Max Verstappen has not completely ruled out a future move to Ferrari - but it is going to require them to build the "fastest car" on the F1 grid to have any chance.
Verstappen's repeated claims that he could quit F1 at the end of his current Red Bull contract, which expires at the end of 2028 season, has had plenty within the F1 community pondering and speculating what the Dutchman's career path could look like before he retires from the sport.
The two-time World Champion is undoubtedly the F1 superstar that Red Bull will continue to build around in the years to come, but could he be tempted into a change of scene and a different challenge before he decides to pursue other motorsport interests?
"People always ask me if I have a dream team," Verstappen said in an interview with Sky F1.
"I know Ferrari has an amazing history in Formula 1 and is an amazing team to race for, but I always said to myself I just want to be in the fastest car.
"I had to wait a few years to be in the fastest car and now we do have the fastest car and that is a great feeling.
"At this stage, if it happens, it happens but I'm very happy where I am and for me personally, the desire of having to drive for one particular team at all costs, no."
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Former Le Mans LMP2 winner, Richard Bradley, believes Verstappen could be tempted to join Ferrari in future to cement his place amongst the all-time greats to have ever graced the sport.
"I think that Max is going to end up at Ferrari in a couple of years," he told On Track GP, PlanetF1.com's YouTube channel in joint-partnership with Global Fan Network.
"It wouldn't surprise me, I think especially if he keeps on winning titles and he starts to get complacent, and people start saying 'oh, is he the greatest of all time?' Max is the sort of guy that goes 'okay, well I'll do what Schumacher did: I'll take Ferrari from not being in the position to win, to make them World Champions'.
"The reason I think this is because Max is on the path to greatness, we can all see that, he's on a meteoric rise, he's dominant at the minute, he's had two World Championships in the Red Bull, but we've never actually seen him do what defines the true greats.
"And when I say that, we look at [Michael] Schumacher, we look at [Ayrton] Senna, [Lewis] Hamilton, and the one thing that defines all of these guys is that they were able to win in a substandard car and take a manufacturer to a position where they weren't winning at the time, but then they're able to bring them back there.
"Schumacher doing it with Ferrari, we had Senna when he was at Lotus, we had Hamilton at McLaren after the the new rules came in in 2009 and then of course with Mercedes.
"Whilst Max is doing exactly what he needs to do in a very, very good team and car, I think he's going to want to prove himself because Max, there's no secret, he's quite a proud person to say the least. And he's going to want to show that he is one of the true all-time greats. And I can see him wanting to bring Ferrari back to the glory that they had with Schumacher, in the next few years.