Toto Wolff announced that he would miss the Japanese GP due to a personal reason. Meanwhile, the Mercedes team principal can take pride in the good start to the season. Two consecutive third-place finishes for George Russell, while the rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli proves to be a winning bet.
Already in Australia, the young Italian talent impressed with his incredible comeback in the race, jumping from sixteenth to fourth place. In China, he finished in sixth position, also winning the “Driver of the Day” award.
In recent years, Toto Wolff has chosen to skip some races due to the increasingly crowded Formula 1 calendar. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that he will not be present at Suzuka this year as well: the last time this happened was at the 2023 Grand Prix. That same year, he also missed Qatar due to a surgical operation. Last season, he considered not going to Japan but changed his plans at the last moment and decided to be there. He did not go to the Brazilian GP, however.
In Suzuka, Toto Wolff will be replaced by Bradley Lord, the long-time head of communications at Mercedes. “He talks smarter than I do!” joked the Mercedes team principal with the media after the race in China. “It’s a coincidence that I’m missing that [race] again. It’s not the jet lag.”
In an interview with PlanetF1, Lord highlighted Wolff’s need to adapt to the demands of an increasingly demanding Formula 1, with 24 races in the season. Given the enormous amount of work done by the teams each week, the Mercedes boss felt the need to share the workload with trusted people within the team – and Bradley Lord is one of them. Alongside him, James Allison (Technical Director), Andrew Shovlin (Head of Track Engineering), and Ron Meadows (Sporting Director).
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