Lewis Hamilton has admitted to underestimating Red Bull’s capabilities in Formula 1 as he hailed the team’s impressive gains during the 2026 season.
After enduring a difficult start to F1’s new era of regulations having built its first-ever in-house engine, Red Bull has enjoyed an impressive resurgence with Max Verstappen taking back-to-back dominant victories in Malaysia and Singapore.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton famously dismissed Red Bull as just a “drinks company” back in 2011 but acknowledged last year that he has “always regretted” his comments about the Milton Keynes team.
Hamilton confessed that Red Bull has “proved everybody wrong” after being judged to have a better power unit than Mercedes or Ferrari during the first year of its partnership with Ford.
Hamilton leads Verstappen on track at COTA
The 41-year-old Briton made the admission when responding to Isack Hadjar’s claim that Ferrari, not Red Bull, had the fastest car last time out in Singapore.
“Well, firstly, I think Isack is an amazing driver. We’re going to have different opinions there,” Hamilton said ahead of the United States Grand Prix.
“Ultimately, they’ve done an amazing job. Red Bull have done an amazing job for many, many years. They continuously surprise me, and I put my hand up many, many years ago when I was younger.
"I was like, there’s no way they’re going to be able to do what these other teams like McLaren with all that heritage, Ferrari with all that heritage, but they have, and they proved me wrong, and they’ve continued to have amazing success over the years.
"But this one is where the engine, I was like, there’s no way that anyone’s going to be able to build a better engine than what Mercedes, for example, or Ferrari are capable of doing with the resources they have and the experience they have and the IP.
Ferrari has brought a new upgrade to the US
"And yet again, they proved us wrong, everybody wrong again, and they built the best engine.”
Christian Horner has revealed Red Bull held secret talks with Hamilton before he ultimately signed for Mercedes in 2013 after deciding to leave McLaren.
In Horner’s new book, Drive, he claims Hamilton showed interest in joining Red Bull and becoming Sebastian Vettel’s team-mate.
The former Red Bull team principal even claimed he helped Mercedes sign Hamilton.
"When Niki [Lauda] turned up at Mercedes, it felt like, do you know what, why don't you go for Lewis, who was inevitably becoming frustrated at McLaren? And Niki persuaded him to go there,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
"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 Niki 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."
Hamilton has not yet been asked about Horner’s revelation.
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