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It's safe to say that Christian Horner broke the F1 internet when he claimed that Lewis Hamilton approached Red Bull to partner Max Verstappen on multiple publications. In case anyone missed it, the boss of the Austrian team had commented in a recent interview with the Daily Mail that there had been conversations with the Mercedes driver.
In the interview, Horner talked about how, over the years, there had been a few conversations with Hamilton, with the most recent one being this season. The Mercedes driver is in limbo for a while as his previous contract, which expires at the end of this season, was not yet extended because of one thing or the other.
There had been rumors of Hamilton even having a conversation with Ferrari chairman John Elkann. For more details on what Christian Horner said, click here.
Now, the reason why Horner ended up breaking the internet with this revelation is precisely because there are far too many questions his comments raised. There are far too many talking points that need to be addressed.
The first of them is whether the Red Bull boss was just playing the game and the conversation in passing has been turned into something this big. There are possible fallouts if that is the case and we try to address them here.
On the other hand, if he is right, and Lewis Hamilton (or his management team) did approach him, in that scenario as well there are a few possible fallouts. Let's go through both of these scenarios and try to address what either of them would mean.
Lewis Hamilton approaching Red Bull to partner Max Verstappen
Christian Horner is lying?
Now, before we try and break down the possible implications of this, let's get one thing straight, there is a very high likelihood that Horner was not lying. The reason behind that is the kind of backlash he would face from both Hamilton and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff for voluntarily peddling fake news to the media.
Having said that, in the first scenario, let's assume Horner is lying and there wasn't anything more than a casual conversation that took place between the two. Let's take a look at the possible reasons why he did that.
Adds to the ongoing back-and-forth between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen
There have been barbs traded between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen over the last week in Las Vegas. It all started with Verstappen claiming in the media that some drivers tend to take a contrarian stand to what he says only for the sake of it. The comment was aimed at Hamilton after he had spoken quite positively about the Las Vegas GP and dismissed suggestions criticizing the event.
In what seemed like a retaliation to what Verstappen had said, Hamilton took a dig at the critics of the Las Vegas GP after the race proved to be a success on Sunday.
As is often the case, there is tension between the two drivers and the Red Bull boss might just have commented to stir the pot even more.
Takes focus away from the expected reference to 'AD 2021' this season
The second reason and maybe the more probable one (if Horner is lying) has to be the looming cloud of 'AD2021'. Lewis Hamilton's fans on social media have continued to be enraged over the notorious chain of events that day and the controversy tends to get brought up in the build-up to the event. This happened last season as well and even this season 'AD2021' has started to trend.
The course of events should not ideally diminish Max Verstappen and Red Bull's achievement in 2021. The team driver and the team fought valiantly and the chips fell in place accordingly. However, unfortunately, every time the event ends up discrediting the achievement. Pre-empting that and feeding the news cycle an arguably bigger story might be just one of the things that Horner might have ended up doing.
Christian Horner is telling the truth
We've gone through the possible fallouts for the scenario where Horner's comments were maybe not genuine. Now, let's go through a rather more realistic scenario where conversations were held between Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull. Let's take a look at some of the fallouts if this is true.
Should it surprise anyone?
Should Lewis Hamilton approach Red Bull to partner Max Verstappen surprise anyone? Well, the answer to this can be both yes and no.
Yes, because one of Hamilton's title defeats came against Nico Rosberg. A teammate who was possibly a peg below him in terms of talent but did everything possible including a few mind games to get the better of the Mercedes driver. Max Verstappen is a once-in-a-generation driver, with Red Bull almost modeled around him. Going into that team to try and beat the Dutchman is arguably not the best tactic.
Having said that, no one should be surprised by this because we should not forget the driver that we are talking about. Lewis Hamilton is arguably one of the greatest talents to ever drive in F1. He beat a two-time reigning F1 champion Fernando Alonso in his rookie season at McLaren.
In terms of accolades achieved, no one comes close to him. When you take that into consideration, should one even doubt Hamilton having the self-belief to jump into the lion's den and slay the beast? No, one shouldn't.
Was it a negotiation tactic?
There are a few who have suggested that a conversation with the Red Bull boss was merely a negotiation tactic against Mercedes. In all fairness, it's hard to understand why Lewis would need negotiation tactics against Toto Wolff.
In terms of financial benefits, he is arguably maxed out by now in the last few years. On the other hand, Wolff has been quite explicit in maintaining that Mercedes was not talking to anybody else. At that time, going to Red Bull with a proposal to partner Max Verstappen and using that as some negotiation tactic seemed off, to say the least.
Was it a sign of a lack of trust in Mercedes?
The answer to that is yes because we have to take into consideration a couple of things. The first is that in the month of May (when Horner claims the team was reached out), Red Bull was romping to wins to no teams having a hope of competing.
Mercedes itself was in a transition period at the time as the car was in between concepts. Lewis with not many years left in F1 could have easily looked at Red Bull as a ticket to fighting at the front of the grid even though it meant having Max Verstappen as a teammate.
In 2024, Mercedes could or could not be a contender against Red Bull for the title. There's no guarantee of it and maybe that's what drove Hamilton towards Horner and see what he thought of a possible partnership with Verstappen.
Conclusion
In the end, when we look at the fallout from this story, Red Bull and Max Verstappen continue to be disaffected. Arguably, Lewis Hamilton too more or less remains Teflon from all of this as he was going to be a free agent after 2023. He had every right to go and look around for options.
The one man who does get affected if this turns out to be true is Toto Wolff. Wolff, 'the businessman', would understand in a heartbeat if Hamilton goes to the team with the fastest car on the grid even if it is Red Bull. Will Wolff 'the friend' understand?
If it was Ferrari that Hamilton approached, he would have, but Red Bull? A team he and Hamilton fought against in 2021? A team against whom they went through so much? If there is one man that comes off worse in all of this then it's got to be the Mercedes boss.
