“He was very keen to come and drive for Red Bull” Christian Horner on Lewis Hamilton’s conversation with him back in the day

Christian Horner the Red Bull Team Principal has recently revealed that Lewis Hamilton was back in the day very keen to come and join the Red Bull F1 team and has also said that talks were also held to discuss the matter.

It has been stated in Planetf1 that Lewis Hamilton arrived in F1 in 2007 and spent his first six years with the McLaren F1 team, winning his first championship in 2008.

However, in the next few years, things didn’t go according to plan for the brit as he was not able to retain the championship in 2009 and after that finished P4, P5, and P4 in the standings in the next three years.

After his last season with Mclaren, Hamilton joined the Mercedes F1 team and at that time it was seen as a big gamble taken by Hamilton ahead of the 2014 season, but after Horner’s reveal, it has come to everyone’s notice that Hamilton could have been a Red Bull driver.

New car, new teammate, new year, new drive. @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/A72n5VhcgO

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) February 19, 2022

Christian Horner on the whole Lewis Hamilton saga of 2014

Christian Horner while talking about Lewis Hamilton’s situation in 2014 has said, “Lewis and I have had a couple of conversations over the years.“

“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.”

Horner has also admitted that he tried to influence Mercedes in 2014 by asking them to take Hamilton as he wanted to weaken the McLaren’s driver line up ahead of the 2014 F1 season.

“Niki Lauda was at Mercedes and was very keen to take Lewis and I remember encouraging him to take him.”

“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.”

While talking about Lewis Hamilton the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has also talked about the mega salary that Max Verstappen is going to earn after his new deal with Red Bull. It is estimated that the dutchman is going to earn around 40 million euros a year as per his new deal and it has put him on equal terms with what Hamilton earns at Mercedes.

Christian Horner on Max Verstappen’s mega deal with Red Bull

“We have huge confidence in Max,” Horner stated.

“Otherwise, we would never have committed to that time scale.”

“To go to 2028 is almost unheard of in this sport, to commit to a driver for that period of time. He is a massive asset to us.”

“He strongly believes in the team and it is down to us to provide him with the tools to get the job done.”

“At some point, Lewis will slow down or he’ll stop and, of course, he is going to have a massive challenge with a very competitive young team-mate and hungry team-mate this year who is going to be one of the best drivers on the grid. George Russell is a phenomenal talent.”

‘In Max, at 24, we have looked to lock down what we believe will be the purple patch of his career.”

‘Having won this first world championship, it relieves an awful lot of pressure. That is in the bank now.”

“It is on his CV. He will continue to grow now he has got that first one out of the way. We saw that with Sebastian Vettel.”

If we go by what Christian Horner has said about Max Verstappen, it seems the hierarchy at RedBull has got the utmost faith in Verstappen’s ability, and now it is all going to be up to the young dutchman to show everyone that by putting their faith in him, Red Bull has made the right decision.

With a huge contract till 2028, there are going to be a lot of eyes on Max Verstappen’s performances in the coming years of F1 and it is going to be fascinating to see whether Max is going to thrive under the pressure or is going to succumb to it, considering he is still a young lad.

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