“We have had some conversations” Horner reveals as Hamilton wanted to become Sebastian Vettel’s team-mate. Perhaps rather a shock after what happened last season, and especially at Formula 1 Abu Dhabi in 2021.

Certainly, it would be hard to imagine Lewis Hamilton at Red Bull, but team boss Christian Horner says the seven-time Formula One world champion kept pushing for a switch during the dominant Red Bull era between 2010 and 2013.

In an interview to the ‘Daily Mail’, Horner says:

“Lewis and I have had a number of conversations over the years. From 2010 to 2013 he was very interested in driving for Red Bull. But at that time we had Sebastian [Vettel] and it wouldn’t have made sense to have two alpha drivers.” in a rather damning indictment of Vettel’s then teammate Mark Webber.

When Hamilton finally moved from McLaren to the Mercedes factory team at the end of 2012, the Red Bull team boss was initially delighted as he did not see Mercedes as a major threat and he suspected Hamilton would not be able to show his skills there as well as he did at McLaren.

“Niki Lauda was at Mercedes and really wanted Lewis and I remember encouraging him to take him. We were fighting McLaren and in 2012 they had the fastest car and we felt Lewis would be a bigger threat in a McLaren than in a Mercedes.”

“I encouraged Niki to spend the money because Lewis’ performance was also fluctuating a bit. I think it’s fair to say that backfired,” Horner recalled. Hamilton went on to win six drivers’ championships from 2014, while Mercedes is even still unbeaten as a constructor since the introduction of the hybrid era.

The fact that it was Max Verstappen in the 2021 Red Bull who was able to break years of Mercedes dominance makes Horner all the more pleased: “The sense of achievement to beat that mighty Mercedes machine with Lewis as part of it was huge.”

“The whole organisation gets used to winning and it’s like a drug. It’s addictive. And then there’s the fear of failure. It drives you because you want to experience that feeling again and again,” Horner explained.

The fierce battle between Red Bull and Mercedes has died down in the current 2022 Formula 1 season, but that is due to the fact that Mercedes has not stood a chance against the RB18 with the W13 so far. Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team are well ahead in both world championship standings and it all looks like there will be a constructors’ champion other than Mercedes for the first time since 2013.