Somebody is telling porkies. Red Bull Racing has officially rebuked Fernando Alonso’s claim to Sky Sports F1 that he had been offered a 2019 seat with the race-winning team.
He told Sky that,
“From one of the top three teams, l already had an offer a couple of times this year.”
When Sky reporter Ted Kravitz pressed the driver further, asking if he was specifically talking about Daniel Ricciardo’s vacancy at Red Bull, Alonso simply responded with “Yes”.
Red Bull have rejected Alonso’s comments, telling the BBC that there was no such offer on the table. Helmut Marko said in a recent interview that,
“We were negotiating with him in 2007 or 2008. His demands were very tedious back then.
If you look at his history, in McLaren and Ferrari, it was always a one-man show.”
Team boss Christian Horner also stated to F1 Official that,
“I have huge respect for Fernando, he is a great driver, a fantastic driver, but it’s very difficult…he’s tended to cause a bit of chaos wherever he’s gone.
I’m not sure it would be the healthiest thing for the team for Fernando to join. Our preference is to continue to invest in youth than take a driver who is obviously close to the end of his career.”
None of the comments from Red Bull’s seniors are exactly endearing towards Alonso. They paint his unmoving desire to win as a character flaw, even though it’s the nature of the game they all play.
Had there been an offer from Red Bull for 2019, why would Alonso take it? Those eager to point out the prospect of driving in the “big three” miss the lack of attraction in the prospect of teaming up with Honda again from an Alonso perspective. That’s the problem with this mini-investigation. There are reasons that Red Bull wouldn’t want Alonso in their team, but also reasons that Alonso wouldn’t want to drive for them. Maybe it’s a good thing that this isn’t actually happening?
