In a chapter of his upcoming book, Drive, Christian Horner has claimed that Lewis Hamilton wanted to move to Red Bull before he moved to the Mercedes team. According to the former team chief, a "secret meeting" with the driver took place at the home of Adrian Newey.
In 2012, Hamilton "seemed to be losing heart at McLaren", Horner wrote. His relationship with team-mate Jenson Button was taking a beating, and a number of mechanical issues were adding more and more tension to an already difficult season. On checking his phone one day, Horner realised he had missed a call from Hamilton's father, Anthony. This led to the aforementioned meeting.
“When a secret meeting was then called, with Lewis, at Adrian’s house near Ascot, my gut instinct was confirmed,” Horner continued in his memoir. “He was looking to leave McLaren, and we were his preferred destination.
“‘What will it take to join you guys?’ he said, as we sat down. Adrian, who is not known for his poker face, looked ecstatic.”
Placing Hamilton beside the then-reigning Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel was “a tantalising prospect”, but Helmut Marko pushed back on the idea.
“Certainly, Helmut looked unimpressed when he heard the news,” Horner wrote. “Lewis’s arrival would likely impact Sebastian, his protege, and he was clearly feeling apprehensive.”
He added that money quickly became a point of contention. Any deal “would require staggering sums”, and because of that, Horner “didn’t pursue the idea with any real forcefulness”.
He added: “But the Lewis deal was going to appeal to someone. And I had a good idea of who that someone might be.”
That someone was Mercedes, where he joined Ross Brawn and Niki Lauda. Hamilton left McLaren at the end of 2012 and won six of his seven world titles with the Brackley team, before moving to Ferrari in 2025.