Outside Line: Imagine Alonso in a Red Bull

In what was a duel for the final step of Sunday's podium, that will go down in Formula 1 folklore - much like Villeneuve-Arnoux at Dijon in 1979. Alonso battled hard with Sergio Perez, the Red Bull locking horns with the Aston Martin during an enthralling but masterful final couple of laps at Interlagos.

While up ahead Max Verstappen romped to another victory on Sunday, Perez had to toil from P9 on the grid in the same car his teammate has won an astounding and record 17 times while the Mexican has two victories to his credit with the RB19. But those were a long time ago.

Perez fought his way through the field until he came upon Alonso in third place around Lap 30 of the 71. Upon which it became a game of cat and mouse, swapping fast laps until, on lap 70, Perez ambushed Alonso into Turn 1 and seemed to have P3 in the bag

But on the final lap, stalking and pressing for his rival to make a mistake, Alonso lunged into Descida do Lago to take P3 and then dug into his finest art of defence moves to stave off the stumped Red Bull by a mere 0.053s as the duo crossed the finish line.

It was top-notch stuff, from two wily campaigners. The gap was five-hundredths of a second as they crossed the line. One of the great battles of this season.

In the wake of rumours (untrue according to Alonso) linking the 42-year-old Spaniard to Perez's seat at Red Bull as soon as next year, if not then in 2025, a thought triggered in my mind: What if Alonso drove the Red Bull RB19? How good would he be?

Before we proceed I would like to make it clear that I do not believe there is a race driver on the planet right now at the level of Verstappen. Even as a first-hand witness to greats such as Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, it is hard to recall such dominance by a driver and car, both as close to perfection as possible.

And therein lies the difference. Senna and Schumacher, as great as they were in F1, perfect drivers to be precise, never got the chance to drive a perfect car, which Adrian Newey's RB19 is thanks to 20-30 years of technological advancement since the two legends plied their trade in F1.

Therefore, when Verstappen's only real chink in his armour was his starts, he quickly sorted that out with work and attention. But off the line on Sunday, both times, he was simply in a league of his own. Easily two or three car lengths ahead, after a 200-metre or so drag to Turn 1 at Interlagis.

Not once but twice. The second start was such, that he was never seen again all afternoon by his rivals and teammate Perez who ended the race over 30 seconds down on the #1 Red Bull. That's about half a second a lap Perez is lacking in race pace versus Verstappen. Probably the same deficit in qualifying between the pair these days.

Would that be the gap if Alonso were in the other Red Bull? Would he beat Verstappen with equal kit? One will never know for obvious reasons. But reasonable speculation suggests Fernando would be much closer, more consistently, to Max than Checo is right now. He would certainly test Max much more often I imagine.

Why? Alonso is one of those rare drivers who can extract more than most from a piece of kit he is given no matter how good or bad it is. Be it an F1 car, a kart or a sportscar because that is how he is wired. And that's what I believe he would do with the Red Bull.

His experience will tell him that a Newey-designed car may not be easy to drive, but if you drive it as if you stole it then the rewards will be reaped. Ask Verstappen.

Apart from Alonso, I can only think of two other drivers who might trouble Verstappen if Red Bull signed them. His mate Norris and his nemesis Lewis Hamilton.

In my book, the McLaren driver; because Norris has emerged as the pick of the young F1 bunch chasing Max and appears to have the right stuff to be a challenger. And of course Hamilton, a seven-time F1 World Champion who simply can never be discounted with a winning car in his hands.

If Alonso driving for Red Bull is highly unlikely, then Hamilton moving there is impossible. But 23-year-old Norris, thanks to his age and speed may just be the right fit.

However, before too much is made of the 'replacement of Checo' one must consider that he has support from his boss Christian Horner and looks likely to end the runner-up in the 2023 title race, to make it a one-two in the F1 Drivers' standings for the first time in RBR's history.

Perez's only 'mistake' is that he just happens to be paired with one of the greatest drivers F1 has ever seen in Verstappen. And as inspiring as it would be for F1 fans to have an Alonso or a Hamilton to test the benchmark, as it stands it is hard to see Max being beaten by anyone in anything with four wheels on it. But VER-ALO or VER-HAM would be great fun! And a Netflix bonanza.

Indeed Verstappen's incredible third F1 championship-winning year is best described by Alonso himself: "It's been an incredible season, breaking so many records and when you win so many races that were not easy races, sometimes they were tricky with weather conditions.

"In June and July, all the races were hit by rain on Saturdays or Sundays, and it was sometimes tricky. When you make no mistakes, and you deliver the job every Sunday, it deserves big respect," declared the Spaniard.