Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has ruled out signing Fernando Alonso to fill the seat vacated by the Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo for 2019.
As is always the case when a top driver becomes available, the double world champion is immediately linked because of his undoubted skill and his current lack of competitiveness with McLaren.
The problem nowadays is internal politics with the Spaniard’s history working against him, with team bosses unwilling to risk him becoming a disrupting influence alongside another top name and that is the case again with Red Bull.
“I’ve got huge respect for Fernando, he’s a great driver, a fantastic driver,” team boss Christian Horner told the official Formula 1 podcast.
“But I think it’d be very difficult to see. He’s tended to cause a bit of chaos wherever he’s gone. I’m not sure it would be the healthiest thing for Fernando to join the team.
“I think our preference would be to continue to invest in youth than take a driver who is obviously close to the end of his career.”
The end of Alonso’s F1 career could come as soon as the end of this year with McLaren CEO Zak Brown recently weighing up the possibility the 37-year-old could move full-time to IndyCar.
“He’s very interested,” Brown said in an interview with the Indianapolis Star. “He likes the series but hasn’t decided yet what he wants to do as it relates to F1.
“He thinks it (IndyCar) is great racing. He loves the Indy 500. So I think he very much enjoyed that experience. He’s a racer. He likes to race.”
The main motivation would be to add the Indianapolis 500 to his Monaco GP and Le Mans 24 Hours wins and become just the second driver ever to complete motorsport’s Triple Crown, but the McLaren chief does think it runs a little deeper than that.
“I think winning not only the Triple Crown but all three series (F1, IndyCar, WEC), he probably finds intriguing,” he added.
“He likes the racing in IndyCar, it’s extremely competitive, and he likes America, so I know it’s something he would consider.”
Also Read:
- Ex-McLaren driver Pedro de la Rosa doesn’t want Sainz to partner Alonso
- Fernando Alonso to consider McLaren future during summer break
In F1, the Spaniard’s future could well be the next big decision to affect the driver market after Ricciardo’s surprise move.
With names like Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz all potentially looking for seats, having one if not two of those drivers at Woking in 2019 could be a possibility.