, thereby placing the value of the team at around £4.6bn.

Courtesy of the increasing popularity of the sport since the pandemic almost all the teams are thought to be worth "north of a billion", as Zak Brown once put it, but Wolff believes the sport has barely scratched the surface of its financial potential.

"If someone would have told us five years ago what the valuations would be, we would have never believed it," says the Austrian. "But it's a simple extrapolation of the profitability of the teams," he adds.

"Because of the cost cap, our business case changed fundamentally," he continues, "rather than outspending each other no matter what.

"Like Chase said, he protected us from ourselves," he says of former F1 CEO, Chase Carey, who was instrumental in introducing the cap that the teams had resisted for decades. "We were able to increase the revenues and increase the free cash flows. And that put on the multiples of revenue that have led us to these valuations."

However, eyeing the NFL, Wolff believes that there is room for further growth, and thereby profits.

"When you look at the US teams, five years ago the Dallas Cowboys were $3bn," he says. "Today they are $12bn because of the underlying figures that have changed.

"And that's why I don't know where the future leads us. If we continue trying to understand what makes a sport enjoyable and entertaining and putting on a great show, then there is no reason that the sport can't continue to grow as it is. The most important thing is we need to look after our sport in the right way."

As much as the sport hates to admit it, it was the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994, that previously gave the sport a significant boost, with (then) team owners like Ron Dennis and Frank Williams reaping the rewards as the money flowed in under the leadership of Bernie Ecclestone.

However, today team bosses, along with the sport's owners, are not looking at the tens of millions but billions, and seemingly if that means selling Formula One's soul, then so be it, for there is no arguing that the sport is rapidly changing, and while it may be reshaping the entire demographic of the fan base older fans watch on disillusioned.

To the likes of Dennis, Williams, Jordan, Tyrrell, ironically owner of the team the gradually evolved into Mercedes, the sport came first and foremost, to this new generation it would seem that money is the prime motivator, and in Liberty Media they have a willing, insatiable partner.

While he has sold a slice of his stake, Woll insists that he had no intention of selling up entirely - then again, with an eye on the Dallas cowboys, why would he.

"I have no plan to sell the team or no plan to leave my role," he insists. "I'm actually in a good space and I'm enjoying it. And as long as I feel I'm contributing and others feel that I'm contributing, there's no reason to think in that direction.

"In my investment holding I sold some shares to George, who is a racer, who is a tech entrepreneur, who is someone that is going to help us leverage the US market. That was the reason behind it, nothing else."