Sky Sports commentator David Croft has claimed Max Verstappen could yet leave Red Bull for Mercedes, despite rumours drying up in recent weeks.
The Silver Arrows are yet to confirm a replacement for Lewis Hamilton, who is off to Ferrari at the end of the campaign.
Verstappen was strongly linked with Red Bull at the start of the season at a time when Christian Horner was facing scrutiny.
Talk of a departure has since gone cold, however, with Verstappen and Horner both saying the Dutchman is happy at Red Bull.
Max Verstappen could yet ditch Red Bull for Mercedes
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Yet Croft, speaking on the Sky F1 podcast, has claimed a potential move isn't 'dead in the water'.
“Let’s go back to Monaco where the Verstappen to Mercedes rumours started being talked about again," he said.
“Now, I am not sure what’s changed since the opening race of the season and Monaco so that it all went a bit quiet in between and then someone might have come to the race in Monaco that we hadn’t seen at the track for a while that might be quite close to Max Verstappen.
"Mentioning no names on that one but the rumours started again on that one.”
He added: “You get the impression, and I had a couple of wonderful text messages over the Monaco weekend from people who’d heard Jos talking and saying ‘Max going to Mercedes, you know, that’s not dead in the water yet’.
“It’s quite clear that there’s still a bit of a ground that needs to be resolved in that particular conversation.
“Logically, Max stays exactly where he is. But when has logic ever formed part of a discussion on this one? Especially in F1.”
Verstappen and Red Bull have been dominant in recent years.
However, they've lost a bit of their usual magic this season.
Red Bull have failed to win two of the last three races, with Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc winning in Miami and Monaco respectively.
And Sky's Martin Brundle believes 'internal' issues at Red Bull earlier in the season are behind the team's dip in form.
"It was [Charles] Leclerc's first victory in 39 races believe it or not, and he also broke a string of failing to win from his previous 12 pole positions," he said.
"But he put in a perfect performance from the first lap of practice until the last lap of the race.
"Ferrari and McLaren are on a fine run, both teams and driver pairings looking very cohesive, focused, and well structured.
"This means that Red Bull are very much looking in their rear mirrors in both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships and it appears to be game-on with so many races to come.
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Max Verstappen may yet replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes
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"I personally have no doubt that the internal events at Red Bull have detracted from their recent performances, and they'll be desperately keen to resume normal service in Montreal next time out."
Red Bull chief Christian Horner, however, believes a poor qualifying session in Monaco cost Verstappen last time out.
“Obviously this race is won on a Saturday and that’s where we had a poor day,” Horner said.
“We need to understand that, understand what the issues were with the ride and the kerbs.
“It was a very static race, the top 10 finished where they started from, the red flag effectively killed the race because everybody was going to run to the end of the race, so we have some lessons to take out of this weekend and learn from obviously.
Max Verstappen has helped Red Bull dominate F1 in recent years
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“This circuit [Monaco] hasn’t played to our strengths, and we need to understand what are those weaknesses and how do we address them.
"It’s a continual process once you are into the law of diminishing returns, and of course your focus changes depending on what your weaknesses are.”
