Fernando Alonso branded a 'Rottweiler' in stunning 'McLaren or Red Bull' claim

Flavio Briatore believes Fernando Alonso would be in the hunt for a third F1 drivers' championship this season if he were racing for McLaren or Red Bull.

The flamboyant Italian, who is currently executive adviser and de facto team principal at Alpine, shared great success with the 44-year-old during their time together at the team, then Renault.

Despite Aston Martin enduring an underwhelming campaign, Alonso has shaken off a poor start to the season to string together a series of strong performances — and results.

Since his first points of the year, in front of his home crowd at the Spanish Grand Prix, the two-time F1 drivers' champion has scored points in seven of the past 10 grands prix, and it would have been eight had it not been for misfortune at Monza.

To Briatore, Alonso is still good enough to compete for race wins and titles. When asked by ESPN whether the Spaniard can be a winner in F1 again, he replied: "Sure, I hope. I hope.

"Aston has the top genius. Let's see how the genius is doing. I'm very curious.

"But if Aston has a competitive car, we'll see. All the time the car is competitive, Fernando is there. He's always there. If Fernando was sitting in the McLaren or sitting in the Red Bull [this season], I promise you, he'd still be in the race [for the title]."

Briatore oversaw Alonso's two championship-winning seasons, at Team Enstone in 2005 and 2006, but success has been more difficult for him to come by since, with stints at McLaren and Ferrari failing to yield the hoped-for returns.

On three occasions since 2006, Alonso has come painfully close to a third crown; in the year after at McLaren and again in 2010 and 2012, whilst with Ferrari.

In fact, in those three seasons combined, he finished a total of just eight points behind the champions of those campaigns, highlighting how small the difference between being a two-time and five-time title winner is for him.

The Aston Martin driver has not added to his 32 grand prix victories since 2013, and has often been criticised for his attitude and approach. However, Briatore, who describes Alonso as a "Rottweiler", will hear none of it.

"Sometimes, the people put the news out that Fernando was very difficult to manage. And this is a lot of rubbish, really," the 75-year-old said.

"A lot of rubbish. I don't know where it's coming from. I was completely upset [whenever I heard that] because Fernando is always a team-mate.

"The guy keeps the team together, makes everybody working together. And the demonstration is now in Aston Martin as well, you know. The car is not competitive.

"But him, he's there all the time. He's like a Rottweiler. You know, you go in one place and the Rottweiler bites you all the time."