Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has sounded a warning to George Russell and Kimi Antonelli amid their 2026 Formula 1 title battle.

After enjoying a near-perfect start to the 2026 season and new rules era, Mercedes appears to be in a class of its own, with Russell and Antonelli battling it out for victories early on.

Russell claimed victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, before Antonelli hit back to claim successive wins in China and Japan to overhaul his more experienced team-mate at the top of the world championship by nine points.

Mercedes’ dominant start has led to suggestions that this year’s world championship battle could exclusively feature the Silver Arrows drivers.

While Mercedes will allow both its drivers to race freely for world title honours, Wolff hinted at serious consequences for Russell or Antonelli if things were to get out of hand.

“The oddity in Formula 1 is that the two teammates are also the biggest competitors,” Wolff told media including Crash.net.

“And we’ve learned a lot over the last 10-plus years in how to best handle these situations. But best handled means also letting them race and acknowledging the fact that they race.There are certain values that we stand for in the team.

“The team is always bigger than the drivers. It is Mercedes, one of the most formidable brands in the world, the best car brand in the world.

“We race for 150,000 people that work for us. A company that exists for more than 120 years. And that, you know, having the opportunity to race to be one of the few selected racers for Mercedes also comes with a responsibility for racing for Mercedes.

“The moment the driver feels like this is all about him, that’s not the mindset that we would ever allow, accept them in the team. And we’ve done that in the past. I would, you know, rather have only one car driving if that wasn’t clear.

“But I think it will never come to the point because our drivers have been so long in the Mercedes family that they are part of that mindset and this philosophical approach and the legacy that they represent.”

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg famously engaged in a fierce scrap for world titles between 2014 and 2016, with things boiling over on occasion.

Wolff recently revealed he was prepared to sack both Hamilton and Rosberg after a series of damaging intra-team clashes.