Horner’s bombshell revelation in an interview with the Daily Mail that was published in the build up to this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Pri🐈x spiced up the final media day of 2023.&nb꧒sp;

T꧟he 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 Thursday but Horner ha🐟s since stood by his comments, insisting that a representative of the seven-time world cham꧂pion’s “management group” contacted Red Bull. 

“They were just expressing interest,” Horner told . “But th♔at’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 wജhere, who and why, but perhaps they wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t.

“I’d be rather surprised if they hadn’t informed Lewis but you never know how managements work with differen🌌🌃t 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 they have tried to reach out to us.

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

"I switched i𒐪t on and obviously hundreds of messages c🌟ame through 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. It was after a weekend. It was quite late on that I found the message. It was from earlier on in t🐻he year. So, it was like months later.”

Hamilton added: "There's🦩 a lot of people here that like to dꦯrop 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 ꦗperfect thing to do. Just mention my name.”