Can Alonso beat Verstappen though? 'Fernando is a better racer though'

Peter Windsor does not see Fernando Alonso leaving for Red Bull Racing. The F1 analyst understands the hype surrounding the Spaniard but believes Red Bull Racing would be unwise to bring in the two-time world champion.

After the Mexico Grand Prix, there were many rumours that Alonso was in the picture to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing. Alonso himself was furious after hearing these rumours, and Helmut Marko felt Alonso had made up these rumours himself to force a seat at Red Bull. So it looks like it will not happen, to the disappointment of many fans.

"Red Bull had an opportunity to sign Alonso when he left Ferrari. Alonso was very confident that he was going to get the phone call. He never did because, as I understand it, Marko and Christian [Horner] think Alonso can be a divisive character in a team. That's not what they want from Max Verstappen's Formula One team. They want a compliant number two who's not going to rock the boat too much, which they kind of have with Sergio Perez," said the former Williams team manager in a live stream on his YouTube channel.

Why Verstappen won't be beaten by Alonso either

Instead of Red Bull, it became McLaren for Alonso after he departed Ferrari. It was not a great success. The McLaren-Honda deal started as a fairy tale but began to look more and more like a nightmare. Throughout all this time, Windsor has expressed his admiration for Alonso and certainly wishes he would move to a top team. However, the Australian does not see it happening anytime soon.

Windsor is also asked whether Alonso could make things difficult for Verstappen in a title race. "Answer, no. Not only because of his age, but I don't think he's technically as good as Max over one lap. I don't think, therefore, he would be able to make up the difference in a race situation, even if he is possibly a slightly better race driver than Max, which is a debatable point anyway because Max is so good at using all the variables well.

"Fernando can do that as well. Absolutely. But in a slightly more flamboyant way, where he has to get on top of the car. He has to jig the car a bit, getting into the corner. He'd probably be harder on tyres than Max, I suspect. In the same way, Perez has beaten Max once or twice, or Massa beat Michael [Schumacher], and Rubens [Barrichello] beat Michael, I can imagine that he would beat him periodically, but over a season, no."