Lewis vs Christian (he said, she said)

[bathurst77]

I thought not to put this in the rumours thread because this is both of them speaking publicly and having a hiss fight.

Lewis asked to go to RBR- or RBR tried to steal Lewis

"Horner dropped a sensational claim Lewis Hamilton earlier this year approached him about moving to the Red Bull team. Red Bull boss Christian Horner was quoted in the British media this week claiming that Hamilton’s management team has “reached out” several times, adding that “earlier this year there was an inquiry about whether there would be any interest”.

Hamilton responded on Thursday by turning the table on the Red Bull principal, suggesting Horner has approached him about the potential move.
“I don’t really know where that story has come from,” said the seven-time champion. "I know it’s come from Christian but I don’t really understand what he’s been talking about. No one, as far as I’m aware, from my team has spoken to him. I haven’t spoken to Christian in years.”

Max Verstappen has now rejected the notion his team were considering approaching Lewis Hamilton to partner him in a dream line-up.
It’s not happening,” said Verstappen at Yas Marin a yesterday “There’s no point to make up stories if it’s not happening. I wouldn’t mind, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to put it particularly on Lewis. There’s so many great drivers and sometimes it just doesn’t work out like that.”

---------------------------------------------------------

So Christian says Lewis wanted in, Lewis said no I didnt and Max said I wasnt going to happen. Who do you believe?

B77s thoughts.

Beginning of the year Checo was doing OK so why replace him. Max would not want Lewis in HIS team. Lewis would want equal 1 as 7 times champ. and would not work with max to be his backup man. Max and Lewis dont particularly, like each other so it would make for a very unhappy workplace and nasty office politics with the whole team dividing into team Lewis vs team max with potential bad blood.
The first time Lewis refuses to stay behind max and they touch sending both off the red bull pit and factory would explode.

Conversely the Merc was a truck last year and a mess early this year and the team admitted at the time "We dont know why". So that doesnt give you confidence that it will be fixed for 24. Lewis was still raw about 21, and wants to win again and to rub Maxs nose in it. But the best his team could promise him was "hopefully podiums". If he got a foot in the door at RBR he could steal it from Max eventually.

Max didnt say it did or didnt happen and who started it. He just said that he wouldnt allow it if anyone ever suggested it. And right now RBR wouldnt do anything to upset max and have him leave.

So why would RBR break a winning formula if it would make Max unhappy and risk breaking the organisation. But I can see Lewis making "just see if he might be chance. Nothing too serious just casual sound out" and Christian seeing a chance to further make life hard for Toto and throw a bomb into team merc over xmas and 2024 prep time, has made it sound like "Lewis really wants to come to us. Toto your teams a mess, happy xmas"

This is the stuff I love about F1,.... hehehe

[Greem]

Much ado about nothing IMO

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by Greem

Much ado about nothing IMO

F1.com thought there is enough ado, to run it. As did skyportf1

And it is interesting not regarding the drivers, but the ongoing toto vs christian skirmishes.

Toto will have a busy off season with a totally different car and likely demoralised team members. So what does christian do?
Casually lobs a grenade into Mercedes factory, to upset the team more and put more work and distract Toto from the task at hand. Classic tactics. The essence of F1.

What was it one politician said about his opponent in an interview?
"And I want to say right now that I refuse to believe the rumours he had sex with a goat!" No rumour existed but the challenger spent the campaign denying it instead of attacking. Job done

[Richard C]

My main takeaway from this, is that if we assume everyone involved are relatively smart and media savvy people, then Horner saying this was purposeful. I think he would only say this if... (a) He thinks Hamilton will never drive for RBR or (b) RBR thinks it will never want Hamilton to drive for them. The initial claim effectively says...

* RBR is where you want to be.
* Hamilton has lost hope with Mercedes.
* RBR doesn't want Hamilton.

All positive for RBR and all negative for Mercedes and Hamilton. And probably burnt any bridges (if they even existed) between RBR and Hamilton.

We will probably never know what is actually true. This is the start of drama between seasons. It's going to be a long winter.

Richard

[Aysedasi]

Sorry but.....

[S griffin]

Not more of this again? Frankly I would always take what Christian says with a pinch of salt to put it politely. He likes to stir the pot a lot. Quite frankly there is no chance of Hamilton going to RBR for 2024, so that's all there is to say

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Not more of this again? Frankly I would always take what Christian says with a pinch of salt to put it politely. He likes to stir the pot a lot. Quite frankly there is no chance of Hamilton going to RBR for 2024, so that's all there is to say

It's all a game. How many times do you think the other Christian contacts Max LOL?!

