Aston Martin rubbishes rumour it offered Alonso F1 2022 drive

Over the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, some media outlets reported that Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll had met with Alonso over the summer in a bid to try and persuade the two-time world champion to join his team.

The reports claimed the Canadian had made a formal offer to Alonso’s manager Flavio Briatore over lunch during the summer for the Spaniard to leave Alpine and partner Lance Stroll next year.

At the Belgian Grand Prix, the first race back after the summer shutdown, Alpine confirmed that Alonso would be staying with the Anglo-French outfit for the 2022 season. At Spa, Alonso also stressed that he had not held talks with any other teams.

Aston Martin rejected the speculation and described the meeting between Stroll and Briatore as “nothing more” than a social occasion.

“Lawrence Stroll did not offer a drive to Fernando Alonso, as has been reported in some media,” an Aston Martin spokesperson told Crash.net.

"Lawrence had lunch with [Alonso’s manager] Flavio Briatore in Sardinia during the summer break. Lawrence and Flavio are friends.

“They have lunched together in Sardinia many times over many years. It was a social occasion, nothing more.”

Aston Martin is expected to confirm an unchanged line-up for 2022 in the near future, with team principal and CEO Otmar Szafnauer hinting on Friday that both Vettel and Stroll will be staying put.

“It’s a one plus one contract,” said Szafnauer of Vettel’s current deal with Aston Martin. “And there’s certain dates within the contract that we have to decide by. Those dates haven’t come and gone yet, so it’s just normal process.

“It's nothing complicated, and it's not conditional upon anything. It’s a time window when the two of us discuss the future. There's a window and a deadline, and that's not far off.”

When asked if Vettel had done enough this year to retain his seat, Szafnauer replied: “We like Sebastian, he likes us, and now it’s time to talk about what we’re going to do next year.”