Vettel/Hamilton line-up 'wouldn't work'

When McLaren was struggling in winter testing there were suggestions that its poor form could prompt Hamilton to look elsewhere in the future - talk that Horner swiftly distanced Red Bull from.

Speaking to journalists at Silverstone today, the RBR chief said that pairing Hamilton and Vettel as team-mates would be inviting the same kind of tension seen between Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in their fractious season at McLaren in 2007.

"It's difficult to see how you could have two drivers of Lewis and Sebastian's calibre under one roof," said Horner.

"There tends to be fireworks, as we saw with Fernando Alonso and Lewis. So we're very happy with the line-up that we have and we'll see how things evolve."

Horner denied that he was implying that Red Bull's current line-up of Vettel and Mark Webber worked because the duo were not of equal standard.

"They're at different stages of their careers and they complement each other," said Horner. "You've got an 11-year age gap between Mark and Seb and that 11 years in life experience is pretty valuable.

"In Lewis and Sebastian you've got two drivers that are within a year or two and still in the early stages of their careers."

He added that at present he could not foresee a situation in which Hamilton would join Red Bull in the coming years.

"Lewis is a wonderfully gifted driver," Horner said. "He's obviously happy at McLaren. We're very happy with the driver line-up that we have.

"Of course if he wanted to drive for Red Bull then of course you couldn't ignore a driver of his calibre. But I understand that he's got a multi-year contract with McLaren and I'd envisage that he'd be there for a while yet.

"With any driver/team relationship there's got to be a desire on both sides, and that's what makes the relationship work so well with our current drivers. Sebastian's been with Red Bull since he was 12.

"But who knows, in the future, you can never rule anything out. But there would have to be a strong desire on both sides to do something like that."