Throughout his Formula 1 career, Red Bull Racing has been one of Lewis Hamilton’s primary rivals; however, as Christian Horner has previously disclosed, there were opportunities for them to work together.
Max Verstappen is racing for Red Bull, and Christian Horner has reiterated his belief that Lewis Hamilton will never race for the team.
Despite all of Hamilton’s accomplishments with Mercedes over the years, he and his squad are no longer the dominant teams in Formula 1. Now, Verstappen and his Red Bull squad are in charge; the Dutchman won the world championship for the third time in a row this year with relative ease.
Hamilton signed a new two-year contract extension earlier this year which will keep him with Mercedes until the end of the 2025 campaign. But the feeling is the team will have to pull off something extraordinary to catch up to and beat Red Bull in that timeframe.
Therefore, it’s possible that if he defected and joined Red Bull, that would be his only opportunity to win an eighth world title. Though Verstappen has a contract with the team through 2028, team principal Horner is adamant that this will not occur while Verstappen is racing for the team.
He said, “A Verstappen and a Hamilton, that’s never going to work because you kill your own car,” on the Dax Shepard-hosted podcast Eff Won with DRS. “The drivers must have a mindset that puts the team’s needs ahead of their own. If not, it could become highly polarizing.”
Clearly, Horner’s stance has not changed from earlier this year when he was quizzed about the prospect of making an approach for Hamilton, back when the Brit’s future beyond the current season was uncertain. “What he has achieved in F1 is second to none,” he said of the seven-time world champion.
“But we are very happy with the drivers that we have. They are committed as a pair for this and next season so I can’t see where we would be able to accommodate Lewis. I am sure they will sort their issues out and we are certainly not writing him off yet.”
Horner hasn’t always been so cold to the idea of bringing Hamilton to Red Bull, though. He recently admitted that talks were held between the Brit and his team earlier in his career over a potential switch which would have changed the course of F1 history.
It’s not something we have recently given any thought to. I mean, obviously, you’d probably have to sell the factory to pay for those two drivers alone!” he exclaimed. “There have been a few times in the past when we’ve discussed the possibility of joining Red Bull, but not recently.”
He went on to say, “Lewis and I have had a couple of conversations over the years,” in a different interview.
He was eager to join Red Bull and drive from 2010 to 2013. It wouldn’t have made sense to have two alpha drivers at that time because we had Sebastian [Vettel].
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