Toto Wolff won’t join Mercedes team for Japanese GP after Hamilton and Russell disaster | F1 | Sport

Wolff will now not be present in the garage at the Suzuka International Circuit. However, this decision was pre-planned ahead of the season and is not linked to Mercedes’ dismal start to the year. 

This will be the second successive season that the Austrian has been absent from the Japanese GP. Wolff missed the races in Suzuka and Qatar in 2023 after undergoing knee surgery. 

The eight-time world champions have endured a nightmare start to the season and are only marginally ahead of Aston Martin in the Constructors’ Championship standings ahead of the fourth round of the campaign in Japan.

Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix was a particularly low point for the team with Lewis Hamilton suffering an engine failure on lap 17 and George Russell crashing out of the race on the final lap. 

With Mercedes suffering from a slow start for the third year in succession, questions have been raised about Wolff’s long-term future as the team principal at Brackley.

Addressing the speculation after the disaster in Melbourne, he said: “I look at myself in the mirror every single day about everything I do and it is a fair question. 

“But it (leaving) is not what I feel that I should do at the moment. But if you have any ideas as to who could turn this round, I would happily listen to that.”

Wolff isn’t the only one questioning himself after the first three rounds. “It’s the worst start to a season I’ve ever had,” Hamilton said after his DNF in Melbourne. “It’s worse than 2009.

“It’s tough on the spirit for everyone in the team when so much work has been going on over the winter. You come in excited, driven and motivated, with the mindset you’re going to be fighting for wins, then that’s not the case.”