Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri has admitted that Sebastian Vettel's future at Maranello is clouded while welcoming the interest in the legendary team from Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
With the emergence of his young teammate Charles Leclerc, who Camilleri says has a "long term contract", quadruple world champion Vettel has lost his number 1 status for 2020.
Team boss Mattia Binotto says the pair will start 2020, the last year in Vettel's current contract, at "eye-level".
Grabbing headlines since the season finale in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, is speculation that Ferrari could snap up six-time F1 World Champion Hamilton for 2021.
But Camilleri said at Ferrari's end-of-year dinner, "It would be premature to decide anything now for the future."
However it is clear that 32-year-old Vettel will be under the microscope in 2020. Marca newspaper reports that the German has been in contact with McLaren.
"We have to see the performance, the way he adapts to the car and his motivation for the future," Binotto said. "It's not about whether he makes mistakes or not. It's really about how he sees his future and how we see our team."
Camilleri said the Hamilton rumour was "
blown out of proportion" by the media, but he did confirm that Ferrari chairman John Elkann met with the Mercedes driver this year.
"We clearly are very flattered that Lewis in particular, and other drivers, want to come and join us, but it would be premature to decide anything today," he added.
Binotto said Ferrari will begin to think about its 2021 lineup more seriously after the first few races of next season, "Ferrari has the advantage that we are very popular among the drivers. We are in a privileged situation.
"By the beginning of May, roughly around the race in Spain, we want to know where the journey will go in 2021," added the Italian team boss.
Big Question: Who is romancing who?