Horner’s bombshell revelation in an interview with the Daily Mail that wඣas published in the build up to this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Pr🌠ix spiced up the final media day of 2023. 

The Red Bull chief was directly quoted as saying that Hamilton♚ had reached out to the team prior to signing a new two-year contract extension with Mercedes in August. 

Hamilton rejected Horner’s claims on Thꦏursday but Horner has since stood by his comments, insisting that a representative of the seven-♉time world champion’s “management group” contacted Red Bull. 

“They were just expressing interest,” Ho𒐪rner told . “But that’s not unusual, let’s put it that way.”

He added: “Maybe it’s slightly awkward for Lewis, obviously,🌠 with his own team. It’s not unusual for people to reach out.

“I’m not going to go into the details of the where, who and why, but perhap𝄹s they wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t💯.

“I’d be rather surprised if they hadn’t info꧅rmed Lew🔯is but you never know how managements work with different athletes.”

Hamilton moved to shoot down Horner’s side of the story,🅘 claiming: "No, I didn't approach them… Christian messaged me. 

"I've checked with everyone in my team, and no one has spoken to them. But ﷽꧙they have tried to reach out to us.

“I pickedജ up my old phone, which I just found at home, that had my old num﷽ber on it.

"I switched it on and obviously hundreds of messages came throug🐟h and I realised there was one from Christian to get together and have a chat at the end of the season…

"I just replied to him on my new phone. I♛t was after a weekend. It was quite late on that I found the message. It was from earlier on in the year. So, it was like months later.”

Hamilton added: "There's a lot of pe💧ople here that like𝓀 to drop my name in many conversations because they know it's going to make waves. 

"If you're a little bit lonely and aren't getting much attention, it's a perfect thing to do. Just mention my ꦕname.”