Sky F1's Ted Kravitz sparked the rumour mill of an Alex Albon Red Bull comeback by pointing out Canada GP praise from team boss Christian Horner.
Albon and Williams were rewarded handsomely at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve when they made the gamble on dry tyres in Q2 during a gap in the rain, Albon topping that session and going on to start P9.
And on race day the efficiency of that Williams FW45 in a straight line once again served Albon very well indeed, the Thai racer scoring an impressive P7 finish, just under 10 seconds behind Sergio Perez in the Red Bull who had made a late pit stop to chase the fastest lap bonus point.
That second Red Bull seat once belonged to Albon, but after struggling to compete with the performance level of Max Verstappen, Albon was dropped to the test and reserve driver role for 2021, before returning to the grid with Williams for 2022 where he has impressed since, securing a multi-year deal with the team.
Albon is no longer affiliated with Red Bull, and so when Horner told Sky F1 that he had been keeping a very close eye on Albon's Canada performance, congratulating him for the effort, it got Kravitz wondering why Horner would point out that drive? Is Albon being eyed-up by Red Bull again as Perez's alarming slump in form continues?
Responding to a fan question on the Sky F1 podcast asking if Perez deserves that second Red Bull seat, Kravitz said: "Yes, although Christian Horner was quick to praise Alex Albon wasn't he? I thought that was interesting in that Alex Albon has now severed all of his ties, he doesn't even have the Red Bull on the side of his helmet anymore.
"He still has the links with the Yoovidhya family who are 51 per cent owners of Red Bull. There's a couple of sponsors that he has which is linked to the Yoovidhya family and their other brands that they have in Thailand.
"But Alex is not in the Red Bull camp anymore, and Alex Albon finishing seventh in a Williams, even though it was 20 seconds behind, well Checo made the extra pit stop, behind Checo Perez, in a Red Bull, in sixth, wasn't lost on anybody, and least is seems Christian Horner."
Jenson Button casts immediate doubt on Daniel Ricciardo's 'fairytale ending' at Red Bull
'Nico Hulkenberg would be the perfect Max Verstappen wingman at Red Bull'
If Albon was to return to the fold, it would not be his first recall, having been brought back in for the 2019 campaign alongside Daniil Kvyat, the pair assigned to Toro Rosso as Red Bull went through a drought in their once overflowing pool of young racing talent.
Albon of course went on to feel the pain of the Red Bull axe once again, so now that he is thriving at Williams, even if that team is far adrift of the dominant Red Bull outfit, it is far from a given that Albon would want to go back again anyway and risk being burned as Verstappen's team-mate once more.
It also feels like Red Bull, if they were to replace Perez, which advisor Helmut Marko says will not happen, now have enough options to shuffle around within their own ranks again if Perez's struggles become too much for the team to stomach.
Yuki Tsunoda is impressing in his third season at AlphaTauri, schooling his former F2 and Formula E champ team-mate Nyck de Vries in the team which has now dropped to the foot of the Constructors' standings, while eight-time F1 race winner and current Red Bull reserve Daniel Ricciardo is also very much an option.
Albon almost certainly would not want to head over to AlphaTauri if he was offered that spot, but Red Bull would not really need to do that anyway if a vacancy cropped up at their second team, as they have Liam Lawson waiting in the wings, while Ayumu Iwasa is impressing as he chases the F2 title.
It feels like an Red Bull-Albon reunion would not really be in the best interests of either side.