Hamilton's Father One Who Was In Talks With Red Bull Clarifies Team Principal
F1
There was a lot to debunk and clarify ahead of the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after comments made by Red Bull Racing's team principal, Christian Horner.
Ahead of the last race of the 2023 F1 season, Horner made an interesting claim that he talked to the team of Mercedes' driver Lewis Hamilton ahead of the 2023 season, talking about the possibility of the British driver joining his team.
Soon after the drivers arrived in Abu Dhabi, and ahead of the race at the Yas Marina Circuit, Hamilton denied that he was in talks with Red Bull, saying he hadn't spoken to Horner in years.
Since then, multiple people talked about the comments, including Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, and during the Thursday's team principal press conference, Horner clarified his previous statements.
"It’s remarkable how much traction this has got. It’s a question of he said, she said, who said, what said. It’s entirely normal for drivers, drivers’ representatives, drivers’ parents to have different conversations during the course of a year."
This time around, Horner's statements were much closer to what Hamilton said, as the British team principal clarified that he was not in contact with the seven-time World Champion, but rather his father, Anthony Hamilton.
"We haven’t had any serious discussion with Lewis, there was never a seat available. I’ve known Anthony Hamilton for many years, he’s a good guy, a proud racing father."
According to Horner, it's quite normal that since Hamilton hasn't won a race in over two years, the talks will start, and questions will be asked, something that happened in his conversation with Anthony Hamilton, but as Horner says without "engagement."
"Inevitably, when drivers go through tough spots – let’s face it, Lewis hasn’t won a Grand Prix two years – questions will be asked up and down the paddock. There was never any engagement."
Red Bull team principal also responded to Hamilton's claims that he "checked with everyone" that no one reached out to Horner, but the 50-year-old says that the same surname, and the fact that Anthony Hamilton is Lewis' father was enough for him to consider it a relevant conversation.
"I don’t know who represents who or what, but with the same surname you would think they were reasonably close. It’s difficult to say, but other than pleasantries, there was no specific, ‘Can I drive for Red Bull next year?’, unless Anthony wanted to drive."
Horner made sure to once again reiterate that these talks are normal, and were nothing more than conversations about possible futures, rather than some negotiations.
"As I say, that’s not unusual, there’s many drivers, as you can imagine, that we hear from during the course of a year."
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