Fernando Alonso’s student could well be Max Verstappen’s future teammate after Helmut Marko confirms ‘following’ the youngster’s career

Spanish prodigy Pepe Marti is a potential signing for the team's young driver program, according to Red Bull Racing's advisor Helmut Marko.

Marti is part of A14, which is Fernando Alonso's management team. Fellow Formula 3 frontrunner Gabriel Bortoleto, Formula 2 prospect Clement Novalak, and Alpine junior driver Nikola Tsolov are the other drivers with the same agency.

After making an impression with F3 sprint race victories in Sakhir and Monaco, Marti took his first feature race win of the season in Barcelona. The 17-year-old's performances have caught Red Bull's attention, who are now looking to add the Spaniard to their driver academy. Yuki Tsunoda is the most recent driver from this academy to make the step up to Formula 1.

Red Bull boss Marko confirmed that he has had his eyes on Marti for a while now.

"I have been following him for a long time. Not only today. I've been watching him since he jumped into F3. His improvement is significant," he said (via Mundo Deportivo).

The Red Bull driver academy already has cut-throat competition, with the likes of Ayumu Iwasa, Dennis Hauger, and Liam Lawson vying for a place in F1.

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"In Canada, we crush them" - Fernando Alonso looking to bounce back from Spanish blues

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso damaged the floor of his car in qualifying and started the Spanish Grand Prix in the ninth position. An incident-free time on the track and a late pit-stop for hard tyres helped him overtake Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsunoda, and Esteban Ocon to finish the race in seventh position.

After the race, Alonso admitted that Aston Martin was not fast enough in Spain and couldn't keep up with the upgraded Mercedes cars.

“I think we didn’t have the pace, that was the biggest problem. It was not that we were unlucky or different strategies, or anything like that. We were slow compared to Mercedes, slow on the soft, slow on the hard,” he said, in a media interaction.

The Spaniard, however, fired a warning to rival teams and stated that the team will bounce back at the upcoming Canadian GP.

“In Canada, we’ll bring more things, and in Silverstone too… It will all depend on which team is bringing updates. Even then, with a normal qualifying, we would have started alongside Hamilton and could have had some better chances. I think it’s just one race – and then in Canada, we crush them,” he opined.