Max Verstappen to Alpine? Senior F1 Journo Discusses Saudi PIF ‘Throwing the Absolute Bank’ to Make It Happen

Amid Red Bull’s recent slump, rumors about Max Verstappen’s future has become quite incessant of late. Teams like Mercedes and Aston Martin have reportedly shown interest in signing the Dutchman and now speculations about which team would he choose have become a point of contention.

Former F1 presenter Will Buxton thinks Aston Martin is Verstappen’s best bet. The reason being that the 27-year-old has won all four of his championships in cars designed by legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey besides having Honda engines in the back.

With Aston Martin set to have both these winning factors with them next year, it would make sense why Verstappen would be more comfortable at the Silverstone outfit. However, another team is perhaps gunning to enter the fray of signing the reigning world champion, if he is keen on leaving Red Bull.

Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher recently dropped the nugget that Alpine could become a potential destination for Verstappen. How so? With Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) having demonstrated an interest in purchasing an F1 team—and many experts believing that Alpine is most likely the team they will purchase—F1 journalist Ian Parkes has explained how the French team could make a move to secure Verstappen’s services.

This is all to do with the kind of lucrative offer the four-time F1 champion could receive from the PIF, which is one of the wealthiest sovereign wealth funds in the world.  “With that amount of money behind it, should Alpine be bought by PIF in Saudi Arabia, they could throw the absolute bank at Max Verstappen to lure him to Alpine at some point,” Parkes explained on the Racing News 365 podcast.

However, Parkes made it clear that he is just speculating and trying to come up with a hypothesis of why Schumacher may have named Alpine as one of the contenders who could sign Verstappen. He felt a need to give an explanation, as Schumacher did not give any, despite strangely dropping Alpine’s name in the mix.

With Alpine (formerly Renault) being nowhere in title contention for almost two decades, it would indeed seem strange that a driver of Verstappen’s caliber would want to sign for them, considering he is likely to have a major say in deciding his next destination as almost every team will want to have him.

However, Alpine’s current driver, Pierre Gasly, believes his side’s fortunes could change massively as early as next season. He feels confident that the French team can give him a car to fight for the world championship next season.

Moreover, with Flavio Briatore—who helped Fernando Alonso and Renault win two consecutive championships in 2005 and 2006—returning to Alpine, he too could play a huge role in convincing Verstappen to jump ship to Enstone. However, for any of this to happen, Verstappen will definitely want to first see evidence that Alpine is capable of fighting at the front of the grid.

Nevertheless, as Parkes revealed, all these are just mere speculations. The man in question himself has stated on several occasions that he has no interest in leaving Red Bull despite all the rumors that have claimed that he is not happy at Milton Keynes, amid the team’s underperformance this season.

Even during the Saudi Arabian GP press conference, Verstappen rubbished rumors suggesting he is considering leaving Red Bull, and instead said that his full focus is to help the team improve the handling of the car, which has been a major problem for them so far.