Fernando Alonso appears to have already ruled out replacing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes as Toto Wolff's woes continue.
It's been a miserable few years for Mercedes since the regulations changed at the start of the 2022 season.
Having dominated the sport for close to a decade, they failed to build a car capable of challenging Red Bull with Max Verstappen embarking on his own dominant era with three consecutive world titles.
Hamilton doesn't appear to have faith that Mercedes' fortunes will turn around next year after he signed a shock deal to join Ferrari after this season.
His move to Ferrari has blown open the driver market with only seven spots signed up on the 2025 grid.
Alonso is one of many drivers out of contract at the end of the year and has been touted as an option for Mercedes.
The Spaniard will turn 43 years of age this summer, but remains one of the best drivers on the grid.
He impressed at the Japanese Grand Prix as he finished sixth ahead of both Mercedes cars while his team-mate Lance Stroll could only manage 12th.
Alonso is still clearly enjoying his time out on track with performances like the one last weekend.
However, being so far away from race winner Verstappen is zapping some of that same joy.
"I had a lot of fun and had one of my best weekends ever [in terms of] driving and I am 44 seconds behind the leader, so it doesn't feel that attractive," Alonso told Sky Sports F1.
When asked whether a move to a team further up the grid would be more attractive, Alonso teasingly said: "That's a very good question."
But he gave a more telling answer when pressed whether Mercedes would be a tempting move for him at the moment.
"Mercedes is behind so it doesn't feel that attractive," Alonso added.
Aston Martin are just one point behind Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship after four races.
Wolff has admitted that he's been confused at Mercedes' poor performance on track this season.
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"Everything over these two years, which we have seen points to that there should be much downforce than we believe it is.
"And now we've measured the downforce and it's there, we're just not able to extract the lap time out of it that we should.
"And that simulation show us. And it's not trivial. You know, like, I see you looking at me like, what the hell? Now imagine what we think."
