Is The audacity of Christian Horner that really takes your breath away. The bronze neck and the air of absolute invincibility that have allowed him to strut around an F1 paddock in Bahrain, the cock of the walk, without revealing any feeling of personal danger when he would have learned of an avalanche of WhatsApp messages that surely mean that It’s finished.
Yet that is what untold wealth, power, and adulation will do to an individual. Horner has lived a high life and enjoyed the world of celebrity, and was serenaded by Gary Barlow and Rod Stewart at his own 50th birthday party in London’s Mayfair not long ago. When you exude that wealth, you feel untouchable. He hires a lawyer and fervently believes that an independent investigation will clear him.
It was eye-opening to learn a few weeks ago that Horner’s wife, Geri Halliwell, had told him to “make it go away.” That’s how these people think. Trusting that a lid will be put on all this. Waiting for a verdict of not guilty.
And then, on Wednesday, a nondescript little press release from Red Bull’s parent company, declaring that there was nothing to see here and that Horner had, in fact, been cleared of allegations of coercive behavior toward an employee.
That statement stretched to just 89 words. It was a travesty of transparency, laughing at such serious accusations. ‘Fair…rigorous…impartial…complaint dismissed…higher workplace standards’, blah blah blah.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner faces increased scrutiny after alleged WhatsApps leak
Horner issued a statement saying he will not comment on “anonymous speculation.”
No feeling that there was something to learn. No expression of regret that a complainant may feel aggrieved. Not the slightest feeling of remorse that F1’s reputation had been dragged through the mud. That press release was a disgrace. A weak and deeply inadequate response to a complaint from a woman viewed with respect within Red Bull and the sport. It was nothing short of an insult to her.
But that’s the world now, in all the ranks of our golden and fabulously rich sports. Lawyer. Press release it. Check the box. Work done.
Of course, there’s no love between Horner and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, but the Austrian’s call for “more transparency” in this case, which he made after Red Bull declared the matter closed, was wise and completely correct.
The only kind of transparency during this disturbing past month for the sport has been seeing Horner himself, larger than life and appearing in every place imaginable.
Would he, in these difficult circumstances, appear at the Red Bull car launch in Milton Keynes? Yes. Would you see it in the tests in Bahrain? Yes. And when the statement acquitting him was published, he had taken a private jet back to Bahrain, where yesterday he was free once again, strolling through the meadow, an image of carefreeness.
Hugging Max Verstappen. Placing itself front and center in the outdoor area of Red Bull’s hospitality space at the Bahrain International Circuit. Conduct meetings and phone calls in the open space that media and staff from other teams can freely access. Sporting a wristwatch the size of a brick.
That air of easy self-confidence turned out to be arrogance last night after the data drop that looked a lot like the consequences of these complaints being passed off in a way that implied they were pure garbage.
A Google Drive file, containing 79 documents, including hundreds of messages, many of them sexual in nature, fell like kryptonite on the sport.
Red Bull began its investigation into Horner, husband of former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, on February 5
Horner hugs three-time champion Verstappen in Bahrain ahead of 2024 premiere
Only those within F1 who were hiding under a rock had not seen it in the early afternoon. It was emailed to almost 200 people in the F1 paddock, including the F1 Group, the FIA, the other nine team principals and various media outlets. He painted a dirty and deeply humiliating picture of the individual who sent the WhatsApp messages.
It is unclear whether those messages were part of Red Bull’s investigation. They probably did. However, it does not seem to stretch the limits of credibility to suggest that a rigorous investigation, which had extended to eight hours of interrogation of Horner himself, should have asked about all possible devices from which messages could have been sent. The credibility of that investigation is surely shattered.
The man himself maintained his usual alacrity after the data crash. There was another protest of innocence. ‘Integrity of the independent investigation…thorough and fair…specialist counsel…dismissing the complaint.’ And a change in his WhatsApp avatar, which is no longer the image that appears in the alleged exchanges with the woman in question.
But F1’s frustration at the poor handling of this controversy – and the deeply unattractive picture it seems to paint of the sport’s culture – is palpable. At a time when the sport should be preparing for tomorrow’s season-opening race, it is infested with rumors and speculation.
Wolff wasn’t the only one who told Horner and his team that this wasn’t good enough. McLaren CEO Zak Brown also took a dim view of the statement and urged the FIA to impose proper transparency.
Horner can parrot his “business as usual” mantra until the cows come home, but this is a blemish. The team’s future engine supplier, Ford, warned Horner when allegations emerged that they expected “very high standards of behavior and integrity.”
They (and F1) are still waiting for evidence of this. Other Red Bull sponsors will be extremely uncomfortable with their association.
Another brief press release this time will not be enough because we have reached the moment when F1 wants to present to the world a progressive, modern, transparent and attractive face.
Halliwell threw her husband Horner a surprise party for his 50th birthday in December last year.
(Back row, from left) Jade Jones, Ronnie Wood and his wife Sally, Christian Horner, Gary Barlow, Rod Stewart, Penny Lancaster. (Front row) Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell on her 50th birthday
Buried In the small details of the sport’s International Sports Code is Article 12.2.1f. It states that a competitor will be deemed to have breached: “Any word, deed or writing that has caused damage or moral loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers and, more generally, to the interest of motor sport and on the values defended by the FIA.
Last night, a growing number within the sport felt that Horner and Red Bull were in default.
For a time, this episode was passed off as Red Bull power politics. Product of the tug of war between the team that Horner leads in Milton Keynes and the parent company in Salzburg: the rival centers divided by a difference in perspectives that dates back to the death of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz in October 2022.
Now it’s much bigger than that and Wolff was the one who put things together best. “As a sport, we can’t afford to leave things vague and opaque on critical issues like this,” he said. “He’s going to catch us.”