Lewis Hamilton is rejecting claims made by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner that Hamilton’s representatives approached the world champions about the possibility of Hamilton moving to Red Bull in Formula 1.
Horner claimed in an interview with British newspaper the Daily Mail, published on Wednesday, that Hamilton’s team had made tentative inquiries about Red Bull’s position earlier in 2023.
“We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining,” Horner told the newspaper. “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 and Mercedes committed to a multi-year contract extension in August, keeping the seven-time World Champion at the team he joined in 2013 through at least 2025.
Speaking at Yas Marina on Thursday, ahead of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hamilton insisted he never approached Red Bull and revealed that it was in fact Horner who reached out to him.
“No, I did not,” Hamilton said on if he had contacted Red Bull. “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 (what for). He said to have a catch up. 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 approaching the end of a second straight winless season in Formula 1, having not added to his tally of 103 wins since December 2021, but emphasized his commitment and belief in a Mercedes resurgence.
“I think, let’s be realistic, every single driver that’s racing here dreams of being in the winning car,” he said. “I think probably here, in my younger days, when I haven’t had a lot of success, maybe in those McLaren days, it (a Red Bull seat) 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.
“While 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.
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