Toto Wolff admits Mercedes may need to turn down their drivers' on track battles a notch at some point

Ever since Mercedes unleashed their W17 at the start of the 2026 Formula 1 season, it was clear that one of their drivers would most probably be crowned as Champion, with Russell being tipped as the one.

But five races into the season, a combination of Antonelli's brilliance as well as some bad luck for Russell—the Canadian Grand Prix a clear example—meant a rivalry is brewing within the Mercedes ranks.

In the Sprint Race in Canada, Russell and Antonelli clashed with the former emerging on top, while in the Grand Prix, the fight was repeated but ended in Russell's DNF.

Regardless, the Mercedes pit wall had some hairy moments on Saturday and Sunday in Montreal, and while the team may currently have the luxury to let their drivers fight with their advantage on rivals, that may not be the case all the time.

Wolff said: "It's always easy at the end now to say, 'Well, that was great for the team and great for the sport. Didn't we all enjoy watching the battling?' That is true to a degree, but there is another side which we need to look at, that it was close a few times.

"Kimi tucking back in and locking the tyres could have ended up in a double DNF, and not because of over-aggressive driving, simply by a mistake. The same through the last chicane with that situation.

"It's important to analyze the race and discuss with the drivers whether they felt it was a bit close, and if that is the case, how can we avoid these very, very tough situations where we deem it a little bit too close," he added.

Wolff pointed out how fighting can slow Mercedes' drivers down and allow rivals to catch up.

He explained: "When they were driving behind each other, we were going half a second quicker than everybody behind us, but when they were fighting, we were losing a second to all the others.

"So we had the gap, we had the margin, and it's easy to accept that they are fighting to a certain degree, but obviously that's not going to be always the case.

"As much as we look very sportsmanlike in Canada allowing it, there could be a situation where we would maybe turn it down a notch," Wolff concluded.

Mercedes's current situation is not new. They have been there before when they had to deal with a bitter rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg during the first V6 turbo hybrid era between 2014 and 2016.

That only ended when Rosberg retired at the end of 2016 after beating Hamilton to the F1 Title that year. (Source: Sky Sports F1)