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Mark Walter has been under a microscope since suddenly selling his controlling stake in the Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation in August, just 10 months after completing his purchase of the team at a $10 billion valuation.
His Formula 1 team isn’t paying the same dividends. Fifteen races into the season, Cadillac has yet to earn a point.
Drivers win points for their team by finishing a race in the top 10. At Saturday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Cadillac driver Sergio Pérez finished 14th while teammate Valtteri Bottas was forced to retire.
If they can’t find a top-10 finish within the next eight races, they would become the first team since Haas in 2021 to finish the F1 calendar without a point.
Although all F1 teams participate in revenue sharing, their split is partially tied to performance. Mercedes is solidly in first with 538 points, followed by Ferrari and McLaren at 378 and 306, respectively. Cadillac is within striking distance of 10th-place Aston Martin and could conceivably catch ninth-place Williams, which has 12 points.
Of course, Walter has a lot more to worry about than the results in Baku.
The Guggenheim Partners CEO began 2026 with a large and growing suite of sports investments: controlling stakes in the Dodgers, Lakers, Sparks, and Professional Women’s Hockey League, plus minority stakes in Chelsea FC and Ligue 1’s Strasbourg. His holding company, TWG Global, bought a majority stake in the Cadillac team in 2024, ahead of its first season this year.
Now Walter’s sports empire is unraveling as legal questions pile up.
In July, The Wall Street Journal reported that the billionaire owner and his network of companies are under federal investigation for fraud. A federal class action lawsuit filed this month in Florida covers the same ground as that investigation, alleging that Walter’s insurance companies leveraged policyholder-backed investments to buy stakes in teams, then misrepresented the amounts in play.
Since then, Walter has been unwinding his investments. It began in August with the sudden sale of the Lakers to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and investor Joshua Kushner less than a year after Walter purchased the team. Earlier this month, he sold his stake in Chelsea.
Based on the results, he might wish to wash his hands of Cadillac, too. But without any points for his drivers and with Walter’s legal situation public, the selling price will probably be about as impressive as Cadillac’s place in the standings.
TWG in late August said its stakes in the Dodgers and Cadillac F1 were not for sale; the Sparks and PWHL were not mentioned in that statement.
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