Horner reveals Red Bull held Lewis Hamilton talks before tipping Lauda to sign British driver

Horner: Red Bull weighed Hamilton move before pushing him to Mercedes

Christian Horner has revealed that Red Bull held early discussions with Lewis Hamilton's management about a sensational switch to the Milton Keynes outfit, only to advise Mercedes to sign the British driver instead.

The former Red Bull team principal made the claims on the latest episode of Sky Sports' The F1 Show Podcast, promoting his new book, 'Drive', which goes on sale this Thursday. Hamilton left McLaren to join Mercedes at the start of the 2013 season.

A dominant car, but no appetite for the move

According to Horner, senior figures at Red Bull — including co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz — were not keen on a deal that would have seen Hamilton replace Mark Webber and become Sebastian Vettel's team-mate from 2013. Vettel had just won the last three drivers' titles at the time.

“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?”

‘Why don't you go for Lewis?’

Three-time world champion Niki Lauda, Mercedes' non-executive chairman during Hamilton's negotiations in the second half of 2012, is often credited with landing Hamilton for 2013. But Horner insists he pointed Lauda in Hamilton's direction after Red Bull opted to keep 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.”

Horner pinpointed the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix as the turning point, where Hamilton led before a gearbox failure handed victory to Vettel — and Lauda a prime negotiating opportunity.

“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.”