© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Christian Horner said Lewis Hamilton “reached out” this year to inquire about a possible switch to Red Bull. Lewis denied this. So what’s going on?
Earlier this week, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told the Daily Mail that Lewis Hamilton “reached out” to his team to inquire about a possible seat.
This of course created quite a splash in the media. So, here’s what Horner actually said.
“We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining,” he said.
“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.”
Horner also said Hamilton held talks with the Ferrari chairman John Elkann.
“He met John Elkann, too. I think there were serious talks. It was around Monaco. There were definitely conversations, perhaps with [Ferrari Team Principal Frederic] Vasseur, too.
“But certainly with Elkann,” Horner concluded.
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When asked about this by reporters in Abu Dhabi, Lewis completely denied that he or anybody associated with him ever reached out to Red Bull.
“I’ve not approached Christian,” Lewis said.
“I haven’t spoken to Christian for years and no one from my team has. I’ve checked with everyone, no one from my team has reached out to him.”
However, Lewis then said that Horner actually reached out to him.
“However, he had reached out to me about meeting up at the end of the season.
“I was like: ‘I hope you are well; I wish you all the best, congratulations on an amazing season so far, and I hope that I am able to compete with you in the near future.’”
Germany’s Bild newspaper published more quotes from Lewis regarding the situation.
“I took out my old cell phone with my old number, turned it on and logically had hundreds of messages,” Lewis was quoted as saying.
“I saw that one of Christian’s messages was him asking whether we wanted to sit down and talk. I answered him from my new phone and congratulated him on his great season.
“I found the message quite late, it was from earlier this year. So it [Lewis’ response] was months later.”
Lewis added that this looks like an attempt to ‘stir the pot’.
“It’s not the first time my name has been used to make a splash. I told Toto [Wolff, Mercedes’ team boss] about the message so that there wouldn’t be a false impression.”
When Sky Sports F1 asked Horner again about the situation, Horner said it was actually Lewis Hamilton’s father Anthony, who had reached out to him.
“It’s amazing the fuss that’s come out of this,” Horner said.
“It’s not unusual for there to be an exchange. I’ve known Anthony Hamilton for 15-16 years, so inevitably there’s often an exchange during the course of the season.
“There’s quite a lot that seems to have been read into this. I had an exchange.
“Anthony’s a nice guy. He reached out, I think, I can’t remember, regarding [talks] around Sergio [Perez], and just asked an inquiring and suggestive question.
“I don’t know what role Anthony plays in Lewis’ setup or management, but he’s got some form of relationship.
“I don’t think he was inquiring about himself to come and drive.”
Horner the added:
“We’re very happy with the drivers that we’ve got, but of course Lewis hasn’t won a race for almost two years.
“You can understand questions being asked, it’s entirely logical and normal for those type of things to happen.
“And as I say, I’ve always had a great relationship with Anthony, he’s a very nice guy, but there is no seat available so it’s really a non-story,” the Briton concluded.
So, what’s this all about? While it’s impossible to say for certain what exactly happened, by examining the statements from Lewis and Christian certain conclusions can be drawn.
The first statement, that Horner had given to the Daily Mail, seems like the kind of thing someone would say to make the interview more ‘spicy’, although he probably didn’t think such a big deal would be made out of it.
Lewis said he was actually contacted by Horner about meeting up, so some contact had obviously been made, and Horner kind of provided a version that makes him look a bit better.
He later said the first contact was made by Lewis’ father Anthony, and he also played down the importance of the whole conversation, almost stating that he had to read between the lines to interpret it as an actually inquiry about a possible seat with Red Bull.
So, ultimately, while we can never know for sure what happened, it certainly does seem like Horner’s original statement was an attempt at creating a bit of controversy, which somewhat got out of hand.
Ultimately, Lewis had said on numerous occasions that he intends to remain with Mercedes even beyond his driving career, so it’s highly unlikely that he would seriously entertain a move to Red Bull at this point.
