Lewis Hamilton makes “lonely” jibe at Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner, doubts Max 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 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:sensational revelation that Hamilton had sounded out Red Bull earlier this year befor🌳e 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 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:denied Hor🌄ner’s claim when speaking to Sky, in turn revealing that Horner had in fact contacted ꦗhim first.
According to Hamilton’s version of events, Hꦉorner 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 lꦺater 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 n🃏o one has spoken toﷺ 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 m🃏y old number on it.
"I switched it on and obviously hundre🎐ds of messages ca𒀰me 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.𓆉 It was quite late on that I found the meꦆssage. 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 becauseꦬ they know i💛t's going to make waves.
"If you're a little bit lonely and aren't getti🧸ng much attention, it's a perfe🐎ct thing to do. Just mention my name.”
Hamilton stressed he had𝕴 kept Mercedes boss Toto Wolff in the loop about his contact with Horner.&💛nbsp;
"I did tell Toto [about replying to Horner], especially w🌄hen the story broke,” he sꦍaid.
"Also, I wanted my team to know because people think those 𒅌things and it's never a positive.”
And Hamilton believes 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen would be less keen on the pair ꦰever becoming teammates.
"I'd be more than happy to race against Max in the same car,” h♑e said. “That would be wo♚nderful. I don't think he wants me to be his teammate.”
Verstappen was pressed on whether he would be open to goin♍g 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 drive🍬rs as well. Sometimes it doesn't work ou🧜t like that."
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for mahbx.com around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people whoღ matter in the sport.
