Lewis Hamilton says Christian Horner’s version of events relating to any interest on his part in a Red Bull seat are incorrect and that it was the team principal who reached out to him.
Horner claims a representative for Hamilton contacted Red Bull to assess if there was a potential seat available during negotiations with Mercedes, with the Briton eventually extended his contract by a further two years. Hamilton says that’s not true, and that it was Horner who made contact wanting a meeting.
“No, I didn’t approach them,” Hamilton said. “I said that Christian messaged me … I’ve checked with everyone in my team and no one has spoken to them. But they have tried to reach out to us.
“Basically, I picked up my old phone, which I’ve just found that on, which had my old number on it. I switched it on and obviously hundreds of messages came through and I realized there was one from Christian to get together and have a chat at the end of the season. He didn’t say (it was about a drive). He said to have a catch-up.
“I did tell Toto (Wolff, Mercedes team principal), especially when the story broke. I have so much respect for Toto — we have a great relationship — and I also want my team to know because people think those things and it’s never positive. Initially, I just replied to him on my new phone — it was after a 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 congratulation on the amazing season and I hope we are able to compete with you soon. Then he replied repeating the same thing.”
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Hamilton says such stories are not surprising to him given the amount of interest they generate.
“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,” he said. “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.”
However, the seven-time world champion says he wouldn’t have any problem teaming up with Max Verstappen in the same team.
“I don’t know if it would be a bond, but I’d be more than happy to race against Max in the same car,” Hamilton said. “That would be wonderful. I don’t think he wants me to be his teammate.”
Hamilton insists he is set on trying to return Mercedes to winning ways rather than jump ship to the dominant team at present.
“Hopefully, signing has showed 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. 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 — 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 just stepping into 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.”