The Aston Martin Formula 1 team is not shutting the door on a potential tie-up with Christian Horner in the wake of speculation linking him with the outfit.
However, it is understood that any deal that resulted in a role for Horner at Aston Martin would only be off the back of a potential investment buy-in, rather than any straight management role.
Horner, who was dismissed as Red Bull's team principal days after this year's British Grand Prix in July, is weighing up his options for a return to F1 duty when he is allowed in the first half of next year.
There are believed to be three leading possibilities for him right now.
One is with the Alpine team, another is with Aston Martin and the final one, as revealed by The Race, is to go it alone and help create his own team from scratch.
All of these options are being weighed up at the moment, and it has been suggested that Horner has financial backers in place to help support his ambitions of coming back to F1 on his own terms.
The Aston Martin possibility has prompted a great deal of intrigue because the team already has a heavyweight team in place and all its senior management positions are filled.
But speaking ahead of the Singapore GP, team principal and CEO Andy Cowell intriguingly declined to rule out the possibility of Horner arriving there.
"Christian's record speaks for itself," said Cowell, when offered the chance to rule out Horner taking up a role at Aston Martin. "He's a great competitor. I guess it's down to Christian to work out what he wants to do.
"He might want to walk away from the sport, he might want to do something else in the sport. But that's down to Christian, isn't it?
"We've got a strong set-up and we're marching forward with that. We're a relatively young team; we've got great facilities; we're developing the tools; we've taken on strong people like Adrian [Newey], Enrico [Cardile], Jack Vino on the aero side.
"But there are also people internally: there's a guy called Michael Hart that works hour by hour with Adrian on aero development; Giles Wood, and so on.
"And with Lawrence's [Stroll] vision and with sponsorship revenues that are coming in driven by Jeff [Jefferson Slack, Aston Martin's commercial and marketing chief], I think we've got a pretty strong team."
Asked by The Race whether the arrival of someone like Horner would make the team stronger though, Cowell said: "I'll refer back to what I said: we've got a plan and we're marching forward.
"And I guess Christian needs to work out where he wants to play a part in the future. And yeah...who knows what will happen?"
The Race has learned that one of the priorities for team owner Lawrence Stroll right now is to attract investors that will carry the team forward into the new rules era that starts in 2026, with sights set on Aston Martin becoming a championship-winning F1 squad.
It is under those terms that any potential involvement with Horner would rest, although there are understood to be other interested parties who may deliver the financial backing that Stroll is looking for.
Horner's severance package agreed with Red Bull means he will be able to start work for an F1 team some time in the first half of next year.
