The pair were involved in some thrilling wheel-to-wheel action at F1's Canadian Grand Prix last weekend but the team boss admits things will need to be assessed after the Italian almost took out his team-mate in Montreal.

Wolff told reporters: "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 analyse 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."

Antonelli profited from Russell's retirement from the race to win his fourth consecutive Grand Prix and stretch his championship lead to 43 points over his team-mate - and Wolff has stressed that the "fight is on" for the pair.

The Mercedes boss said: "More than ever, this fight is on. There is so much at stake for both. 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 the team's points are at risk of being lost, 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."