Last Updated on November 23 2023, 2:23 pm

Overnight the story broke in the Daily Mail that Formula One star Lewis Hamilton had “reached out” to Red Bull Racing “earlier this year” to see if the world champion team was interested in him joining to race alongside Max Verstappen.

A number of the established journalists like Ed Straw writing for The Race rubbished other writers who dared suggest this move by Lewis or a member of his team was anything out of the ordinary.

 

 

Horner says Hamilton enquired about a Red Bull drive

Horner stated: “We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining. They have reached out a few times. Most recently, earlier in the year, there was an inquiry about whether there would be any interest.”

Given that both Mercedes and Hamilton had set expectations late in 2022 that he would be signing a new contract with Mercedes early this year, the ridiculously elongated nature of the process which was eventually completed after the F1 summer break was bound to raise eyebrows.

Toto Wolff himself had claimed in January:  “In the last 10 years our relationship has grown that it’s just a matter of him physically being back in Europe, sticking our heads together, wrestling a bit and then leaving the room with white smoke after a few hours.”

Of course just a couple of weeks later, Hamilton first experienced the Mercedes W14 challenger for the 2023 season. Lewis claimed in Las Vegas he knew as early as pre-season testing in Bahrain the car was not capable of competing for titles and even race wins.

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“I can’t see Max and Lewis working together”

Clearly an F1 driver of Hamilton’s pedigree and ambition who is soon to be out of contract would then contemplate his options and consider whether he could claim the elusive eight world championship – even if it would be with another team.

Horner concluded with the sad reality that we’ll never see Verstappen and Hamilton competing against each other in the same machinery.

“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,” concluded the Red Bull boss.

The teams and drivers have arrived in Abu Dhabi and Thursday is the media day where they are available for interview. Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz raised the Daily Mail report with Lewis Hamilton when for once appeared ill prepared to answer and came across in somewhat of a rambling fashion.

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Hamilton accuses Horner of merely “stirring” 

“I don’t really know where that story has come from…. Well I know its come from Christian [Horner] but I don’t really understand what he’s been talking about,” countered Lewis

“Because no one as far as I’m aware from my team has spoken to him – I’ve not spoken to Christian really in years.”

Hamilton was then incoherent as he continued turning around the reported advance, claiming it was Horner who had contacted himself.

“However he did reach out to me earlier on in the year about meeting up….  But that said I just congratulate them on an amazing year and said hopefully soon I’ll be able to fight against you guys in the near future…. That’s it. I’m not really sure – I think he’s just stirring….”

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Hamilton confused response raises more questions

If Lewis never met the Red Bull boss how could he have said anything let alone congratulate them in advance on their ‘amazing year’?

Kravitz pressed Hamilton on what he thought Christian Horner was trying to achieve by revealing what would have been confidential in nature anyway.

“Well there aren’t any confidential discussions… I don’t know… you know Christian. He loves that kind of stuff,” Lewis replied.

On the matter of a straight fight against verstappen in identical machinery, Lewis confirmed he would be more than happy were that to happen thence again stumbled as he began to discuss leaving Mercedes before thinking better of it and returning to eulogising over how great Red Bull actually are.

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Lewis happy to compete with Max in same car

“100% I’d be more than happy to race against him in an equal car. For me moving to….. Red Bull has done an amazing job and is an incredible team and any driver would love to drive for such a great group of people.”

“I think moving from a car thats not so great to a winning car – from my perspective – that’s not a dream. The dream is always to start like where we kind of are to then winning. That’s why I’ve stayed with Mercedes,” concluded Hamilton.

Max Verstappen was asked about a hypothetical alternative universe where Hamilton had been welcomed as his team mate during the drivers’ press conference and his response was spikey.

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Verstappen spikey response to hypothetical question

“What would it add to know?” Max countered. “Because I don’t know, it’s not happening.

“You know there’s no point to make up stories if it’s not happening.”

Verstappen was happy to concede he would have no problem with having Lewis as a team mate before broadening the debate stating he’d take any of the current crop of F1 drivers.

“So yeah, I wouldn’t mind, it doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t want to put it now, particularly on Lewis, I mean, there are so many great drivers as well. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out like that,” concluded the triple worked champion.

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Horner responds to Hamilton’s denial

Whilst both titles were decided some weeks ago, Mercedes and Hamilton are battling to fight off Ferrari for second place in the constructors’ championship. This of course is worth ten of millions of dollars, although Hamilton believes Ferrari’s package now is better than his own team’s.

One other small matter to be decided within the Mercedes team is whether George Russell can square up the qualifying numbers with his team mate. At present Lewis leads 11-10 and having had a poor season on Sunday’s Russell would be keen to finish the year at least on a par with Hamilton’s one lap performances.

Sky Sport’s Craig Slater has now issued an update on the situation after contacting both teams, with Red Bull sticking by Horner’s story and Mercedes attempting to cast doubt on it.

He said: “I thought I’d better fact-check it so I got in touch with Red Bull and they say: ‘Yes, absolutely, Christian Horner stands by this. A known Lewis Hamilton representative made contact with him.’”

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