Lewis Hamilton has denied claims his management team approached Red Bull about the possibility of joining the world champions.
The Mercedes driver responded to a claim made by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, reported by the Daily Mail, that Hamilton’s representatives made contact with them earlier this year.
“I don’t really know where that story’s come from,” Hamilton told Sky. “I mean, I know it’s come from Christian, I don’t really understand what he’s been talking about because no one, as far as I’m aware, from my team has spoken to him.”
“I haven’t spoken to Christian, really, in years,” he continued. “However, he did reach out to me earlier in the year about meeting up.
“But that’s it, I just congratulated him on an amazing year and said, I hope… soon I’ll be able to fight against you guys in the near future. That was it. So I’m not really sure. I think he’s just stirring things.”
Hamilton made it clear “there weren’t any confidential discussions” between him and Red Bull. “You know Christian, he loves that kind of stuff.”
Horner has previously expressed scepticism about the value of having two “alpha” drivers in the same team. He has stated several in recent months the team intends to stand by Sergio Perez’s contract to drive for them in 2024, despite him scoring less than half as many points as Verstappen so far this year.
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Hamilton, who signed a new two-year deal to drive for Mercedes this year, said he would be “100% would be more than happy to race against [Verstappen] in an equal car.” However his preference is to remain with his current team and turn around a slump in form which has seen them win just one race since the start of last season.
“For me, moving to Red Bull – [they’ve] done an amazing job and it is an incredible team and any driver would would love to drive for such a great group of people – [but] I think moving from a car that’s not so great to a winning car, from my perspective, that’s not the dream.
“The dream is always to start where we kind of are and build up to them winning and that’s why I’ve stayed with Mercedes.”
Verstappen was unwilling to be drawn on his team principal’s claim Hamilton had approached them about a drive. “What would it add to know?” he said when asked. “It’s not happening so there’s no point to make…
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