Christian Horner received a "serious offer" last year to become the new boss of McLaren.
That is the claim on Thursday of Ralf Bach, a correspondent for Sport Bild and TZ Munchen who now has his own blog at f1-insider.com.
Bach said former racing driver and Briton Horner, who has headed the successful Red Bull team since its inception, received the offer during the 2014 season by none other than McLaren supremo Ron Dennis.
Dr Helmut Marko, the right hand man of Red Bull team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, commented: "Horner has a long-term contract with us, so he cannot even think about a possible change."