Marko Helmut has now opened up on the talks held with Fernando Alonso, when it appears the F1 icon would be making a dramatic return to a Red Bull drive.

The championship holders were poring over the details of potential candidates, before the allure of Alonso simply failed to sit right with the big chiefs.

It has now emerged that the consensus quickly became that Alonso would not have ‘gelled’ with star man Max Verstappen, and so all plans were quickly axed.

“There have been conversations,” Marko told Germany’s Formel1.de. “But as I mentioned before, a harmonious work environment is very important to Max and I think that probably would not have been the case with Alonso.

“I think it would be very difficult for a team – Alonso would be the oldest world champion on the team, Max the youngest, and they are generations apart. I don’t think Alonso does sim racing or gets into a simulator on a plane right after a grand prix.”