Toto Wolff dismissed the idea of a "waste of time" chat with Red Bull chiefs over a potential deal for Mick Schumacher.
The German is a reserve for the Silver Arrows this year. But he will not want to be in that position for too long as his ultimate ambition is to establish himself on the grid.
Haas let him go at the end of last season, having not seen enough to convince them to offer him another deal. And Wolff wasted little time before bringing him into the Mercedes fold.
That was despite some interest from AlphaTauri regarding their vacant driver positio n before Nyck de Vries was signed to fill the spot left there by Alpine-bound Pierre Gasly.
Since Schumacher joined Mercedes, though, Wolff says any negotiations with Red Bull's sister team would have been a "waste of time". He asserted: "I've never spoken to the Red Bull management about whether Mick can get a place there."
That said, the Austrian has made it clear he will not stand in the driver's way if he were to strike a deal to race for another team. He added: "To be honest, I think he was burned last year. I think whoever wants him would get a good driver.
"But, in the end, it's up to the other teams to decide for themselves which drivers they want. I can't tell the teams we have contracts with that they have to use our back-up driver, but I think they're missing something."
It comes after AlphaTauri chief Franz Tost admitted Schumacher was his preferred candidate to replace Gasly. However, a move for the German was blocked by the Red Bull hierarchy who favoured bringing in former Formula 2 and Formula E champion De Vries.
"It was like that, that Mick Schumacher didn't get a seat for this year," Tost told Formel1.de. "It was then open to us after this Pierre Gasly story came to light, because it was actually clear to me originally that that our driver pairing will be Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.
""Then suddenly Pierre was headed to Alpine and that gave us a place [to fill]. Until Monza it was completely unclear who would be our driver. And then, logically, I thought of Mick Schumacher. He is much better than he is currently perceived [to be] by the outside world."
