Horner: Hamilton asked Red Bull about a move in 2012

Christian Horner says Lewis Hamilton asked what it would take to join Red Bull during a private meeting at Adrian Newey’s home in Ascot in 2012. In his book Drive, due later this month, Horner writes that Hamilton wanted to leave McLaren and saw Red Bull as his first choice.

Before the meeting, Horner says, Hamilton appeared to be losing faith in McLaren after a series of technical problems that year. Horner also writes that Hamilton’s relationship with Jenson Button seemed strained from the outside. When Hamilton’s father’s name appeared on Horner’s phone, Horner says he wondered whether Lewis had changed his mind about Red Bull.

Horner writes that Helmut Marko seemed unimpressed. He links Marko’s reaction to the possible consequences a Hamilton signing could have for Sebastian Vettel, then Marko’s protégé, and says he explored the possibility anyway.

The talks stalled over the opening offer from Hamilton’s then-manager, Simon Fuller, Horner says. He recalls Fuller pitching it as ‘the biggest sports deal since Muhammad Ali’. Horner says Fuller stood to earn heavily while Red Bull would have to pay a fortune. Despite the marketing upside, Horner writes that he did not go all-in. The deal was not made, and Hamilton moved to Mercedes.