Christian Horner says Lauda tried to lure him to Mercedes
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 22, 2026
Hamilton Red Bull talks
Christian Horner said Lewis Hamilton‘s father, Anthony Hamilton, first contacted him in 2012 about a possible move from McLaren to Red Bull. That led to a secret meeting at Adrian Newey’s house near Ascot, where Lewis Hamilton asked what it would take to join Red Bull. Horner said the team explored the idea of pairing Hamilton with Sebastian Vettel, but the move never advanced because of the cost. He said Helmut Marko was unimpressed by the plan and senior Red Bull figures, including Dietrich Mateschitz, were not keen on replacing Mark Webber with Hamilton alongside Vettel. Horner said Hamilton had grown frustrated at McLaren before his eventual move to Mercedes, and he pointed to a gearbox failure in Singapore in September 2012 as one factor that pushed Hamilton toward leaving. He also said Mercedes’ poor form at the time made that switch look more attractive. The account places Red Bull right in the middle of the biggest driver market question of the period, with Hamilton weighing one route to a dominant team before taking another.
Lauda’s Mercedes offer
Horner also said he later told Mercedes adviser Niki Lauda to sign Hamilton, and he said Lauda went on to persuade Hamilton to join Mercedes for 2013. In the same account, Horner wrote that Lauda approached him in 2012 about leaving Red Bull to become Mercedes team principal before Toto Wolff joined the team. Horner said he came close to accepting the offer, but loyalty to Red Bull and Mateschitz kept him from making the switch. Mercedes brought in Wolff in January 2013 as an executive director and managing partner, and Horner later described the clashes that followed as “a sport within a sport.” That line captured how sharply the relationship between Red Bull and Mercedes hardened as both teams fought for control of Formula One’s top talent and the sport’s biggest prizes. The Lauda approach and Horner’s rejection add another layer to the same period, showing how close both teams came to reshaping their leadership before the Mercedes rise fully took hold.
Verstappen Antonelli future
Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013 and went on to win six world titles and 84 races with the team, a run that turned the move from a possibility into one of the defining decisions of the modern era. Horner’s comments also reached beyond that chapter and into the present and future of the grid. He said Max Verstappen is the greatest talent he has seen, a judgment that matches the way Red Bull has built its own recent success around the Dutch driver. He also said it would be fascinating if Kimi Antonelli one day went head to head with Verstappen. The remarks link Horner’s memories of Hamilton’s early career choices with his view of the next generation, from the drivers who shaped the last decade to the ones who could define the next one. In that sense, the story moves from a missed Red Bull-Hamilton pairing and Lauda’s push at Mercedes to Horner’s broader view of the sport’s elite talent, its rivalries and the matchups that still attract his attention.
