Alonso: Horner apologised for 'chaos' comment

Fernando Alonso has claimed that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner apologised for suggesting that his tendency to cause "chaos" meant they had not considered offering a deal, while doubling down on claims that the team were desperate to sign him to a 2019 contract.

Alonso has opened up at the Belgian Grand Prix, having announced his decision to leave F1 at the end of the year during the summer break.

The two-time champion has not won a race since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, as a move to McLaren fell flat with a struggling Honda power unit often to blame.

Alonso claims twice in 2018 he has been offered a reunion with the Japanese marque by Red Bull - taking his number of approaches from the team to six - wildly contradicting claims from the likes of Horner and Helmut Marko that the Spaniard had not been considered by them.

In an interview released in the summer shutdown, Horner said that Red Bull had not considered a move for Alonso after Daniel Ricciardo decided to leave the team for Renault.

And Alonso has clearly been irked by Horner's claims, hitting back with his version of events.

He told Sky Sports: "I had a couple of offers from Red Bull, in fact I had in 2007, 2009, 2011, '13... two this year: one in Monaco and one in August.

"So I'm happy you ask me these questions because the comments by Christian Horner this summer and Mr Marko are completely out of context. Surprising comments about me creating chaos or being a difficult man to work with.

"One: they've never worked with me, and second they've been chasing me for five or six occasions in the last seven years and now they say that they're loyal to their program and their commitments and their junior drivers.

"It has been weird, it has been unfair to me. I wrote Christian after the comments - he apologised by email and hopefully he'll apologise again this weekend."

The row between Alonso and Red Bull's top brass shows no sign of settling down, with Marko adding fuel to the fire in Spa...

Marko replies to Alonsos claims that he was approached by Red Bull earlier this season: "Maybe it was a mechanic or one of our engineers who is a fan of him."#AMuS #F1 #RedBull — Tobi Grüner ???? (@tgruener) August 24, 2018