Red Bull team principal Christian Horner recently grabbed all the headlines after he claimed that Lewis Hamilton had contacted his side for a potential move. Although Hamilton declined the same, Red Bull aero God Adrian Newey also once revealed that the 38-year-old had shown interest in moving to the Milton Keynes outfit. According to Newey, Hamilton had contacted him once 11 years ago when he was driving for McLaren.
“During the 2012 season, we got wind of the fact that Lewis Hamilton was unsettled at McLaren. I already knew Lewis from my McLaren days. He was driving in Formula 3000,” explained Newey in his book, How To Build A Car.
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Hamilton indeed was perhaps not happy at McLaren at the time as he moved to rivals Mercedes the very next season. The Briton’s move to the Silver Arrows coincided with Red Bull dominating the sport at the time. The Milton Keynes outfit had already won three championships and won their fourth consecutive title in 2013.
However, just one year after Hamilton moved to Mercedes, he achieved unprecedented success. The 38-year-old won six of his seven championships between 2014 and 2020 and helped Mercedes establish a period of dominance.
However, with the Silver Arrows’ domination having ended in the past few seasons, it seems that Horner is attempting to stir the pot again. The 49-year-old recently made some interesting remarks in his interview with the Daily Mail that have several similarities to what happened a decade ago.
Lewis Hamilton hit back at Christian Horner over false claims
Ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend, Christian Horner gave an interview where he claimed that Lewis Hamilton was keen to move to Red Bull. The 49-year-old 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. He met John Elkann (Ferrari chairman), too. I think there were serious talks“.
However, interestingly Hamilton hit back at Horner by stating that it was the Red Bull team principal who reached out to him. While speaking to Sky Sports, the Mercedes driver said, “I’ve checked with everyone on the team, and no one’s spoken to them, but they have tried to reach out to us“.
Hamilton then added that Horner is perhaps “just stirring things“. While it remains unclear if Hamilton and Horner had any conversations about a potential move or not, the only thing that remains certain at this point is that the seven-time champion has two more years on his current deal with Mercedes.
