Toto Wolff explains Japanese Grand Prix attendance U-turn

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has explained why he did a U-turn on his decision to attend this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Wolff had planned to miss the race at Suzuka - like he did in 2023 - to remain back at the team’s base.

The Austrian had revealed that he wanted to reduce the amount of races he was present for given the ever-expanding F1 calendar.

However, amid Mercedes’ tough start to the year, Wolff changed his plans, attending the race in Japan.

Explaining that decision in the FIA press conference on Friday, Wolff said: “Yeah, I had planned not to come to Japan because there's so much on back in Europe, things to do.

“But then I felt not coming to Japan was the wrong choice. I think it's important to be with the race team also. It does me good also to be close to the action. We are experimenting with a few things and then being part of the team really gives me energy. I hope the other way around too. So that's why I decided against staying in Europe.”

Mercedes have endured a miserable start to the season, scoring just 26 points in the first three rounds - equalling their worst start to a campaign since 2012.

They suffered a double-DNF last time out in Australia as Lewis Hamilton suffered an engine failure, while George Russell crashed out.

Despite another disappointing start to a campaign, Wolff remains “convinced” Mercedes can turn it around in the coming years.

“I think we're a sports team. We've won eight times in a row and that hasn't been done before, you have periods where you struggle like any other sports team and you can't win every time,” he added.

“That's why this is a super challenge. It's not a race, it's not one single season and then you come back out on top, but it's the third one in a row.

“But I remain absolutely convinced that we will be looking back in a few years and saying that was so tough but so important for the development of the team from maybe an organisational standpoint, from re-evaluating our tools and systems, which clearly don't work as good as they did in previous regulations.”