Coming into the 2026 season, Russell was widely tipped to be the favourite for the Drivers' championship, but a strong start to the season for teenage teammate Antonelli has many fans wondering whether an intra-Mercedes title fight is on the cards.

Antonelli's consecutive victories at China and Japan see him at the top of the standings by nine points, as Russell trails behind after a difficult P4 finish in Suzuka.

While the two drivers are yet to fully come to hard-fought battles, not like Ferraris' Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc so far this season, Wolff is already being quizzed on how he plans to deal with his driver pairing battling it out on track.

Wolff, of course, is no stranger to such battles, but the Austrian boss has expressed confidence that the dynamic between Russell and Antonelli is "totally different" to the fierce rivalry between friends-turned-enemies Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes in the 2010s.

However, at Suzuka, Wolff was asked whether he would implement team orders between the pair, and could not rule it out later in the season.

After Antonelli's maiden F1 win in Shanghai, Wolff was quick to snub the suggestion that a repeat of Rosberg and Hamilton's toxic rivalry was a serious prospect at Mercedes in 2026.

Wolff told media, including GPblog: "Yeah, so [Hamilton-Rosberg] is completely different. I mean, Nico and Lewis knew each other from karting, from the early days, being friends, but also having this social fight that was always ingrained in there.

Nonetheless, Wolff is clearly still aware the elbows could one day "come out" between Russell and Antonelli and leave him biting his tongue.