Fernando Alonso suggests Max Verstappen move down from Red Bull to fight for F1 title

Fernando Alonso has talked about the prospect of Max Verstappen driving for Racing Bulls to fight for the F1 championship. The main Red Bull outfit has struggled to provide Verstappen with the necessary tools. Amid the strong performances of junior driver Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar in the VCARB 02, Alonso believed that a move down to Racing Bulls could be more fruitful for the Dutchman.

In Friday's fiercely contested qualifying session at the Dutch Grand Prix, Hadjar secured a sensational P4 (1:09.208) in Q3, whereas Lawson (1.09.500) was also able to enter the top ten with a P8 finish. Moreover, the former ended up behind Max Verstappen (1:08.925).

The Racing Bulls team has shown solid qualifying pace this year and had another strong run in the Zandvoort qualifying. Fernando Alonso gave a fascinating take while suggesting a potential move to Racing Bulls from Red Bull for Max Verstappen. In line with this, in an interaction with AS, the Spaniard said, via F1 Oversteer:

"Racing Bulls always have a plane. If Verstappen were in that car, he’d be fighting for the world championship. We saw it at the beginning of the year with Tsunoda, who was always in the top six and then suddenly missed out on Q1."

The RB21 has failed to match Verstappen's expectations. After the first 14 rounds, the four-time world champion is in third place in the standings but is way behind the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Max Verstappen 'feels the best all weekend' in qualifying

F1 Academy - Round 5 Zandvoort - Qualifying & Race 1 - Source: Getty

While F1 veteran Fernando Alonso believed that Max Verstappen should move down to Racing Bulls, after the tricky practice sessions in Zandvoort, Verstappen showed immense positivity after his P3 finish in qualifying.

In line with this, Verstappen even deemed his runs in the session as the best he's felt all weekend at the race track. In a post-session interaction with F1, he added the following:

"This weekend so far was quite tricky for us but in Qualifying, was basically the best I've felt all weekend, so that's exactly what you want. To be honest to be P3 here, very happy with that. The energy of the crowd of course the whole weekend already has been amazing and to see so much orange on the grandstands is always very special."

The high-flying McLaren seems out of reach for top teams like Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes; however, the third spot on the podium could go to anyone. Behind Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, there are top drivers like George Russell and the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Considering this, the fight for P3 could turn out to be extremely exciting between all these drivers.