Mercedes teammates Kimi Antonelli and George Russell have been told they are free to race after two near collisions at the last round in Canada, with 19-year-old Antonelli saying it would be impossible to put the two title rivals "on a leash."
Antonelli leads his teammate by 43 points after five rounds this season and saw his lead extended by 25 points in Canada following the retirement of Russell due to a reliability issue unrelated to their battle.
Prior to Russell's retirement, the two teammates engaged in fights for the lead in both the sprint race and grand prix in Montreal, with the pair touching wheels in the sprint and Antonelli coming close to causing a collision in the main race.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the battles would be discussed ahead of this weekend's race in Monaco after admitting both were "close a few times" and stressful to watch from the pit wall.
Speaking on Thursday in Monaco, Antonelli said discussions had taken place between Mercedes management and its drivers since Canada and he and Russell were told they were still free to race.
"We had this discussion after the race weekend, actually we had one a couple of days ago before coming here too, and we had a chat, we reviewed all the episodes of the race," he said.
"Basically, the end of the discussion was you can race each other freely as long as there's respect, and as long as you don't put yourself in a situation that could damage one of you or both of you. So the team doesn't want to put any rules [in place].
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"Of course, they want both cars to finish and to get as many points as possible for the team, and that is very well in our minds as well, because we race for ourselves because we want to be the best, we want to win, but we also race for the team because we want to reward as well all the 2,000-plus people that were back in Brackley and Brixworth, and we want the team to win as well.
"So, yeah, we're well aware and for sure we're going to keep racing each other like we did in Canada -- of course, a bit more smartly -- but definitely the team wants us to race freely because it's also the way to be, you can't really put a leash on a driver that is fighting for wins and the championship, you can't really tell him, oh, just sit back.
"Of course, it can still happen, but the team wants us to race freely."
Russell, whose significant deficit to Antonelli in the championship means he arguably has more to lose from rules being put in place, said he was happy with the talks since Canada.
"No, there's no concern at all -- it was left that we have to be trusted.
"This is what we do. We're drivers, we push ourselves to the limit every single lap, and when we race with one another, you push each other to the limits as well.
"But of course, when you're sat on the sidelines, as the pit wall are, or even Toto, of course it's so stressful and tense because you can't control what is about to happen, and you want to be able to control it.
"But ultimately, we have to be trusted, and we are trusted. And that's how it's been left.
"So we'll continue fighting hard. We know the boundaries with one another, and that was good."
