Who is replacing the absent Toto Wolff at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix?
The Mercedes team💖 principal will skip this we🉐ekend in order to fix a troublesome knee problem.
Wolff requires surgery on his cruciate ligament after an injury sustained in a “t💎raining accident”, it is reported.
Jerome D’Amb𓆉rosio and Bradley L🔯ord will will act as Wolff’s replacements for the Suzuka event.
Wolff will retu🌠rn for Qatar (probably on crutches) on October 6-8.
He has been in the wars thi🌠s summer, sustaining an arm injury in a cycling accident while on a💖 family holiday during the F1 break.
Who is Bradley Lord?
A regula🐓r in the F1 paddock alongside🌌 Wolff, Lord is the team's communications director.
He occasionally featuresꦚ on the Sky F1 coverage, offering comment on Mer💜cedes' strategies.
Who is Jerome D’Ambrosio?
D’Ambrosio, a Belgian former racing driver who featured 𝓀in 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 🔥te🅷am principal.
He had previously worked with Susie Wolff🧔 at the Ven💜turi 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 c꧙hief Gwen Lagrue], who has been doing it very successfully over the last few years.
“We are looking a✨t grassroots moto💃rsports from the early stages of go-karts and this is where Gwen is very active.
“He was the one working with James. Now, wit🌌hin the Brackley structure Jerome has taken that over.
“He’s looking at things and there’s plenty of s🃏cope that James did beyond the strategy work.
“𝕴I see Jerome growing in the organisation but, at this stage, that’s his are𝓰a.
“I have known Jer𒐪ome 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 nev🍷er 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 Jero✨me led it into another year and finished second in the Formula E Championship.
“I൩ think he has the know-how of having been a racing driver at a very high level.”