[chillibowl]

an odd game tho and one that points even more attention and speculation about that clearly coveted 2nd RB seat imo.

Horner is a smart guy so one would have to think he knew exactly the endless questioning from every wanna be journo they would all have to answer about it between Abu Dhabi straight through to next season...and twice as much whenever whomever is sitting in the 2nd RB seat next doesn't live up to expectations.

RB and Max should be enjoying the accolades of a brilliantly completed season but instead by going public with this, they turned it into something else that, again just imo, kinda makes it look like Hamilton's been living in their heads' rent free for quite some time now?

[Tourer]

Toto joins in - handbags at 10 paces. It does appear that if Horner was going for the wind-up then he may have been successful.

Interestingly, on the Sky event intro, Martin Brundle and Damon Hill were asked about the whole "who approached whom" question and they both said that it was normal for any driver in contract negotiations to contact other teams to strengthen their negotiating position and that's what they expect happened here.

All a non-story really but the media has bit and so have Lewis & Toto.

[peebee2]

There's really nothing to see. All teams/drivers/managers/Dads play the games continually. Dads worst of all generally.

[Guthrie]

These are just rumors. I don't see Lewis joining Red Bull.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by Guthrie

These are just rumors. I don't see Lewis joining Red Bull.

Unless it was for Nick

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Sorry but.....

Don't apologise.

[crmalcolm]

Hamilton said: "Basically, I picked up my old phone that I had just found at home that had my old number on it. I switched it on and obviously 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."

[Peter Mallett]

Jeez, the number of times, that's happened to me.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Jeez, the number of times, that's happened to me.

Yeah, leave your old phone in a cupboard and it still has a charge 10 months later. (Not to mention not having moved the sim to your new phone). Such obvious ********.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Hamilton said: "Basically, I picked up my old phone that I had just found at home that had my old number on it. I switched it on and obviously 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."

If it can happen to British Prime Ministers?……

[grantp]

How many journalists and others make a living writing about F1?

There are relatively few "names" in the game that one could write about at all, let alone daily for year after year.

Some of the "names" like to be written about. Some not so much. But, as the saying goes, any publicity can be good publicity". Or, if not good, then potentially profitable in some way at some point.

It's just showbiz stuff.

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Hamilton said: "Basically, I picked up my old phone that I had just found at home that had my old number on it. I switched it on and obviously 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."

That sounds completely believable. And I know because I bought the Sydney Harbour Bridge at a great price once.

I cannot believe a switched guy who is a tech user, would just one day switch off a mobile phone pick up a new one WITH A DIFFERENT number and not arrange for any messages to the old to be handled somehow. What if they were personal or important business. He has people paid to look after this stuff.

I would also say if he did get a new number, Christian would get it pretty quickly.

For those saying this is non news because lewis wont go to rbr, your missing the point. This has nothing to do with Lewis's future. This is all about the theatre. Christian messing with Toto's head by using Lewis.

No more racing for a few months, and drivers are nearly all locked in, so this is the game between now and then.

[crmalcolm]

There does seem to be some assumptions being made about Hamilton's phone situation.

I agree that it is unlikely he wouldn't have arranged for certain matters to be transferred between phones - but, I know that I personally am in the situation where I have a phone in a cupboard at home that has not been switched on for a few months, and will probably have a backlog of messages when I do.

It is the case as people move around countries regularly, that they may have a number based in different countries for access to certain facilities.

I think it is highly plausible that Hamilton has more than one number, and also that he changes number regularly (particularly if it gets into the public domain).

Do we know how soon after getting a new number that Horner called on his old one?
Do we know that the phone still had a charge after ten months of being switched off - or did he simply charge the phone before turning it on?

I think people are so keen to dismiss his version of events, that they are reading more into his comments than is actually there.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

I think people are so keen to dismiss his version of events, that they are reading more into his comments than is actually there.

I'm not reading more into his comments. In fact, I'm not reading them at all......

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I'm not reading more into his comments. In fact, I'm not reading them at all......

[Aysedasi]

We've got into the close season 'nothing much to talk about' discussion really early this year!

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

We've got into the close season 'nothing much to talk about' discussion really early this year!

Is that because there was nothing much to talk about in the actual season since around August?

[Guthrie]

I don't think a lot is going on between Hamilton and Christian. It is more between Toto and Christian rather than Hamilton and Christian.