Fernando Alonso gives his honest opinion on forming a dream team with Max Verstappen at Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso has welcomed the prospect of Max Verstappen joining him at Aston Martin, but reckons that it is unlikely. The Dutch driver has been the center of attention of the silly season, especially since he fell outside the top two places in the championship standings since 2022.

Red Bull has been a team on the decline for some time now, and it became even more evident this season when the team's 2025 F1 challenger was just not fast enough to compete with McLaren. As a result, the task seems to be cut out for Max Verstappen if he has to retain his crown.

The driver has gone about the challenge admirably as he continues to put together brilliant races one after the other. At the same time, though, there is only so much he can do in the RB21 that appears to be on decline. As a result, the driver has been linked with other teams like Mercedes and Aston Martin.

On Thursday, before the F1 Saudi Arabian GP race weekend kicked off, Max Verstappen was sitting alongside Fernando Alonso in the press conference when the Spaniard was asked whether he'd love to have the Dutch driver as a teammate at Aston Martin. Alonso said he'd love to, but didn't think it was going to materialize. He said:

"Yes, but it’s unlikely to happen."

Fernando Alonso did, however, touch on the other aspect of this, mentioning that the fact that Max Verstappen was being associated with Aston Martin should be considered as a positive, as it means that the team is doing something right. He said:

"I don’t think so, as I have a contract for next year. But I see the rumours as very good for the team. As you said before, the world champion is sometimes linked with some other teams and a possible departure from Red Bull. And the teams that are being mentioned are Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Ferrari – as your colleague said. So this shows the project that we are in and the future that this team has."

He added:

"As I said last year when I extended the contract, I will drive for as long as I feel fast and competitive and the team needs me behind the wheel. But my contract is much longer than my racing career, so I will stay with this team for many, many years in a different role. If that means we can win a World Championship even when I’m not behind the wheel, I will still feel very proud of the project."

Verstappen further elaborated on how he would handle things in case the RB21 is unable to match up to the MCL39.

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Max Verstappen on his approach if Red Bull cannot bridge the gap to McLaren

Max Verstappen attends a press conference ahead of the Saudi Arabian GP - Source: Getty

Red Bull is working to make up for a deficit against McLaren this season, and even though the team is bringing a set of upgrades to the car to Jeddah, the expectations aren't that high. Max Verstappen was questioned about the approach he would take if the car doesn't improve, to which the driver gave a very measured response. He said:

"I'm not thinking about that. I just go race by race. Like I said, hopefully it will be better than Bahrain. If we can be a bit in the middle of the two, I think we can already be happy with that and we just move on. The rest is out of my hands anyway. At the moment, we’re not the quickest."

He added:

"Naturally it’s very tough to fight for a championship. But it’s still a very long road. I mean, we were sitting around this time last year, race five, and it was all looking great — and then we all know how the season ended up. So yeah, I'm hopeful that we can still improve things and we'll see what we get."

Max Verstappen will be hoping for better prospects in Jeddah this time around. The car should work well around the track, potentially posing a better challenge to McLaren.