Lewis Hamilton has contradicted Christian Horner’s comments that he and Sebastian Vettel couldn’t work together, re-igniting talk that the two could become team-mates in the future.
The Red Bull team principal tried to throw water on the fire after he sparked talk of Hamilton joining Red Bull, compared such a pairing to when the Brit partnered Fernando Alonso at McLaren.
“It’s difficult to see how you could have two drivers of Lewis’s and Sebastian’s calibre under one roof,” said the 37-year-old.
“There tends to be fireworks as we saw with Fernando Alonso and Lewis [when they were team-mates at McLaren].
Hamilton doesn’t agree, highlighting his current pairing with 2009-world champion Jenson Button as an example of two high-calibre drivers working in harmony.
“Look at me and Jenson [Button]. World champions can race together as long as there is quality in the team,” he told the BBC in the Malaysian paddock.
“A partnership can work as long as a team exists to win a constructors’ championship and for the drivers’ championship.
“With our team being a manufacturer, it means equally as much to them to win the constructors’ as it does the drivers’.
“I don’t know if that’s the same for them [Red Bull]. It doesn’t necessarily affect them because they’re not a car company, but I think it [working with Vettel] is possible.”
Despite the 2008-world champion affiriming his future remains at McLaren, he added ‘who knows what can happen in the future’, which is sure to spark further rumours that he could be set for a Red Bull future.
“I’m contracted for the next two years and I’m committed to that, but it doesn’t mean I can’t promise anything.
“I am focused on my job now and I want to win world championships here, and I hope that continues, but you never know what happens in the future.”
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