Toto Wolff's fans won't spot the Mercedes team principal and co-owner trackside at Suzuka.
"It's true, I won't be in Japan," the Austrian affirmed. "(Communications boss) Bradley Lord will be standing in for me there.
"He chooses his words more carefully than I do anyway," he joked.
In recent seasons, with the calendar ballooning, Wolff has occasionally skipped one or two of the more distant races. Yet this is a hectic period for him—locked in a tight scrap with the top three teams and already fielding queries about the 2026 driver lineup.
His 18-year-old protégé Kimi Antonelli stepped into Lewis Hamilton's shoes this year and has shone, though teammate George Russell's steady brilliance has him just one point shy of Max Verstappen's second place in the drivers' championship.
Still, 27-year-old Russell's contract expires at year-end.
Wolff appears delighted with his lead driver. "I've always said that he's one of the top drivers out there," Wolff said. "If you want me to name three that I consider the top drivers, he's absolutely in those three, if not the top two, and maybe on his way to the top one."
In Shanghai, however, he played it cagey when asked about seizing a chance to sign Verstappen for 2026. "Toto Wolff was very passive, you'd have to say," ex-F1 driver Ralf Schumacher observed to Sky Deutschland.
"And when someone like that is calm, you can clearly tell that something is already going on in the background.
"For him, it's a luxury problem. The question, of course, is what does he do? Because he has two drivers who are close to his heart. George Russell, who is currently fighting for his future, which is very clear—you can really tell.
"And also Kimi Antonelli, who he thinks highly of," Schumacher added.
For now, Wolff's sights might be set on narrowing the gap to McLaren and pushing for this year's title. "We are not yet where we want to be," he said. "We will only be satisfied when we are winning races again and fighting for championships.
"But you can make up two tenths, even three tenths. I wouldn't say we're really in the title race yet, but we're not far behind."
