Lewis Hamilton contacted Red Bull about driving alongside Max Verstappen for the grid’s all-conquering team, Christian Horner has claimed.
The 38-year-old signed a new two-year contract – understood to be worth £50million a year – in August to extend his stay in Formula One beyond his 40th birthday.
It came amid a season of struggle for Mercedes as Verstappen eased to a third consecutive world title in a dominant Red Bull car.
There was speculation over Hamilton’s future for much of the season and Red Bull team principal Horner has now claimed they received an approach from his representatives before he committed to Mercedes.
Max Verstappen has won his third successive world title (Tim Goode/PA)
Horner also said the seven-time world champion was in dialogue with Ferrari chairman John Elkann.
“We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining,” Horner 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.
“He met John Elkann (Ferrari chairman), too. I think there were serious talks.
“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.”
The 2023 F1 season concludes this weekend in Abu Dhabi, where Hamilton was controversially beaten to the drivers’ championship by Verstappen in the final race in 2021.
Hamilton has not won a race in two seasons and will finish third in the standings this year, while the Dutchman is bidding for his 19th win of a record-breaking campaign.
“We want to get back to the top, and back to fighting for world championships. We are in this together,” Hamilton said when his new deal was announced in August.
“We have a lot of work to do, but there is nowhere else I would rather be. You are all stuck with me for a little bit longer.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here