Mercedes chief Toto Wolff has confirmed that he will miss the Japanese Grand Prix again. The Austrian will hand responsibility over to Bradley Lord, Mercedes’ long-serving chief communications officer.
Wolff has overseen a positive start to the season for Mercedes. George Russell has scored two podium finishes, while Kimi Antonelli has impressed in his two races as a rookie. However, the packed calendar means teams may not always have key personnel available for all 24 races.
Wolff skipped the Suzuka event and the Qatar Grand Prix in 2023 after undergoing knee surgery. He intended to miss Japan last year but made a late U-turn and eventually missed the Sao Paulo Grand Prix instead. The 53-year-old insists missing the trip to Japan again is purely coincidental.
Asked if he will be in Japan, Wolff responded: “No. Bradley is the team representative – he speaks more carefully than me!
“It’s a coincidence that I’m missing that again. It’s not the jet lag.”
Lord has previously revealed that Wolff needs to share the workload at Mercedes due to the ever-increasing demands of Formula One. Asked by PlanetF1 if he is technically Wolff’s ‘right-hand man’, Lord responded: “On the left-hand side, standing in the garage so from a pure technicality point of view maybe not!
“But there’s a group that works very closely with Toto and I’m lucky enough to be part of that along with James Allison [technical director], Andrew Shovlin [trackside engineering director] and Ron Meadows [sporting director] at the track.
“We’re in constant dialogue about the race weekend and how it’s going. So the technical team and the sporting team are in the lead. Toto is not stepping in and trying to fly the plane but observing what’s happening and providing helpful inputs.
“The team on the pit wall is focusing on our two cars and how to maximise what they’re doing. We can step back a little more, following what the other teams are saying on the radio, for example, and provide some additional situational awareness, hopefully!
“And my role is really supporting the team and supporting Toto in the external representation of the organisation.”
Mercedes star Russell has finished third in both Grands Prix so far and the 27-year-old is third in the Drivers’ Championship standings. He will hope to continue challenging McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in Japan.
