03/07/2025 17:53
Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he has "always regretted"
referring to Red Bull as "only a drinks company". The Ferrari
driver made the comment back in 2011 during his penultimate season
with McLaren, a time when F1 was being dominated by Red Bull and
Sebastian Vettel. Several years later, the seven-time world
champion did apologise for the remark, which he brought back up
ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix. It comes in light of
the Briton's former outfit being heavily linked to a remarkable
move for Max Verstappen who has several exit clauses, which,
according to reports, can be activated this summer. When asked by
RacingNews365 whether he would recommend Mercedes to Verstappen,
Hamilton said: "He's coming from a great team. I think, many, many
years ago, I was being asked something about [Red Bull]. "I think I
was just so die-hard Mercedes [sic] at the time, and I remember
saying something about Red Bull being only an drinks company, and I
always regretted it. "Because I was just saying that as Mercedes
[sic] was great at the time, and I was just trying to be gee up my
team. "But the truth is, Red Bull has been an incredible team.
There's so many people that are exceptional. They've dominated for
years. So what I can say, if anyone was going to ask me about
Mercedes it's an amazing team also, naturally with passion.
"They've got great personnel, it's a great factory, great
environment to work in. So, of course, I would say, interesting to
see what happens."
