Axed Formula 1 star Franco Colapinto has confirmed that Red Bull were one of the teams interested in his services after an impressive debut showing in the sport.
Having cost the Grove-based outfit vital points and an eye-watering amount of repair fees across multiple race weekends in the first half of the season, James Vowles opted to drop Sargeant in the hope of improving his team's chances.
And he did just that, with Colapinto showing plenty of skill, albeit with a few big mistakes along the way.
Franco Colapinto will be watching from the Alpine garage as Jack Doohan competes in his debut seasonPierre Gasly and Jack Doohan are Alpine's 2025 driver lineup
Colapinto: Red Bull were very interested
After impressing not only Williams but many rival teams across the paddock last year, Colapinto suddenly became a high-profile name for teams to consider when shuffling their driver lineup around ahead of 2025.
During the peak of the hype that quickly gathered around the 21-year-old's talent, rumors of serious interest from Red Bull gained traction despite Christian Horner's outfit boasting their own impressive pool of junior drivers.
Ahead of his first season as a reserve driver for Alpine, Spanish publication Mundo Deportivo have reported Colapinto's confirmation that Red Bull were among the teams who had registered interest in signing him to their ranks.
Speaking to Dario Argentina, Colapinto said: "I wanted to prove that I deserved a seat in Formula 1 and that I hadn't just arrived there to race nine races, that I had arrived for a lot longer.
"When I got in, I knew there was no seat for 2025, so I was with that in mind, but I also wanted to show what I could do and I showed it well. There's a reason why people like Flavio, like Alpine, like Red Bull were very interested at the time."