Carlos Sainz admitted he was flattered by James Vowles' public courting at the Canadian Grand Prix.
But the Spaniard insists he hasn't yet made his mind up over his Formula 1 future. He's leaving Ferrari at the end of the year and seems set to either join Williams or Sauber, having been in negotiations with Audi for many months.
Williams only emerged as strong contenders for his signature in the last few weeks but are now pushing hard to get their man. In Montreal on Saturday, team boss Vowles publicly stated Sainz is his "number one" target for the seat alongside Alex Albon next year.
He said: "[Sainz] is a race-winning driver who last year, against all odds, beat Max [Verstappen] in Singapore with a brilliant drive - and that's not the first time. He's intelligent in how he approaches things, logical, incredibly quick. What he did this year in Shanghai - it's going to sound like a negative, but it's not - in qualifying he crashed.
"But it's an impressive athlete who can reset themselves and then go back out and beat their team-mate in those conditions. I think that shows you just how strong he is as a driver. I think any team on the grid would be fortunate to have someone like Carlos.
"The fact that we have Sainz on our list shows you that this isn't how we have performed of late. We are prepared to have a driver line-up that I think is going to be one of the best on the grid if it's achieved. That's a different era that we're going into. We're investing tens, hundreds of millions into getting this team back to where it was in terms of success."
Those comments were put to Sainz in Montreal and in response he said: "I appreciate, obviously, James' interest and kind words that he has always towards me. The same can be said about how I feel towards him and his team.
"But the reality is that I haven't made up my mind yet about where I'm going to go next year because, as I said in the press conference the other day, I'm too focused. Right now, my head is too focused on every weekend that we're doing. Weekend in, weekend out, I'm fighting for podiums or wins.
"So it's very difficult to put your mind in the future when you have such an important weekend coming up all the time. I'm going to need some time to sit down with my management, with myself, have a conversation with myself and then decide where I want to go. But right now, there's nothing decided."
Sainz went on to say he "doesn't know" if he will wait until the summer break to take a final decision on his future. Vowles, meanwhile, suggested there may be an earlier resolution and said he expects most of the F1 driver market to untangle itself in the next "four weeks".
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