As per Horner, Hamilton was keen on joining Red Bull during their period of sustained dominance from 2010 to 2013.
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The rivalry that exists currently between Mercedes and Red Bull is something that will surely go down in history as one of the classic Formula One rivalries. It reached its tipping point in the 2021 season when Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and Max Verstappen of Red Bull went toe to toe and were engaged in a brutal fight for the championship. It culminated with Verstappen winning the driver’s championship and Mercedes winning their eighth consecutive constructor’s championship. However, there was a time when Hamilton was a candidate to partner Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull.
As per team principal Christian Horner, Hamilton was keen on joining Red Bull during their period of sustained dominance from 2010 to 2013. The Brit was considered an option to replace Mark Webber and partner Vettel. However, Horner decided against signing him at the time as he felt it would not be in the team’s best interests to employ two world championship potential drivers at the same time.
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“Lewis and I have had a couple of conversations over the years,” Horner said to the Daily Mail. “From 2010 to 2013, he was very keen to come and drive for Red Bull. We had Sebastian at that time and to have had two alpha drivers wouldn’t have made sense.”
At the time, Hamilton was at McLaren alongside Jenson Button, and the Woking-based constructor had led the constructor’s championship after the first three races in 2012. Horner said that he had encouraged F1 legend Niki Lauda to employ Hamilton’s services at Mercedes so that McLaren could be a little less of a threat.
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“Niki Lauda was at Mercedes and was very keen to take Lewis and I remember encouraging him to take him,” Horner said. “We were fighting McLaren and in 2012, they had the fastest car and we felt that Lewis in a McLaren would be more of a threat than in a Mercedes. I encouraged Niki to spend the money as Lewis was wavering a little bit. It would be fair to say that backfired on me.”
