According to the PA news agency, Mercedes head Toto Wolff will be missing from the upcoming Formula One event in Japan.
It is thought that Wolff’s decision to forgo the race in Suzuka on April 7 was made prior to the start of the new season and is unrelated to the team’s performance in Australia.
Wolff stated after Sunday’s race at Melbourne’s Albert Park that it is “fair” to question his future as team principal given Mercedes’ disappointing weekend.
Lewis Hamilton qualified 11th and had the worst start of his 18-season career when his engine failed on lap 17, while teammate George Russell crashed out in seventh place.
Wolff, who resides in Monaco, will be on the intercom remotely during the race weekend in Japan, with his responsibilities at the circuit distributed among senior members of the Brackley crew.
The Austrian also missed last year’s Japanese Grand Prix and the following round in Qatar due to knee surgery. On those instances, the team’s driver development director, Jerome d’Ambrosio, was given the effective on-site team principal baton.
However, it was revealed earlier this month that D’Ambrosio’s contract will expire at the conclusion of the season, marking the end of his time with the squad.
Wolff revealed in an interview with the PA news agency last year that he plans to reduce his on-track presence in the future years.
The 52-year-old, who has been in control of Mercedes since 2013, recently inked a new three-year contract to continue as CEO and team principal of the F1 organization he co-owns with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ola Kallenius.
Mercedes won a remarkable eight straight constructors’ titles between 2014 and 2021, however they have only one victory in their past 48 races.
Russell, fresh off his terrible crash in Melbourne, is set to arrive at the team’s headquarters in Northamptonshire later this week as Mercedes seeks to address their disappointing start to the season.
Russell failed to finish Sunday’s race after colliding with the wall on the penultimate lap while pursuing Fernando Alonso.
The stewards ruled that the double world champion had driven carelessly, and he was demoted from sixth to eighth place after receiving a 20-second post-race penalty.
The 42-year-old, however, insisted on his innocence in a social media post.
Alonso wrote: “I was startled by the penalty at the end of the race for how we should approach the corners or drive the race cars. We don’t want to do anything improper at these speeds.
“I believe that without gravel on that corner, or any other corner in the globe, we would never be examined.
“In F1, with over 20 years of expertise, shifting racing lines, trading entering speed for good exits from corners is part of the “We never drive at 100 percent on every racing lap and turn; we save fuel, tyres, and brakes, so being held accountable for not making every lap the same is shocking. We must embrace that and consider Japan in order to get more speed and battle for spots farther up the field.”
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