Hamilton’s “lonely” jibe at Horner, doubts Verstappen ‘wants me as his teammate’

In an interview with the Daily Mail in the build-up to this weekend’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Horner made the sensational revelation that Hamilton had sounded out Red Bull earlier this year before the seven-time world champion committed his future to Mercedes. 

Hamilton, who signed a new two-year contract renewal with Mercedes at the end of August, initially denied Horner’s claim when speaking to Sky, in turn revealing that Horner had in fact contacted him first.

According to Hamilton’s version of events, Horner made the first move to initiate a meeting between the pair, but texted the 38-year-old Briton’s old number. 

“No, I didn’t approach them… Christian messaged me,” Hamilton told reporters in a later media debrief which followed his TV pen duties as he attempted to set the record straight.

“I’ve checked with everyone in my team, and no one has spoken to them. But they have tried to reach out to us.”

Hamilton went on to explain: “I picked up my old phone, which I just found at home, that had my old number on it.

“I switched it on and obviously hundreds of messages came through and I realised there was one from Christian to get together and have a chat at the end of the season…

“I just replied to him on my new phone. It was after a weekend. It was quite late on that I found the message. It was from earlier on in the year. So, it was like months later.”

He added: “There’s a lot of people here that like to drop my name in many conversations because they know it’s going to make waves. 

“If you’re a little bit lonely and aren’t getting much attention, it’s a perfect thing to do. Just mention my name.”

Hamilton stressed he had kept Mercedes boss Toto Wolff in the loop about his contact with Horner. 

“I did tell Toto [about replying to Horner], especially when the story broke,” he said. 

“Also, I wanted my team to know because people think those things and it’s never a positive.”

And Hamilton believes Max Verstappen would be less keen on the pair ever becoming teammates. 

“I’d be more than happy to race against Max in the same car,” he said. “That would be wonderful. I don’t think he wants me to be his teammate.”

Verstappen was pressed on whether he would be open to going head-to-head with Hamilton in equal machinery during Thursday’s press conference. 

“I wouldn’t mind,” the triple world champion replied. “It doesn’t matter, anyone. I don’t want to put it particularly on Lewis. There are so many great drivers as well. Sometimes it doesn’t work out like that.”