Contacts between Fernando Alonso and Red Bull have been documented many times in the past, and the Aston Martin F1 driver has spoken out about not joining the Milton Keynes team. He notably recounts two discussions in 2007 and 2008 where he discussed in particular with Adrian Newey and Christian Horner.
“I haven't thought about it too much. Never. Not in those years, not even today” Alonso said. “I never regret anything. I know that certain decisions in your career in Formula 1 can change a lot of things in what you achieve or not.”
“But I think when you make a decision, you fully commit to it and you think it's the best decision. Nobody has a crystal ball to know what's going to happen in the future. In 2008, I “I had a few moments where I was able to join Red Bull. One of them was my departure from McLaren at the end of 2007.
“After that season I found different possibilities. I met Adrian and Christian at Heathrow Airport. And then 2008 was the closest year. I remember it perfectly, we were on the Spa airport car park, the small airport at the top of the hill.”
“We were in this parking lot, sitting in the back seats, both at night, and we were talking about this possibility. I was very close to Ferrari. If it wasn't the case in 2009, it definitely would be. sure in 2010. We went down that road and they took Sebastian.”
But the Spaniard recalls that he had good reasons not to choose Red Bull: “It's easy to say today, but in 2008, Red Bull only had one podium, that of David [Coulthard] in Monaco, and Red Bull was an energy drink company.”
“It was a great team, with great members, but I think predicting that they would win seven or eight championships in the next decade was not totally guaranteed.”
“When Lewis moved from McLaren to Mercedes, the first year in 2013, there was a lot of criticism, 'why did you change McLaren to a Mercedes that only had one or two podiums until then?'. And now , he is a seven-time world champion.”
“It's the same with Ferrari. We don't know what Lewis will achieve next year. If Ferrari does well and wins the championship, that's a good thing. If Mercedes does well and wins the championship, This is a bad decision. How can you predict this?”
