Lewis Hamilton has criticised Red Bull team principal Christian Horner for “stirring things” ahead of this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, after he made comments about the Mercedes driver holding talks with the Austrians.
On Wednesday evening, Horner told the Daily Mail that a representative of Hamilton’s had reached out earlier in the season, something the seven-time World Champion insisted wasn’t true.
Red Bull have since told the BBC that it was Hamilton’s father, Anthony, who spoke to Horner; however, he’s not been part of the 103-time race winner’s team since 2010.
Horner’s revelation ended up being the biggest talking point during the pre-weekend drivers’ press conference, with Hamilton and Max Verstappen having been asked several questions regarding the matter.
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Hamilton was clearly left unimpressed by Horner’s comments ahead of the season finale and questioned if he’s feeling a “little but lonely”and whether he isn’t “getting much attention”.
The 38-year-old went onto state that his name tends to get brought up simply to “make waves”, with Horner just “stirring things” unnecessarily.
Hamilton even revealed that he spoke to “everyone on my team” to see if anyone had approached Red Bull, only to discover that the Milton Keynes-based squad had tried to contact the veteran driver.
“There are a lot of people here that like to drop my name in conversations because they know it will make waves,” Hamilton said, as reported by the Evening Standard.
“If you are a little bit lonely and are not getting much attention, that is the perfect thing to do, just to mention my name. He is stirring things. I have checked with everyone on my team, and no one has spoken to [Red Bull], but they have tried to reach out to us.”
Hamilton went onto explain that he’s not spoken to Horner personally in a very long time, with his most recent conversation with the Red Bull boss having been over text message.
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The Mercedes star explained how he discovered he had a message from Horner when turned on an old phone, and simply sent a message back congratulating Red Bull.
“I picked up my old phone I had just found at home that had my old number on it. I switched it on and hundreds of messages came through. And I realised there was one from Christian to get together and have a chat at the end of the season,” Hamilton revealed.
“I replied on my new phone and just said, ‘Congratulations on the amazing season and I hope we are able to compete with you soon’. He replied, repeating the same thing.”