Mercedes eye-off-the-ball "concern" in F1 title fight with Red Bull

Such a battle comes when both teams are trying to manage a budget cap for the first time and in a year when major new regulations are being introduced from 2022.

Wolff concedes that in attempting to cope with the challenge from Red Bull, the eyes of the team might be distracted when considerable focus needs to be placed on next year.

Asked if that was a concern, Wolff said: "Always a concern because getting the balance right between the current year and next year is a tricky situation every year.

"But this time around it is particularly difficult because there is such a big regulation change for next year.

"It's a constant dialogue inside of the team as to how much resource is switched over and when."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner naturally faces the same dilemma, which is arguably more problematic given the development of the new powertrains department.

Asked whether there was a temptation to pull more resource for this year knowing a tiny performance gain could swing the championship, Horner replied: "The team is doing a really great job at the moment.

"The fact we’ve probably managed to out-develop all other teams from our starting point last year, adapting to these new regulations, is testimony to the teamwork going on in Milton Keynes in obviously what have been trying conditions for everybody.

“We need to continue to develop this car but also have to be mindful that there is a completely new generation of car coming for 2022.”