Toto Wolff warns he could “put handbrake on” Antonelli/Russell F1 battling

Mercedes Formula 1 team boss Toto Wolff says he may have to “put the handbrake on” battling between Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell after Canada clashes.

The Mercedes duo clashed during the sprint at Montreal, and did so again while battling for the lead in the grand prix.

The pair changed places multiple times before George Russell was forced to stop on track due to a power unit issue, leaving Kimi Antonelli clear to score his fourth win of the season.

Wolff acknowledged that the two drivers put on a great show, but conceded that it could easily have gone wrong.

He stressed that the team would have to talk to both of them and consider how they would be allowed to fight each other in the future.

Asked by Crash.net about the battle, he said: "Before talking about George's race, or Kimi's race, it's always easy at the end now to say, well, that was great for the team and great for the sport, and 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 in a double DNF. And not because of over-aggressive driving with each other, simply by a mistake.

“And the same through the last chicane with the situation.

“So it's important to analyse the race, then 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? Or let's say situations where we deem it a little bit too close.”

He also acknowledged that they could afford to fight each other because of the margin to those behind, which was helped by the McLarens dropping out of the picture after they started on intermediate tyres, leaving Max Verstappen to lead the pursuit.

“There is another angle that we had a pace advantage today, and that when they were driving behind each other, we were going half a second quicker than everybody behind us, but there could well be when we were not, when they were fighting, we were losing a second to all the others.

“So we had the gap, we had the margin today, and then it's easy to easy to accept that they are fighting to a certain degree.

“But obviously that's not going to be always the case.

“So as much as we look very sportsman-like today, allowing it, there could be a situation where we would maybe turn it down a notch.”

Mercedes drivers not putting their own interests first

Wolff denied a suggestion that the drivers had put their own interests ahead of that of the team, especially in terms of radio traffic that could attract the attention of the stewards.

"No, I don't think so,” he said.

“Obviously, when you listen to some of the radio comms, I think there's room for improvement, in terms of wearing your heart on your sleeve is right, but how can I say, concentrate on the driving, that's important.

“But other than that, I think they behaved like race drivers that race for a championship. So I wouldn't be able to see a fault in that.”

He added: “That's something we can clear internally, but I don't appreciate so much elaborating on emotions on the radio.”

He stressed that the drivers would be part of discussions about agreeing where the limits are.

“I think we want to look at the pictures today and then come to the right conclusions,” he said.

“In terms of saying is that do you think that was the level of fighting you think is right?

“And if that is, why is that? And we will say why we think one or two situations could have been avoided, and what do you want to do to mitigate it?

"Definitely, more than ever, this fight is on. There's so much at stake that as a team, as uncomfortable as the ride is sometimes, you have to accept that this is the fight they've been trained for.

“But equally, if there was a situation where we believe that teams' points are at risk of losing, or there was a situation where we were losing so much time to our competitors behind, then we would not be a millimetre hesitant of putting the handbrake on.”