Why isn't Toto Wolff at Japanese Grand Prix? Everything we know with Mercedes boss absent

The familiar face of will be absent from the garage at the Suzuka Circuit this weekend with the Silver Arrows' team principal set to miss the . This is the second year in succession that Wolff will be absent from the race in Japan, although the Austrian attributes this to pure coincidence. The 53-year-old missed back-to-back events in 2024 after undergoing knee surgery, leaving his duties with Jerome d'Ambrosio and Bradley Lord.

D'Ambrosio has since departed Mercedes to become Fred Vasseur's deputy team principal at Ferrari, meaning communications director Lord will be the man in charge at Suzuka Circuit this weekend. "Bradley is the team representative - he speaks more carefully than me," Wolff explained. "It's a coincidence that I'm missing that again. It's not the jet lag."

Why isn't Toto Wolff at the Japanese Grand Prix?

The reason for Wolff's absence is down to scheduling issues. With the F1 calendar now standing at 24 Grands Prix and spanning the far corners of the globe, team personnel are under immense strain to attend every event.

This was something that Mercedes driver George Russell raised concerns about in 2023 and 2024, and the Silver Arrows have taken a proactive approach to managing staff rotation to avoid illness and burnout. Wolff's absence was planned in advance, and he will return to the garage in Bahrain.

Who is taking over from Toto Wolff at the Japanese Grand Prix?

Lord will officially be the team representative in Japan, but the communications director will be aided by the engineers around him, and helped by the digital presence of Wolff, who will be on duty from afar. James Allison, Andrew Shovlin, and Ron Meadows will also help alleviate the workload.

Explaining the team's system for weekends like this, Lord told : "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."