Lewis Hamilton has hit back at suggestions by Christian Horner that his representatives made an approach about joining Red Bull, accusing the team principal of being lonely and stirring.
Hamilton signed a two-year contract extension with Mercedes in August, but this week Horner said the seven-time world champion had been in lengthy talks with Ferrari, and also that one of his team had spoken to Red Bull to check about seat availability.
But speaking ahead of Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the 38-year-old Briton strongly dismissed Horner’s comments.
“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 is stirring things. I have checked with everyone on my team, and no one has spoken to [Red Bull], but they have tried to reach out to us.”
Hamilton said he had not spoken to Horner in a long time, bar one brief text exchange.
“I picked up my old phone I had just found at home that had my old number on it. I switched it on and 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.
“I replied on my new phone and just said, ‘Congratulations on the amazing season and I hope we are able to compete with you soon’. He replied, repeating the same thing.”
Red Bull have held talks with Hamilton in the distant past, but nothing ever materialised, and Horner said a partnership with Max Verstappen would never be viable. The Dutchman echoed those sentiments in Abu Dhabi ahead of the final race of the season.
“It would never work,” he said. “For sure, we would be trying to beat each other, but I think it’s also good to have us in different teams.
“For me, the important thing is that our rivals make sure they’re competing enough to battle it out, because otherwise it doesn’t matter who you put next to each other, there is only one car winning.”.
