Horner reveals Red Bull decision that helped Mercedes sign Hamilton

Christian Horner has revealed he helped Mercedes sign Lewis Hamilton after holding early discussions with the British driver’s management to join Red Bull.

Hamilton left McLaren to join Mercedes at the start of 2013 but in Horner’s new book, ‘Drive ‘, which will be on sale from this Thursday, he says Hamilton showed interest to join Red Bull.

Senior figures at Red Bull, including co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz, were not keen on the move that would have seen Hamilton replace Mark Webber and become Sebastian Vettel’s team-mate from 2013.

Vettel had won the last three drivers’ titles at the time and Horner explained the situation 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,” said Horner.

“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?”

Three-time F1 world champion Niki Lauda, who was Mercedes’ non-executive chairman at the time of Hamilton’s negotiations with other teams in the second half of 2012, is often credited for signing Hamilton to Mercedes for 2013.

But, Horner says he told Lauda to sign Hamilton after Red Bull decided to retain their driver line-up 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,” he said.

“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.

“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: Fascinating if ‘special talent’ Antonelli goes head to head with Verstappen

Horner was sacked by Red Bull in July 2025 but has continued to watch Formula 1 from home and recently saw Max Verstappen win in Malaysia and Singapore.

Verstappen joined Red Bull from the fifth round of 2016, after just over a year in F1, and won his first race with the Milton Keynes-based outfit as an 18-year-old – and remains the youngest winner of a Grand Prix.

Horner says the victory was “fairy-tale stuff” and that Verstappen is the greatest talent he’s seen.

“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 said.

“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 set to break Vettel’s record as F1’s youngest world champion at 20 years old, with his first opportunity to wrap up the title coming this weekend at the United States Grand Prix in Austin.

This year is first time Verstappen has not been in a title fight since 2020 and Horner is looking forward to seeing Antonelli take on Verstappen in future seasons.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

Sky Sports F1’s live United States GP schedule

Thursday October 22
6.25pm: F1 Academy Practice
8pm: Drivers’ Press Conference
10.30pm: F1 Academy Qualifying
11.10pm: Paddock Uncut

Friday October 23
6pm: United States Grand Prix Practice One (session starts at 6.30pm)*
8pm: The F1 Show
9.45pm: United States Grand Prix Practice Two (session starts at 10pm)*
11.50pm: F1 Academy Race 1*

Saturday October 24
6.15pm: United States Grand Prix Practice Three (session starts at 6.30pm)
8.30pm: United States Grand Prix Qualifying build-up*
10pm: UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING*
12am: F1 Academy Race 2*
12.45am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*

Sunday October 25
5pm: F1 Academy Race 3
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: United States GP build-up*
8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: United States GP reaction
11pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 heads to The Americas for another triple-header with the United States Grand Prix in Austin up first this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime

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