Horner said: ‘We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining.

‘They have reached out a few times. Most recently, earlier in the year, there was an inquiry about whether there would be any interest.

Lewis Hamilton (right) was open to becoming Max Verstappen’s (left) team-mate before penning his bumper new £50m-a-year Mercedes deal, Mail Sport can sensationally now reveal

Hamilton (left) also held talks with Ferrari, according to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner

‘He met John Elkann (Ferrari chairman), too. I think there were serious talks.

‘It was around Monaco (in May). There were definitely conversations, perhaps with Vasseur, too. But certainly with Elkann.

‘But I can’t see Max and Lewis working out together. The dynamic wouldn’t be right. We are 100 per cent happy with what we have.’

After protracted negotiations, 38-year-old Hamilton signed up until the end of 2025.

The deal, which takes the seven-time champion close to his 41st birthday, was announced at the end of August.

Horner won’t divulge who contacted him. If Lewis himself is ruled out as the agitator, as he is, it comes down to two candidates: his New York-based manager Penni Thow and, as if from another age, his father Anthony.

Thow, who is founder and chief executive of Cooper, a company that specialises in entertainment, media, fashion, sports, technology and philanthropy (if you will!), is now Hamilton’s chief of staff. She is little known to the outside world or indeed to most of the travelling F1 caravan, though she attends most races.

For the last couple of years, she has been Lewis’s closest adviser and lieutenant, and points him nicely towards business interests beyond the track.

The seven-time world champion has endured a very challenging season with the Silver Arrows

But if the conduit wasn’t Anthony, I’ll eat this newspaper. Fifteen years after being jilted by Lewis as his manager, he remains a major power behind the throne.

While we may never know who made the approach, Horner is at least adamant that Hamilton will never wear Red Bull overalls.

The 50-year-old team principal is consistent on this. Prior to Lewis being granted his big F1 break by Ron Dennis, Horner advised an itchy-for-instant-gratification Anthony not to let Lewis leave the McLaren stable, and to play the long game, when he inquired after a seat there.

Horner further told Lewis when he went to see him, publicly, at the Canadian Grand Prix during the first blossoming of Red Bull success more than a decade ago, that his services were not required. It is a shame for the sport that we will never see Verstappen-versus-Hamilton in the same machinery. It is the dream ticket.

Horner’s revelation illuminates the subterfuge in Formula One. You cannot accept a denial at face value, a point underlined by Hamilton and Vasseur denying any veracity in the story we carried about serious interest from Ferrari in securing Hamilton’s services.

It also leaves one aghast at the notion that Hamilton believes in Mercedes’ capability to overcome their current trough – one win in two seasons so far.

Seeing Hamilton race in the same machinery as Verstappen (pictured) is F1’s dream ticket

Anyway, Horner is committed to staying where he is at Red Bull and creating history, uninterested in running the sport, for example. Liberty Media, F1’s owners, will look outside the sport for their next chief executive when Stefano Domenicali leaves.

‘We obviously had an incredible period with Sebastian Vettel and then we went through the dark years when we had an uncompetitive engine,’ said Horner, a Netflix ‘villain’ in his obvious animosity towards Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

‘Shareholders were getting disenchanted with the sport and we managed to turn it around.

‘My passion is motor racing and Formula One and I have no burning desire to do anything else. I have a professional respect for Toto. We’re getting on great since he hasn’t been competitive.’