Gene Haas says it would make little business sense for his team to hand a full-time race seat to a Ferrari junior in future, despite an extensive engine and technical partnership with the Italian company.
Haas is the only Ferrari customer using up-to-date engines this year and receives as many parts from the Prancing Horse as the regulations allow. Ferrari junior Antonio Giovinazzi is set to complete seven FP1 sessions with Haas this year, though the team has already confirmed it will retain Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen in 2018.
Sauber recently confirmed a deal for up-to-date Ferrari engines for next year and is expected to take Giovinazzi's fellow Ferrari junior and current Formula 2 points leader Charles Leclerc in a 2018 race seat, though it has denied suggestions it will become a 'Ferrari B' team.
When asked if his team would consider taking a Ferrari product, Haas said: "I don't think we'd rule it out, but from a business mode, it doesn't really make a lot of sense."
Haas thinks the costs involved in Formula One -- and the financial weighting of constructors' championship finishing positions -- makes it much more sensible to pursue experienced drivers.
"There's no secret that it costs $60 million to put a car on the track for the season, and if someone gives you a driver, not just from Ferrari, from anybody, and they're going to pay you five or six million dollars, there's a $55m deficit there somewhere.
"So it doesn't really make sense to want to run, let's say, a partner or a paid driver for compensation. I think our point of view has always been that we need to obtain points and that's how we generate moving forward and making money, so that's our business model. I think Ferrari respects that and based on that, if there's some mutual agreement that we could come to, we probably would be more open to that."