Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver in the history of Formula 1, so there are bound to be team bosses who are kicking themselves after failing to sign the Englishman.
Hamilton was a product of the McLaren-Mercedes driver academy, with the team giving him his debut in 2007. He won the world championship in just his second season.
After failing to build on that success over the next four years, Hamilton took a career-defining gamble to join Mercedes in 2013. It ended with six world titles and 84 race wins.
He finally called time on that historic partnership at the end of 2024 when he joined Ferrari. Now in his 40s, he felt it was his final chance to race for the sport’s most iconic team.
Lewis Hamilton held talks with Red Bull over F1 move
One of the reasons Hamilton never won a second title at McLaren was the rise of Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel won four straight titles between 2010 and 2013.
Speaking to F1 Racing magazine in 2016, former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner claimed that Hamilton was ‘desperate’ to join in this period, but a partnership with Vettel wasn’t seen as feasible.
“He was desperate to drive for the team,” he recalled. “In 2012, he wanted to come and drive for us, but there was no way we could accommodate him while Sebastian was with us. Then before he signed for Mercedes he was very keen to drive for Red Bull for 2013.”
Shortly before he signed his last Mercedes contract in 2023, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 that Horner had tried to initiate talks.
Horner’s version of events was that the driver’s camp had been in contact with Red Bull. Regardless of what actually happened, it would surely have been too big a risk to pair Hamilton with Max Verstappen after their explosive 2021 rivalry.
Sauber and Williams couldn’t agree a deal with Lewis Hamilton
In a recent interview with Blick, Peter Sauber, founder of the eponymous team, revealed that he nearly gave Hamilton his debut. The problem was that McLaren were only willing to loan him out for a single season.
“The deal fell through because McLaren only wanted to loan him for one year – but we insisted on two,” he said.
Sauber have given debuts to drivers like Felipe Massa, Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez and 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Finally, Williams missed an opportunity to land Hamilton in 2005. The youngster had fallen out with McLaren because he felt he wasn’t progressing up the ladder quickly enough.
As reported by RacingNews365, Hamilton’s camp approached Williams, but partners BMW weren’t willing to fund a deal. He then repaired his relationship with McLaren as the Woking outfit avoided an enormous blunder.
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