Hamilton denies Horner claim he eyed Red Bull

ABU DHABI — Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has denied Christian Horner’s claim that he contacted Red Bull earlier this year about the possibility of driving for the world champions.

A story in the Daily Mail quoted Horner saying an unnamed person from Hamilton’s management had reached out about the possibility of the seven-time world champion joining Red Bull as Max Verstappen’s teammate.

Hamilton signed a two-year deal to remain at Mercedes in August while Verstappen went on to secure his third world title in October.

“We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining,” Horner told the Daily Mail. “They have reached out a few times. Most recently, earlier in the year, there was an inquiry about whether there would be any interest.”

Asked if there was any truth to the story ahead of this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hamilton told reporters: “I’ve checked with everyone in my team and no-one has spoken to them. But they have tried to reach out to us.”

Hamilton went on to explain how he missed a message from Horner earlier this year.

“Basically, I picked up my old phone, which had my old number on it,” Hamilton said. “I switched it on and obviously hundreds of messages came through and I realised there was one from Christian [asking] to get together and have a chat at the end of the season.

“Initially, I just replied to him on my new phone, it was after a [race] weekend, it was quite late on when I found the message, but it was from earlier in the year, so it was months later. I just said congratulations on the amazing season and I hope we are able to compete with you soon. Then he replied repeating the same thing.”

Horner also claimed Hamilton held talks with Ferrari via its chairman John Elkann and suggested he may have spoken with team principal Fred Vasseur too.

“I know John really well,” Hamilton said. “We met years ago in the Google camp. I went to a Google camp in Sicily, and that’s when our friendship started and we’ve always remained in touch.

“I’ve known Fred since 2005, and we’ve always had a really great relationship. We’d talk often since he’s been in Formula One.

“Because after I left his team, we would talk all the time obviously when I was in his team, then I came to Formula One, and you have less contact with the Formula 2 series.

“But since he’s been back, we’ve met here, we’ve travelled together with Toto. So that’s really as far as it goes.”

Asked why Horner might fabricate a story about him, Hamilton added: “If you really think about it, there are a lot of people here that like to drop my name in many conversations because they know it’s going to make waves.

“And if you are a little bit lonely and you are not getting much attention, that’s the perfect thing to do, just mention my name.”

Hamilton is likely to record his second winless season in a row this year after his Mercedes team, which delivered him six titles between 2014 and 2020, has struggled to adapt to new F1 regulations introduced in 2022.

Red Bull has dominated the sport under the new rules, but Hamilton said he would take more satisfaction from returning Mercedes to the top rather than being parachuted in to a winning team.

“Hopefully signing [with Mercedes] has showed my commitment to the team,” he said. “I think, let’s be realistic, every single driver that’s racing here dreams of being in the winning car. I think probably here, in my younger days, when I haven’t had a lot of success, maybe in those McLaren days, it would have been a lot more attractive.

“When I think about just from a racing perspective and my viewpoint on things, obviously showing when I moved to this team, I enjoyed moving from a more successful team to a team that hadn’t had success with the vision of growing and building with the team, because when we did then win, it was just such a better feeling.

“Whilst every driver here looks at the Red Bull car and would love to drive that car, and I’m not saying that I wouldn’t love to drive that car and experience how good that car is, every driver would feel that, I feel like we’ve had two really difficult years, and if we work towards beating that car, that’s going to be a way better feeling than stepping into just the best car.

“I don’t think it would do much for me in the sense of just stepping into a car that’s been the most dominant car of all-time. Working with my team to build to be able to beat them I think would be better for my legacy, for sure.”

Hamilton added that he would have no problem being Verstappen’s teammate, despite their intense rivalry in 2021 when Hamilton lost out on the title to the Red Bull driver at the final race.

“I’d be more than happy to race against Max in the same car,” he said. “That would be wonderful. I don’t think he wants me to be his teammate.”