Toto Wolff has admitted Mercedes will discuss its intra-team racing rules after George Russell and Kimi Antonelli lost time fighting each other during Lewis Hamilton’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix win. The Mercedes team principal said the subject now needs internal attention after Hamilton’s first Ferrari victory of 2026, according to fresh comments published by Formula1.com.
Russell finished second in Spain after Antonelli retired late with a technical problem, but Wolff pointed to the earlier Mercedes-on-Mercedes battle as a costly phase. He said the pair raced hard before Russell’s stop and that Mercedes lost several seconds to Hamilton, with the later Virtual Safety Car helping Ferrari emerge ahead.
Mercedes now has a Ferrari problem as well as a garage problem
The issue is bigger than one lost race. Hamilton has cut Antonelli’s drivers’ championship lead to 41 points, while Ferrari’s Barcelona upgrade has changed the tone around the title fight. Mercedes can still defend letting its drivers race, but Wolff’s language suggests the old freedom may need tighter limits when an external rival is directly in the win window.
That makes this a live Austria question rather than a Barcelona footnote. Mercedes has already had to explain Russell’s late-race balance issue, and the team’s latest concern fits the same pattern as Ferrari’s Hamilton dilemma: once the championship compresses, small strategic delays stop looking harmless.
Wolff insisted the matter should not become a major problem, but the recalibration is clear. If Hamilton and Ferrari keep applying pressure, Russell and Antonelli may no longer be allowed to spend so much race time taking points off each other.
