Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has opened the door for Sebastian Vettel to join the team next season.
The 32-year-old former world champion is set to leave Ferrari at the end of the current campaign.
With Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas' contracts at Mercedes due to expire in December, Wolff says they're monitoring Vettel's situation.
"Sebastian is a four-time world champion and him suddenly becoming available was unexpected," Wolff told Sky Sports. "And, therefore, it is a situation that needs to be monitored.
"Where could he potentially go, where are we with our drivers, and what I said before is I wouldn't discount Sebastian for any seat.
"We have looked at the situation. Our priority and concentration is on our Mercedes drivers - that's Lewis, Valtteri and the juniors. George Russell being one of them; Esteban Ocon is obviously a Renault driver today.
"And only if we can't find a solution within that group of drivers we will look elsewhere and then obviously Sebastian is in a very good position.
"I don't want to come out in June and say 'no chance, Sebastian is not racing for us'.
"I wouldn't do it to him as a driver, to be that blunt, and on the otherwise side I've seen black swans appearing when nobody suspected - remember Nico Rosberg. In that respect, we're just keeping our options open, but of course concentrating our discussions with our current drivers."
