Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes driver denies Red Bull approach claims by Christian Horner

Lewis Hamilton has denied claims he approached Red Bull about a move there earlier this year.

Hamilton said he “did not” contact Red Bull and Horner had reached out to him suggesting an end-of-season meeting.

“I have checked with everyone on my team [of representatives] and no-one has spoken to them, but they have tried to reach out to us,” Hamilton said.

The 38-year-old’s Mercedes contract was set to expire at the end of this season before he signed a new two-year deal in August after protracted negotiations.

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

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

The seven-time champion added: “Initially, I just replied on my new phone. It was after a weekend. It was quite late on I found the message. It was from earlier on in the year. It was, like, months later, and I just said ‘Congratulations on the amazing season and I hope we are able to compete with you soon’, and he replied repeating the same thing.”

Asked whether he thought it was strange for Horner to be talking about his contractual situation, Hamilton said: “Not really. If you really think about it, there are a lot of people here who really like to drop my name in conversations because they know it is going to make waves.

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

 

Questioned about the discrepancy between the two versions of events, a Red Bull spokesperson said Hamilton’s father was the one who made contact with Horner.

Hamilton said he had reassured his team principal Toto Wolff when the story broke this week that it was not true.

“I did tell Toto,” he said. “Especially when the story broke because I have so much respect for Toto, we have a great relationship.

“Also I want my team to know because people think those things and it’s never positive.”

‘Verstappen would not want me as team-mate…’

Hamilton was asked whether he would like to compete against Red Bull’s three-time world champion Max Verstappen in the same team.

He replied: “I would be more than happy to race against Max in the same car. It would be wonderful. I don’t think he wants me to be his team-mate.”

Asked the same question, Verstappen said: “What would it add to know? It’s not happening. There is no point to make up stories if, if – it’s not happening.

“I wouldn’t mind, it doesn’t matter, anyone [can be my team-mate]. I don’t want to particularly put it on Lewis, there are so many great drivers as well. Sometimes it doesn’t work out like that.”

Hamilton said he preferred to stay with Mercedes and try to rebuild the team into championship winners than move to a car that was already winning.

“Signing has shown my commitment to the team,” he said. “Let’s be realistic. Every single driver that’s racing here dreams of being in the winning car.

“In my younger days, when I hadn’t had a lot of success, maybe in the McLaren days, maybe it would have been a lot more attractive.

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

“Every driver here looks at the Red Bull car and would love to drive that car. I’m not saying I wouldn’t love to drive that car and experience how good that car is – every driver would feel that – [but] I feel that we’ve had two really difficult cars and if we work towards being that car, it is going to be a way better feeling than stepping into the best car.

“It wouldn’t do much for me in the sense of stepping into the most dominant car of all time. Working with my team to be able to beat them would be better for my legacy for sure.”