Revealed: Why Red Bull failed to sign Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris

Helmut Marko has shared back-stories of Red Bull’s failure to sign Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris.

He insists that talks were at a serious stage with both drivers several years ago, but the moves fell apart for differing reasons.

Red Bull’s interest in Alonso came shortly after he had won back-to-back F1 championships with Renault.

“Before we started winning, in 2008 or so, we were talking to Alonso,” Marko told the Inside Line F1 podcast.

“He didn’t take us seriously, I guess. So it didn’t happen.”

Alonso was in the process of finding a new home after exiting McLaren, and eventually plumped for a return to Renault in 2008.

Red Bull, in that year, had David Coulthard and Mark Webber as their drivers.

Contract clause ended Norris chase

Their pursuit of Norris, Marko claims, came slightly closer to a resolution.

Marko didn’t specify a year but Norris debuted in F1 in 2019 - when Red Bull had Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, and Toro Rosso had Alex Albon and Daniil Kvyat.

Marko said about Norris: “We had serious discussions, and we had a contract ready, for Lando Norris.

“For AlphaTauri, or Toro Rosso at the time.

“Unfortunately [McLaren] found out. They had two contracts, and then one was a clause which stopped this cooperation with Lando Norris.”

Norris, of course, has steadily improved to the stage where he is now seriously threatening Verstappen’s drivers’ championship.

The two close friends are battling for this year’s title and Verstappen’s once-iron grip has been loosened to just 62 points.

Norris is also aiding McLaren’s charge to the constructors’ championship - they are eight points adrift of Red Bull.

But how the F1 grid might have looked different if Red Bull landed these big-name targets.