Christian Horner reveals shock role in Lewis Hamilton F1 transfer

Former Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed that he played a surprise role in Lewis Hamilton's blockbuster F1 transfer to Mercedes in 2012.

Back then, Hamilton was in his sixth season at McLaren and finished the season sitting fourth in the drivers' championship, 91 points adrift of Horner's star man, Sebastian Vettel, at the top.

In his new book Drive, Horner revealed that he actually held talks about bringing Hamilton to Red Bull to drive alongside Vettel, although nothing came of it in the end.

Instead, the former Red Bull boss says that he suggested to former Mercedes Non-Executive Chairman and F1 legend Niki Lauda that the Silver Arrows should make a move for the then one-time world champion.

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Christian Horner suggested Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes

"Mercedes, who had only just bought the Brawn team, was struggling," Horner reflected to Sky Sports. "They had a few years with Nico [Rosberg] and Michael [Schumacher], and it wasn't really coming together there.

"When Niki 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 continued, recalling the exact moment he believes Hamilton's McLaren career came to an end and the Mercedes switch was sealed.

"I remember, I think the crux time was around the Singapore Grand Prix that year, where Lewis was in the lead, and he had a gearbox failure," he explained. "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 had sort of been happening over that weekend, and he knew that result was only going to help his cause."

Hamilton signed for Mercedes and the rest is history

Just five days after that Singapore Grand Prix, it was announced that Hamilton had signed a three-year contract with the Silver Arrows, and what a move it turned out to be.

Despite the move being heavily questioned at the time, the Brit went on to win six world championships and 84 grands prix before eventually exiting the team at the end of the 2024 campaign.

It is the most successful driver-team combination in F1 history.

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