Hamilton: Horner reached out to me earlier on in the year

As the Toto Wolff-led Mercedes team falters, Horner's Red Bull, spearheaded by Max Verstappen have done the bulk of the winning over the past two seasons while their rivals are in a last-race, title battle versus Ferrari this weekend at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, for P2 in the 2023 F1 Constructors' standings.

Hamilton has not won a Grand Prix race since he triumphed in Saudi in 2021. The 38-year-old, now amid the worst spell in his career, has inked a $50-million per year deal to remain with Mercedes for at least two more years even though the team seem way behind Red Bull and even Ferrari at this stage of the game.

Speaking to Sportsmail, Horner claimed that when times got tough at Mercedes, Hamilton (or his people) were shopping around: “We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining. They have reached out a few times. Most recently, earlier in the year, there was an inquiry about whether there would be any interest."

On a roll, Horner added credence to reports that Hamilton had indeed been courting a move to Maranello which we reported at the time: “He met John Elkann [Ferrari chairman], too. I think there were serious talks. But I can’t see Max and Lewis working out together. The dynamic wouldn’t be right. We are 100 per cent happy with what we have," insisted Horner, meaning Verstappen as their number one and Sergio Perez the number two.

But Hamilton, who will finish P3 in this year's F1 WDC, refuted Horner's remarks on Sky F1: "I don't really know where that story came from. I mean I know it's come from Christian. I don't really understand what he's been talking about because no one as far as I'm aware, from my team has spoken to him. I haven't spoken to Christian really in years."

"However, he did reach out to me earlier on in the year about meeting up, but that's it. I just congratulated them on an amazing year and said, 'hopefully soon, I'll be able to fight against you guys in the near future.' That was it.

"So I'm not really sure, I think he's just stirring things," suggested Hamilton who, in Abu Dhabi this Sunday, will make his 332nd Grand Prix start, and only raced Mercedes-powered cars in his illustrious F1 career that began in 2007 with McLaren.