Lewis Hamilton has moved to set the record straight over claims he approached Red Bull boss Christian Horner about a potential drive.
Reports earlier this week claimed the seven-time champ had reached out to Horner about a potential collaboration, though Hamilton refutes that version of events.
Instead, he claims the interest came from the other direction.
“I’ve not approached Christian; I haven’t spoken to Christian for years and no one from my team has,” the Mercedes driver asserted.
“I’ve checked with everyone; no one from my team has 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.’”
In March, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted that he would not hold it against his star driver if he decided to look elsewhere for a drive.
The Englishman was out of contract at the end of this year, with negotiations taking longer than expected.
That was resolved in September when Hamilton signed a new Mercedes contract that will keep him with the team he’s won six world titles with until the end of 2025.
After winning seven drivers’ titles in a row from 2014, Mercedes has found the going more difficult since new rules were introduced last season.
The 2022 season marked the first in Hamilton’s F1 career that he’d not won a race. With just this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix remaining in 2023, it looks to be a second winless campaign for the sport’s most successful driver.
When asked his thoughts on the prospect of teaming up with Hamilton, world champion-elect Max Verstappen was in no mood for hypotheticals.
“What would it add,” he quizzed.
“There’s no point to make up stories if it’s not happening
“I wouldn’t mind. It doesn’t matter,” he added when pressed if he’d like to race alongside Hamilton.
“I don’t want to put it like now particularly on Lewis. There’s so many great drivers as well. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out like that.”
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