Missed Opportunity! Red Bull Rejected the Chance to Sign Lewis Hamilton
Back when Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull once had a golden opportunity to sign Formula 1 champion, Lewis Hamilton back when the team were at the very top of Formula 1 but they turned it down not knowing how huge an opportunity it was.
The English driver would go on to move from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013 and dominate the sport himself, often frustrating Red Bull.
However, the story might have been very different as revealed by Christian Horner in an old interview with the Daily Mail, which has been recirculated by Motorsport-total.
The Reason Red Bull Didn’t Sign Lewis Hamilton
“Lewis and I have had a couple of conversations over the years,” Horner said of the driver who Max Verstappen fought for the title last season.
“From 2010 to 2013, he was very keen to come and drive for Red Bull.
“But, we had Sebastian at that time and to have had two alpha drivers wouldn’t have made sense.
“Niki Lauda was at Mercedes and was very keen to take Lewis and I remember encouraging him to take him.
“We were fighting McLaren in 2012. They had the fastest car and we felt that Lewis in a McLaren would be more of a threat than in a Mercedes.
“I encouraged Niki to spend the money as Lewis was wavering a little bit. It would be fair to say that backfired on me.”
Since then, McLaren fell away, whereas Hamilton went on to win six more drivers’ championships.
