Lewis Hamilton has denied claims that he had approached Red Bull about a potential move to the team, dismissing them as attention-seeking and accusing the team principal, Christian Horner, of “stirring”.
Earlier this week, Horner said that a member of the Hamilton camp had approached the team regarding talks over a seat with the reigning world champions, before the British driver had renewed his contract with Mercedes.
Regarding approaches from Hamilton, Horner told the Daily Mail: “Most recently, earlier in the year, there was an inquiry about whether there would be any interest”.
However, speaking before this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final race of the season, Hamilton flatly rejected the claim.
“There are a lot of people here that like to drop my name in conversations because they know it will make waves,” he said. “If you are a little bit lonely, and are not getting much attention, that is the perfect thing to do, just to mention my name. He [Horner] is stirring things.”
Hamilton denied that anyone representing him had made any contact and said that Horner had tried to contact him.
“I have checked with everyone in my team and nobody has spoken to them. However, he did reach out to me earlier on in the year about meeting up,” he said. “I picked up my old phone, which I found at home. It has my old number. I switched it on and hundreds of messages came through. One was from Christian to get together and have a catch-up at the end of the season.
“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 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.”
Hamilton signed a new deal with Mercedes in August after a lengthy negotiation period. He has always insisted he expected to see out his career with the team and said he spoke to the team principal, Toto Wolff, to assure him there was no truth in the story as soon as Horner’s comments were reported.
The 38-year-old also pointedly noted that he did not think Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the current world champion who has 18 wins from 21 races this season, would want him as a teammate.
“I would be more than happy to race against Max in the same car, it would be wonderful,” he said. “I don’t think he wants me to be his teammate.”
Verstappen has long since clinched his third title this season, while Hamilton and Mercedes have once more been off the pace. He has not won since Saudi Arabia in 2021 but insisted he wanted the satisfaction of coming back at his rivals by helping build Mercedes once more into a winning team.
“Let’s be realistic, every single driver here dreams of being in a winning car,” he said. “In my younger days, when I had not had a lot of success, joining Red Bull would have been more attractive to me.
“We have had two really difficult years and if we were able to beat that Red Bull, that would be a way better feeling than just stepping into the best car. That wouldn’t do much for me, stepping into a car that has been the most dominant of all time but working with my team to beat them. That would be better for my legacy.”
