F1 Silly Season is Go! Alonso reuniting at Alpine with Briatore?

How does Fernando Alonso fit into the picture? Here’s some background: for over a year now, since the Christian Horner texting scandal, questions have loomed over Verstappen’s future with the team. Those doubts have been exacerbated by the departure of key senior figures, including design guru Adrian Newey and Formula 1 veteran Jonathan Wheatley.

Heading into Red Bull’s home race, Verstappen’s future and Toto Wolff’s well-known ambition to lure the Dutch ace to Mercedes are hot topics. The likes of Johnny Herbert, Juan Pablo Montoya and now Jacques Villeneuve have only added fuel to the fire.

If Verstappen does leave Red Bull, his destination has been linked with either Mercedes or Aston Martin. That raises a key question: who makes way? Does Kimi Antonelli go or George Russell? Does Fernando Alonso step aside? Because one thing is certain: Lance Stroll is not being dropped from his father Lawrence’s team.

In Russell’s case, a direct swap with Verstappen seems logical. At 27, the Briton is entering his prime and could lead a team for the next half-decade at least.

But what about 43-year-old Alonso? 1997 Formula 1 World Champion Villeneuve has an interesting theory, which he shared with the media team at BetVictor: “Alonso has never shown that he's not alive inside him. These cars have a lot of G-force so they're physical on the neck, but they're not nasty.

"So, if you still have the hunger, you can drive super well. And also don't have many, like I said before, drivers that stand out. So, you can make a difference when you're a Max Verstappen or an Alonso.”

Would Alonso be axed to make way for Verstappen’s arrival at Aston Martin? Villeneuve ventured: “Yes, but then Alonso would go to Alpine with Flavio Briatore. That would be the perfect story. Fernando has always been at his best with Flavio.

"Flavio seemed to be the only one who could actually get the best out of him, put a base under him, put his feet on the ground and make him focus on the right things, not get sidetracked on the politics, because Flavio was doing the politics instead of him.”

As for young Stroll in the sister Aston Martin, in his ninth season in Formula 1, down 22–0 in qualifying against Alonso ahead of Saturday's Austrian Grand Prix session. Villeneuve said of his fellow Canadian: “Lance is the team. There is no point even discussing [him leaving]. I understand why people are saying it but the family owns the team so why would he go. That’s my point.

"You see him in press conferences and all that. He doesn't care, he's aloof. It's not good. That's not the right attitude to have right now. It doesn't even put the team in a good light or F1 in general. But on the other hand, he owns the team, so he can do whatever he wants.

“His father can decide what his son does. So, let's stop discussing it. It doesn't matter what we think, what anyone thinks or even what he thinks at the end of the day. He will be there and that's it. Let's stop questioning him. It's just becoming a frustrating conversation," added Villeneuve.

Fit for an intriguing Netflix series, history shows that Briatore and Alonso’s two-decade-long Formula 1 alliance remains one of the sport’s most enduring and controversial partnerships. Marked by success, scandal and an unlikely reunion.

The story began in 2003, when Briatore, then Renault team boss, controversially replaced Jenson Button with a young Alonso. The gamble paid off as the Spaniard delivered back-to-back World Championships in 2005 and 2006, ending Ferrari and Michael Schumacher’s dominance and securing Renault’s place in F1 history.

But what followed, in 2007, was a disastrous one-season spell at McLaren as Lewis Hamilton's teammate, the Briton a rookie then. By the end of that year, after breaking up savagely with the Ron Dennis-run McLaren team, Alonso reunited with Briatore, and back at Renault.

The pair’s relationship, often described as mentor and protégé, took a dark turn during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. It later emerged that Briatore had ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to deliberately crash, triggering a safety car that handed victory to Alonso.

The incident, dubbed Crashgate, led to Briatore receiving a lifetime ban from the FIA. That decision was later overturned by a French court. Alonso was cleared of any involvement.

Now in 2025, Briatore is back in the paddock since last season as Alpine’s executive advisor, effectively the team’s decision-maker. As speculation mounts around Alonso’s post-2026 future with Aston Martin, the saga between the two F1 veterans enters a new, potentially final act. Another reunion.