Are the daring of Christian Horner that is truly breathtaking. The brass neck and the air of absolute invincibility that have allowed him to parade through an F1 paddock in Bahrain, cock of the walk, without betraying any sense of personal danger when he would have known about a flood of WhatsApp messages messages that would definitely mean he’s done.
However, that is what incalculable wealth, power and admiration will do to an individual. Horner has lived the good life and basked in the A-lister world, and was recently serenaded by Gary Barlow and Rod Stewart at his own 50th birthday celebration in London’s Mayfair. When you radiate that wealth, you feel untouchable. You hire a lawyer and fervently believe that an independent investigation will exonerate you.
It was telling 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 there will be a lid on it. Expect a verdict of innocence.
And then, on Wednesday, a little press release from Red Bull’s parent company, declaring that there is nothing to see here and that Horner has indeed been cleared of allegations of coercive behavior against a female employee.
That statement stretched to just 89 words. It was a parody of transparency, laughing at such serious accusations. “Fair… rigorous… impartial… complaint dismissed… highest workplace standards,” blah, blah, blah.
Red Bull director Christian Horner is under further scrutiny after alleged WhatsApps were leaked
Horner has issued a statement saying he will not comment on ‘anonymous speculation’
No feeling that there was still something to learn. No expression of regret that a complainant might feel hurt. Not the slightest sense of regret that F1’s reputation had been dragged through the mud. That press release was a shame. A weak, very inadequate response to a complaint from a woman who is viewed with respect within Red Bull and the sport. It was nothing short of an insult to her.
But that’s how it goes in the world now, in all ranks of our gilded, fabulously rich sports. Lawyer it. Squeeze it out. Check the box. Job done.
There is of course no love between Horner and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, but the Austrian’s call for ‘more transparency’ in this matter, which he made after Red Bull declared the case closed, was sensible and completely justified.
The only form of transparency for the sport over the past month has been the sight of Horner himself, larger than life and popping up everywhere.
Under these testing circumstances, would he be at Red Bull’s car launch in Milton Keynes? Yes. Could he be spotted testing in Bahrain? Yes. And by the time the statement exonerating him was released, he had taken a private jet back to Bahrain, where yesterday he was again on the loose, floating around the paddock in a display of carelessness.
Hugging Max Verstappen. He places himself centrally in the outdoor area of Red Bull’s catering area at the Bahrain International Circuit. Conducting meetings and telephone conversations in open space to which media personnel and other teams have free access. Parading a wristwatch the size of a brick.
That air of easy confidence turned out to be overconfidence last night after the data drop, which sounded a lot like the consequences of relaying these complaints in a way that implied they were nonsense.
A Google Drive file with 79 documents, including hundreds of messages, many of a sexual nature, fell like kryptonite on the sport.
Red Bull launched the investigation into Horner, husband of ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, on February 5
Horner embraces three-time champion Verstappen in Bahrain ahead of the 2024 curtain-raiser
Only those within F1 who were hiding under a rock had not yet seen the start of the evening. It was emailed to almost 200 people in the F1 paddock, including the F1 Group, the FIA, the other nine team principals and multiple media outlets. It painted a grimy and deeply humiliating picture of the person who sent the WhatsApp messages.
It remains unclear whether those messages were part of the Red Bull investigation. Probably. Yet it does not seem to overstep the bounds of credibility to suggest that a rigorous investigation, which extended to eight hours of interrogation of Horner himself, should have asked about every possible device through which messages could have been sent. The credibility of that investigation has certainly been damaged.
The man himself retained his usual wit after the data drop. There was another protest of innocence. ‘Integrity of the independent investigation… thorough and fair… specialist lawyer… dismissing the complaint.’ And a change to 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 its unsatisfactory handling of this controversy – and the deeply unattractive picture it seems to paint of the sporting culture – is palpable. At a time when the sport should be preparing for tomorrow’s opening race of the season, it is plagued by rumors and speculation.
Wolff was not the only one who told Horner and his team that this was not good enough. McLaren CEO Zak Brown also took a very dim view of the statement and urged the FIA to enforce good transparency.
Horner can parrot his ‘business as normal’ mantra until the cows come home, but this is a blemish. The team’s future engine supplier, Ford, warned Horner when the allegations surfaced that they expect ‘very high standards of conduct and integrity’.
They – and F1 – are still waiting for proof of that. Other Red Bull sponsors will feel extremely uncomfortable about their association.
Another short press release won’t be enough this time, because we have reached the moment where F1 wants to present a progressive, modern, transparent and attractive face to the world.
Halliwell threw her husband Horner a surprise 50th birthday party in December last year
(Back row, from left) Jade Jones, Ronnie Wood and wife Sally, Christian Horner, Gary Barlow, Rod Stewart, Penny Lancaster. (Front row) Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell at 50th birthday
To bury in the minor details of the sport’s International Sporting Code, article 12.2.1f. It states that a competitor is deemed to be in breach for: ‘Any words, acts or writings which have caused moral injury or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers, and more generally in the interests of motorsport and on the values defended by the FIA .”
A growing number of people within the sport felt last night that Horner and Red Bull are in violation.
For a while, this episode was portrayed as Red Bull’s power politics. A product of the tug-of-war between Horner’s team in Milton Keynes and its parent company in Salzburg – the rival centers are divided by a difference of vision dating back to the death of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz in October 2022.
It’s much bigger than that now and Wolff was the one who put things best on the map. “As a sport we cannot afford to leave things like this vague and opaque,” he said. “It’s going to get us.”
