Lewis Hamilton reveals surprise Red Bull 'regret'

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."