Christian Horner has dropped a bombshell by claiming that Lewis Hamilton held talks with both Red Bull and Ferrari earlier this year.
The Red Bull team principal made the explosive claims in a new interview with the Daily Mail, suggesting that Hamilton's team reached out to the reigning constructors' champions in order to gauge their interest in potentially signing the seven-time world champion.
Horner claimed that Hamilton's team had reached out several times in the past for discussions about the Briton possibly coming on board.
He also said that Hamilton's team had met with Ferrari chairman John Elkann earlier in 2023 for "serious talks" about potentially joining the Scuderia.
"We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining," Horner told the Mail ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
"They have reached out a few times. Most recently, earlier in the year, there was an inquiry about whether there would be any interest.
"He met John Elkann, too. I think there were serious talks."
However, Horner also insisted that he could never envisage former heated title rivals Hamilton and Max Verstappen co-existing happily on the same team and said Red Bull were perfectly happy with their current lineup.
Reigning world champion Verstappen signed a lucrative £200million five-year contract extension in March 2022 that ties him to the team until 2028, though he has previously given cause to doubt whether he will remain in Formula One beyond the end of that deal.
Verstappen's current team-mate Sergio Perez, meanwhile, is under contract at Red Bull until the end of next season, having penned a two-year extension last May.
Horner added: "But I can't see Max and Lewis working out together. The dynamic wouldn't be right. We are 100 per cent happy with what we have."
Hamilton's future at Mercedes, the team where he has won six of his seven world titles after joining from McLaren in 2012, had been uncertain again until August, when he signed a new two-year deal of his own worth a reported £50m-a-season to keep him with the Silver Arrows through the 2025 campaign.
Hamilton admitted to Swiss outlet Blick last month that there may have previously been some "casual conversations" as Ferrari attempted to lure him across the grid, though he insisted that the team had never put a contract in front of him and that he never felt ready to make the move to Italy.
Hamilton had said in May that no talks with Ferrari had taken place at that stage, while team principal Frederic Vasseur - for whom Hamilton raced with ART Grand Prix in the GP2 Series almost 20 years ago - also insisted that no offer had been made.
Current Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc are both under contract as things stand through the 2024 season.
