Hamilton calls speculation about Horner and Ferrari “distracting”
Pilot Lewis Hamilton has expressed his opinion on the rumors linking Christian Horner with a possible move to Ferrari, calling them “distractions”. This week, reports suggested that former Red Bull boss Horner was being considered by Ferrari president John Elkann in an attempt by Horner to return to Formula 1 in a management role. Horner, 51, reached a $100 million agreement with the team after being fired in July, and is interested in returning to the F1 paddock. Before this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, Hamilton, now at Ferrari, commented:When asked if there was any truth to the report and if it would be a good idea for Horner to become team principal at Ferrari, Hamilton responded firmly: “No, and I’m not going to fuel those rumors.”I don’t know where the rumors are coming from, so I can’t really shed much light on that. These things, naturally, are not helpful. I know that everyone in the factory is working incredibly hard, focused, and these kinds of rumors can sometimes be distracting.
Lewis Hamilton
At the Singapore Grand Prix, Aston Martin team boss Andy Cowell said: “It seems Christian is calling almost all team owners at the moment,” before dismissing any suggestion of a possible connection between Horner and Aston Martin. Similarly, Haas F1 team principal Ayao Komatsu dismissed any suggestion of joining the team.
In July, Ferrari signed current team principal Fred Vasseur to a new multi-year contract, ending speculation about his future despite the team’s lackluster results. Since then, both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have publicly backed Vasseur. Hamilton added: “It’s a bit distracting for us as a team. The team has made it clear how things stand in terms of re-hiring Fred. Fred and I and the whole team are working very hard on the future of the team.” “For me, it’s really trying to keep the focus on the goal ahead and build on next year’s car, really continue to build a base on this year so that next year we can have a better execution and better overall performance. [We are] having many meetings to make sure we are navigating in the right direction.” The seven-time world champion added that the focus for the last six races of the season will be to squeeze out points and improve the team’s processes for next year. “There have been a couple of gems over the weekend that we didn’t capitalize on,” said Hamilton. “So it’s about taking those good things and continuing to use what works and then changing what doesn’t. I think it’s continuing to build on the relationships, continuing to build on the communication. Ultimately, everyone in the factory really deserves a good result and that’s the only goal is to get good results. Trying to maximize, absolutely squeeze every point we can out of our performances on the weekends. And I really believe we can do that.”
