Horner: Alonso was never an option

Friday 18th July 2008

Signing Fernando Alonso as David Coulthard's replacement was "never an option" according to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

The team announced on Thursday, two weeks after Coulthard revealed he would be retiring at the end of the season, that Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel had been signed as the Scot's replacement.

This put an end to rumours that Alonso could be making his way to Red Bull with Horner admitting that signing the Spaniard was never really an option for the team.

"That was never an option," Horner told reporters in Germany. "Sebastian has been a member of the Red Bull young driver programme for many years now and he had demonstrated obvious potential.

"So after David announced his retirement it was an easy and natural decision to replace him with Sebastian.

"Fernando is a fantastic driver, I have got huge respect for him. I think he is one of the best three in the world, but the timing wasn't right for Red Bull Racing and him.

"It's early in the year to have both drivers confirmed but we decided to have stability in the team, to give clarity to the engineering staff.

"Now is the best time to make a commitment to what we knew was a 99% certainty anyway, and focus on the future."

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