Horner: Fernando Alonso got an offer from Red Bull....in 2007.
Fridays team principals conference has been full of interesting information.
On the Fridays press conference which included the team principals of Red Bull, Force India, Renault, Toro Rosso, Mclaren and Williams has been eventfull in terms of information shared during this session. First of all, Christian Horner when asked about the past rumours about the possible place for Fernando Alonso in Red Bull, has denied any possibility for the Spaniard to drive in the Austrian team. He said that despite the fact that Fernando is a great driver and a big asset to the F1 world, Red Bull is more focused on training their youth through the Red Bull youth programme and rather getting their drivers from Toro Rosso than elsewhere. He also had a small dig at Alonso by saying that the last time Red Bull made Alonso an offer was in 2007. He also adressed the coming of Pierre Gasly into the team, and as he said, Gasly was purely choosen on this performance in the young team of Red Bull. During this conference, Otmar Szafnauer, the now team principal of the Racing Point Force India has adressed some of the unknowns about the team. He said that during the process before the team was bought by the group of Lance Stroll's father, he made sure to keep the team intact and explained to the employees a lot of the issues that came with the administration into which the team was put. Szafnauer said that because of that deal, the name was changed (for now) to Racing Point Force India (the Force India was kept in the name for the fans to not be confused, as he said) and because of that the team appears in the FIA championship as a completely new one, loosing all of the points they scored during this season, but not loosing the money the team has earned in the previous years. Cyril Abiteboul during the conference has admitted that the news about Ricciardo came not really as a surprise, but more as a positive news that brought a lot of excitement into the team. He also admitted, when asked about the possible regulations in the season of 2021 that what F1 is trying to do with that season is very ambitious, since there are a lot of things that are supposed to change. Claire Williams during the conference has adressed (more or less) the future of Lance Stroll in Williams, by saying that till the end of the season he has a deal with Williams, but the world of F1 is unpredictable and she does not know what can happen in the future. Gil de Ferran from McLaren when asked about the fact that Lando Norris was driving in the FP1 instead of Fernando Alonso, said that McLaren has invested a lot in Lando and it is only a good thing that he can show himself in the McLaren car during the Free Practice. He also admitted that his goal for the future is to keep the team going up, especially after past seasons disappointments. To summarize, this press conference has brough a lot of answers but also even more question into the light. Some of them might still be answered during this weekend, for some of them we still need to wait till at least the next GP. What will happen during the Belgian GP? We are yet to see.