Last Updated on November 23 2023, 12:26 pm

The news that Lewis Hamilton was in conversations with other teams as his contract renewal discussions with Mercedes dragged on for more than half a season, is hardly ground breaking. Any Formula One’s driver representatives worth their salt should be checking out their client’s p[tops before putting pen to paper. Even so, Christian Horner has now put the cat amongst the pigeons with his revelations that Hamilton “reached out” early this year to see if there was any hope of a Red Bull drive in 2024/25 when his deal with Mercedes expired.

There’s rarely smoke without fire, and media reports repeatedly suggested early this year that Hamilton was looking elsewhere and this was newsworthy particularly given earlier assertions made by both him and Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff.

 

 

Hamilton inordinate contract delay

In January Wolff claimed it would take a “matter of hours” for Lewis to put pen to paper and explained the reason it had not been done over the winter was because they had spent the holiday season on different continents.

Lewis had also claimed in Austin 2022 that he wanted a ‘multi-year’ deal to end his career at Mercedes, the inference was a contract for between 3 and 5 years.

Yet all the while Hamilton was waiting to see how competitive the the Mercedes W14 would be and he revealed in Las Vegas that he knew it wasn’t a championship winning car at pre-season testing in Bahrain.

For months both Hamilton and Wolff repeatedly answered questions over why a new contract had not been signed and their response usually suggested there were just some minor details outstanding. But of course anyone who has been involved in such a process knows the minor details do not take more than six months to iron out. Clearly we now know there was the will from at least one of the parties to look elsewhere.

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Wolff promised not to look elsewhere

The news of Hamilton fishing ;elsewhere for a derive when broken to Toto must have hit the Mercedes boss hard given he had made a promise to Lewis which he later revealed.

When pressed if he had made contact with Leclerc or Verstappen prior to Hamilton’s contract renewal, Wolff had said: “No, because I’ve always said when we renew, I don’t want to flirt outside if I have a good relationship.

“Only when I see that things are not going in the right direction then I would test the markets, but I didn’t do it.”

Yet all the time Lewis was in fact ‘flirting’ and ‘testing the market’ while Toto and Mercedes waited around like a jilted lover.

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Horner reveals Hamilton approached Red Bull

Horner’s revelation reported today is clearly designed to create mischief for Mercedes and Hamilton as they head to the final event of the year which is coincidentally the home of the greatest tragedy of Hamilton’s career.

“We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining,” the Red Bull boss told the Daily Mail.

“They have reached out a few times. Most recently, earlier in the year, there was an inquiry about whether there would be any interest.

“’But I can’t see Max and Lewis working out together. The dynamic wouldn’t be right. We are 100 per cent happy with what we have.”

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Ferrar boss integrity questioned

As if kicking the dirt in Mercedes face wasn’t enough, Horner also puts the new Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur in a tricky spot, putting his integrity and credibility into question. Ferrari had denied any contact with Hamilton when Italian media reports surfaced they had discussions over him replacing Sainz for 2025.

“He met John Elkann, too,” added Horner. “I think there were serious talks. It was around Monaco (in May). There were definitely conversations, perhaps with Vasseur, too. But certainly with Elkann.”

Lewis Hamilton too has repeatedly denied links to Ferrari most frequently when repeating the mantra about finalising the minutia of his Mercedes contract.

Of course, this will not be “breaking news” for Toto, as he will have known about Hamilton’s solicitations soon after they were made. Yet it does put into context a number of nuanced quirks around the final announcement of the Hamilton deal.

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Toto uses the language of ‘faithfulness’

Firstly, there is the graphic language used by Toto when the contract was signed where he insisted neither he nor the team had been ‘unfaithful’ or ‘flirted’ elsewhere during the process. 

Clearly he knew Hamilton had done so and Wolff chose to express his part in the negotiations in a manner which implied Mercedes had acted at all times in good faith, while all along Lewis was checking out the opposition.

Another intriguing part of Lewis’ contract announcement, was both parties had spoken as though the relationship would continue almost indefinitely. Hamilton had referred previously to a ‘multi-year’ deal which turned out to be for just two more seasons and Wolff had given the impression he and Mercedes would persist until they won Hamilton his ‘lost’ eight championship.

During the weekend of the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix, Toto Wolff revealed to Channel 4 the details of a recent conversation he and Lewis had.

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No five year deal

“Just last week we sat down and he says ‘look, I have another five years in me, how do you see that?’”

When asked whether it was realistic to expect Lewis to continue until he was 43 – as he would be at the end of five more years – Toto laughed citing the example of Alonso who would be the same age or even older by the time his contract with Aston Martin was complete.

Lewis was quick to state to the media when his new deal was agreed, that this would probably not be the last, which left the impression he felt a little insecure over the final term of the contract. Clearly the final terms of the contract were imposed by Mercedes rather than gladly accepted by Hamilton.

And finally, what happened to the 10 year Mercedes ambassador role Hamilton’s team had suggested he was looking for?

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Mercedes Ambassador role gone

Toto had headed off this notion just a few weeks before the contract was finally signed. When asked about the 10 year role he replied:

“No, we’re not talking about an ambassadorial role post his retirement, nor is that part of the contract negotiations,” he told media, including during the Belgian GP weekend.

“I think he has many years to go as a driver within this team and, therefore, it’s only about cleaning things up in the contract.”

One thing is now plain, there could be no Mercedes ambassador role for a driver who is prepared to jump ship to win the coveted eight title with whichever team offers him the best opportunity of fulfilling his dream.

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Horner calculated revelations

So why has Christian Horner chosen this moment to reveal Hamilton was looking to join a team other than Mercedes?

In a sport where everything is calculated precisely, Christian knows this will sow seeds of doubt within the wider Mercedes family and of course should they produce another car for 2024 incapable of winning races, the inevitable outburst from Lewis will come once again in the Spring.

To a certain degree Hamilton and Mercedes had no where else to go but to remain together this year given the top drivers and teams were all committed to each other until 2024/25.

But come the big regulation changes in 2026, there is now more doubt over whether Hamilton will be part of Mercedes thinking by then or even whether another two years of mediocrity from his Mercedes chariots will force Lewis into a new role, maybe sitting in a film makers director’s chair.

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