While teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli secured victory last time out in Belgium, his teammate George Russell suffered a heartbreaking Lap DNF at Spa after a collision with former Mercedes man Lewis Hamilton, leaving him 50 points behind Antonelli in the Drivers' standings, now in P3 behind Hamilton.

However, while Russell's DNF was brought on by the Hamilton collision at Les Combes, Mercedes have since confirmed that a "software issue," had hit both of their cars on Lap 1 at Spa, explaining why Russell was suddenly "swallowed up" on the Kemmel Straight prior to his race-ending crash.

After the race, Wolff said "all Mercedes engines" had in fact suffered power unit problems during the first lap of the Belgian GP, only adding to reliability concerns surrounding the Silver Arrows, who have only scored double points in one of the last six rounds of F1 action.

Speaking in his usual pre-race weekend preview, Wolff has warned his team against "self-inflicted" issues at the Hungary GP, arguing that the German team need to execute a clean and reliable weekend in order to make good of their true potential.

Wolff said: "We have shown at every race so far that the performance is there. We have not converted enough of that potential into results though. We have lost points through self-inflicted issues, and we know we need to improve.

Looking more closely at the Hungaroring's characteristics, Wolff notes the greater opportunities to harvest battery energy than at the last two races at Spa and Silverstone. Such a circuit is tipped to favour title rivals Ferrari, with Hamilton looking to secure a ninth Grand Prix win in Budapest this weekend.

Wolff continued: "Hungary presents a different challenge to the circuits we have raced at recently. Silverstone and Spa are more energy-limited tracks; Budapest is much more energy-rich, which changes some of the demands on the car and the way you approach the weekend.

With what could be a more competitive test for Mercedes, against the likes of Ferrari and Max Verstappen's Red Bull, Wolff is crystal clear over the Silver Arrows' Hungarian GP objectives.

Meanwhile, Russell has been urged by former Williams driver Ralf Schumacher to "copy" 19-year-old Antonelli in order to rediscover his form and properly challenge his teammate for the world title.

Speaking on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Schumacher said: "He really needs to sit down now, get back into the simulator, and there's nothing else he can do but try to copy his team-mate, so to speak, and he has to practise that in the simulator until it becomes second nature."