Who is replacing the absent Toto Wolff at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix?

• F1 Japanese Grand Prix 2023 - Friday Practice Results

The Mercedes team principal will skip this weekend in order to fix a troublesome knee problem.

Wolff requires surgery on his cruciate ligament after an injury sustained in a “training accident”, it is reported.

Jerome D’Ambrosio and Bradley Lord will will act as Wolff’s replacements for the Suzuka event.

Wolff will return for Qatar (probably on crutches) on October 6-8.

He has been in the wars this summer, sustaining an arm injury in a cycling accident while on a family holiday during the F1 break.

Who is Bradley Lord?

A regular in the F1 paddock alongside Wolff, Lord is the team's communications director.

He occasionally features on the Sky F1 coverage, offering comment on Mercedes' strategies.

Who is Jerome D’Ambrosio?

D’Ambrosio, a Belgian former racing driver who featured in F1 from 2011-2012 with Marussia and Lotus, is now a key member behind-the-scenes at Mercedes.

D’Ambrosio inherited some of the responsibilities left behind by James Vowles, who quit Mercedes to become Williams team principal.

He had previously worked with Susie Wolff at the Venturi Formula E team.

Wolff said about D’Ambrosio earlier this year: “Jerome is taking over some of James Vowles’ topics.

“He’s looking after the young driver programme in close co-operation with [driver development chief Gwen Lagrue], who has been doing it very successfully over the last few years.

“We are looking at grassroots motorsports from the early stages of go-karts and this is where Gwen is very active. 

“He was the one working with James. Now, within the Brackley structure Jerome has taken that over.

“He’s looking at things and there’s plenty of scope that James did beyond the strategy work. 

“I see Jerome growing in the organisation but, at this stage, that’s his area.

“I have known Jerome a long time because, back in the day, when he was in the Renault driver development [programme], I thought about managing him. It’s 15 or 20 years ago.

“We had a look again at him when he when he dropped out of the programme, so I’ve known him as a racing driver. But never from the human standpoint and never from the managerial side.

“When Susie offered him the option to jump out of the cockpit into a management role, he took it with both hands and they were quite a good, competitive duo and Jerome led it into another year and finished second in the Formula E Championship.

“I think he has the know-how of having been a racing driver at a very high level.”