Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has put to bed any rumours that his team is looking to replace Sergio Perez with Fernando Alonso.
Alonso has started the 2022 season having only scored two points from the opening five races, despite having shown impressive pace in his A522.
The Spaniard has experienced an unfortunate run of bad luck this year so far, having faced two retirements so far this campaign.
The Alpine F1 driver is being rumoured for an exceptional move to Red Bull to replace Perez, according to ex-racer Karun Chandhok.
“There’s rumours in the paddock this morning I heard, one about Fernando potentially going to Aston Martin to take over from Sebastian Vettel,” explained Chandhok.
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“And another about Fernando and Flavio banging on the door at Red Bull, saying he is prepared to be a team-mate to Max Verstappen and have a good car for the last couple of years of his F1 career.”
Alonso is out-of-contract at Alpine at the end of this season, meaning a move to a new team could be on the cards for the experienced Spaniard.
A move to Red Bull appears highly unlikely though, despite the apparent rumours, and Horner has insisted that the team are “happy” with their current driver pairing.
“That’s news to me! We are very happy with the drivers we’ve got here,” said Horner.
“Fernando’s a great driver, it’s fantastic he’s still in Formula 1 and given the plus 40 [age], he’s something to aspire to.
“But he doesn’t fit part of our plans.”
Horner added that he remains in contact with Flavio Briatore, but reiterated that retaining Perez is their most likely move.
“I speak to Flavio, he’s a friend, I speak with him every now and again. But no, we are very much focused on our drivers,” he said.
“There’s plenty of time and Checo’s been doing a great job this year.”