Christian Horner has disclosed that his decision to turn down Lewis Hamilton's interest in joining Red Bull ultimately benefited Mercedes, after the team held preliminary talks with the British driver's representatives about a potential switch.
According to Sky Sports, Horner's forthcoming memoir reveals that Hamilton expressed enthusiasm about driving for the Milton Keynes-based team before ultimately departing McLaren to join Mercedes at the beginning of 2013. The Red Bull principal explained that senior figures within the organisation, including co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz, harboured reservations about bringing in Hamilton to partner Sebastian Vettel and replace Mark Webber.
At that juncture, Vettel had secured three consecutive drivers' championships, and Horner outlined his reasoning during an appearance on Sky Sports' The F1 Show Podcast.
"As a team principal, it's your job to understand what is the driver market. Naturally, when you've got the fastest car, the best drivers want to drive in the best cars,"Horner stated.
"It's only natural that Lewis was interested in that stage. We had a totally dominant car and he was managed at the time by Simon Fuller, who managed the Spice Girls. I remember Simon telling me that he and I could do the biggest sport deal that sport had ever seen, which would inevitably mean Red Bull paying a lot of money. There wasn't an enthusiasm to do that within the team. We had a winning driver in Seb, did we really need to upset the apple cart?"
According to the Express, Horner's book describes a confidential meeting at Adrian Newey's residence near Ascot, where Hamilton posed the question:
"What will it take to join you guys?"The same source reveals that Hamilton had previously considered joining Horner's Arden team back in 2004, when he was a McLaren development driver, though Horner advised him to remain with McLaren's support at that time.
Three-time Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda, who served as Mercedes' non-executive chairman during Hamilton's discussions with rival teams in the latter half of 2012, is widely recognised as the architect of Hamilton's move to the Silver Arrows for 2013. However, Horner contends that he actively encouraged Lauda to pursue the British driver after Red Bull opted to maintain its existing driver pairing of Vettel and Webber.
"Mercedes, who had only just bought the Brawn team, was struggling. They had a few years with Nico [Rosberg] and Michael [Schumacher], and it wasn't really coming together there,"Horner explained.
"When Nikki turned up at Mercedes, it felt like, do you know what, why don't you go for Lews, who was inevitably becoming frustrated at McLaren? And Nikki persuaded him to go there."
Horner pointed to a pivotal moment during the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2012 as the turning point in Hamilton's future.
"I remember, I think the crux time was around the Singapore Grand Prix [in September of] that year, where Lewis was in the lead, and he had a gearbox failure. That was sort of the nail in the coffin, I think, for McLaren."
"We won the race with Seb and I remember being on the podium and looking down, and Nikki was there. He took his hat off, which he rarely did, but then gave me the biggest thumbs up. I think things [negotiations] had sort of been happening over that weekend and he knew that result was only going to help his cause."
Horner on Verstappen's exceptional talent and Antonelli's future
Horner was dismissed from his position at Red Bull in July 2025 but has maintained his interest in Formula 1 from home, recently observing Max Verstappen secure victories in Malaysia and Singapore. The former team principal joined Red Bull from the fifth round of 2016, following just over a year competing in the sport, and claimed his maiden Grand Prix victory with the team as an 18-year-old—a record he still holds as the youngest Grand Prix winner.
Horner characterised Verstappen's breakthrough success as
"fairy-tale stuff"and identified him as the most gifted driver he has encountered throughout his career.
"I think it was clear from very early on in his career and certainly Formula 1 career that this was somebody with an abnormal talent - so young, but driving like a veteran with such conviction, such authority and aggression,"he remarked.
"His ability to get to the limit of what the car was capable of, his ability to have so much spare capacity, whilst doing that and understanding everything that was going on around him in the race with the car, tyres, you hardly had to tell him which control switches to make change to because he was already ahead of it himself. When he arrived with us, he was still quite inexperienced relative to others because he's only done one year in the lower formula. Some of his learning was done very publicly. His mental strength and aptitude and ability to deliver really high-pressure moments was something I certainly hadn't witnessed before."
Kimi Antonelli is positioned to surpass Sebastian Vettel's record as Formula 1's youngest world champion at the age of 20, with the opportunity to clinch the title this weekend at the United States Grand Prix in Austin. This marks the first season since 2020 in which Verstappen has not been engaged in a title battle, and Horner is eager to witness how Antonelli will fare against Verstappen in forthcoming campaigns.
"It's still early days for Kimi. I think Kimi has done a phenomenal job this year. You can see the lessons he's learned from his rookie season applied this year. He's made a massive step and George Russell's no idiot, so to be getting on top of him is truly impressive,"Horner observed.
"What will be interesting is, he's going to win this championship at a canter, it'll be fascinating in future years if he does get the opportunity to go head to head with Max. I think that will be fascinating. But he is undoubtedly, again, another very special talent."
Horner's memoir and upcoming publication
Horner's new book, titled Drive, is described by its publisher as a 320-page account of his career and Red Bull's history, with the publisher noting that Red Bull secured 14 world championship titles during his tenure as team principal. The memoir is scheduled for release on October 22, 2026, and will provide further insights into pivotal moments throughout Horner's involvement with the sport.
United States Grand Prix schedule on Sky Sports F1
Formula 1 returns to The Americas for another triple-header, with the United States Grand Prix in Austin taking centre stage this weekend, broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. The schedule runs as follows:
Thursday, October 22: F1 Academy Practice (6.25pm), Drivers' Press Conference (8pm), F1 Academy Qualifying (10.30pm), Paddock Uncut (11.10pm)
Friday, October 23: United States Grand Prix Practice One (6pm, session starts 6.30pm), The F1 Show (8pm), United States Grand Prix Practice Two (9.45pm, session starts 10pm), F1 Academy Race 1 (11.50pm)
Saturday, October 24: United States Grand Prix Practice Three (6.15pm, session starts 6.30pm), United States Grand Prix Qualifying build-up (8.30pm), United States Grand Prix Qualifying (10pm), F1 Academy Race 2 (12am), Ted's Qualifying Notebook (12.45am)
Sunday, October 25: F1 Academy Race 3 (5pm), Grand Prix Sunday: United States GP build-up (6.30pm), The United States Grand Prix (8pm), Chequered Flag: United States GP reaction (10pm), Ted's Notebook (11pm)
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