Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has confirmed he will miss the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix. Wolff skipped the race in Suzuka in 2023, as well as the Qatar GP, after undergoing knee surgery, and originally planned to miss the same event last year before changing his plans at the last minute. He did, though, miss last year's São Paulo GP. With the F1 schedule this year matching the record-breaking 24 races of last season, it has increased the workload of personnel and boosted the likelihood of some members missing certain race weekends. This will impact Mercedes in Japan as Wolff confirmed he will not travel to the event with the Brackley-based squad. “No,” he told media, including RacingNews365, when asked if he would be with the team in Japan. “Bradley [Lord] 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.” Mercedes has endured a positive start to the new campaign, with George Russell scoring a duo of third-place finishes in Australia and China. Rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli has secured two top-six finishes in his first races.
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