Wolff admits Mercedes had ‘short dream’ of victory in Montreal after Russell’s strong start

Russell also admitted to making some errors during the 70-lap encounter and, while Wolff agreed that this may have been the case, the Team Principal was keen to focus on the development that Mercedes displayed during the weekend.

“Alongside this brilliance in today’s race, on the other side maybe there was one or two [mistakes] that we could have avoided,” Wolff added. “But we need to take the positives. The car has made a real step forward with bringing bits and the development direction is true.”

READ MORE: Hamilton laments ‘one of my worst drives’ as Canada victory challenge slips through his fingers

As well as Russell’s comments about his own mistakes, team mate Lewis Hamilton was also self-critical following the Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion slipped backwards in the latter stages, going from being in contention for a podium to a final result of fourth.

Hamilton went on to label his visit to the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve as “one of my worst drives that I’ve had”. When speaking further to the media later on, Wolff was quizzed on whether he felt the drivers were being too hard on themselves.

“I think when you finish third and fourth [from] where we have been coming from then it’s a positive race,” the Austrian said. “Three and four is much better than we had previously in the last few races, so that’s good.