However, the pressure on the British is growing from several directions. There are no details regarding the schedule from Red Bull, except that the presentation will take place in Milton Keynes. Red Bull has also not commented specifically on the allegations once morest Horner. According to several sources, the team boss, who has been in office since 2005, is said to have sent suggestive messages to one of his closest employees. Accordingly, it would be regarding alleged coercion – whether it is legally relevant or not needs to be clarified. After an initial hearing in London at the end of last week, the matter has been put on hold for the time being. According to SPORT1 information, the lawyer involved in the matter has gone on vacation.
For Horner, who has been married to former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell since 2015, the presumption of innocence continues to apply. Those responsible at Red Bull GmbH are said to have advised Horner to resign in order to avoid further damage to himself and his family. The Formula 1 parent company Liberty Media is also said to have gotten involved, according to SPORT1. As a US company, Liberty Media reacts particularly sensitively to possible interpersonal derailments and abuse of power – keyword: the Weinstein affair.
“Wait what happens”
Bernie Ecclestone, who had to deal with a number of scandals himself, advised the 50-year-old Horner to keep a cool head. “My advice to Christian is: keep your head down, do nothing and wait to see what happens,” the Brit told the AFP news agency. Horner was Ecclestone’s best man at his third wedding in 2012 to Brazilian Fabiana Flosi.
Ecclestone said he felt Horner’s days at Red Bull were numbered. After the failure of the rumored coup attempt once morest Helmut Marko, Horner not only kept the Austrian as an opponent, but also lost the trust of the Verstappen clan around world champion Max. In addition, his friendship with design guru Adrian Newey is said to have been irreversibly damaged.
Horner is likely to be particularly interested in how the matter became public and reached the newspapers in the Netherlands. To what extent his authority in the team might be undermined and further collaboration would look like can only be wildly speculated at the moment.
There has also long been speculation regarding the consequences. A year and a half following the death of company founder Dietrich Mateschitz, the Red Bull Formula 1 team is facing a breaking point. If title maker Horner actually (has to) leave, the current Red Bull sports director Jonathan Wheatley might succeed him from within his own company. With Otmar Szafnauer, Günther Steiner and the Tyrolean Franz Tost, three long-serving F1 team bosses are currently without a job.
What will be decided at Red Bull’s global headquarters in tranquil Fuschl once the investigation is completed and an assessment must be made? Since the death of Mateschitz in October 2022, responsibility for Red Bull’s sports activities has been borne by Oliver Mintzlaff, who moved from the Bundesliga soccer club RB Leipzig to one of the three managing positions of the entire group.
The new Formula 1 season begins on the first weekend in March with the Bahrain Grand Prix. From the perspective of the corporate headquarters, a decision should have been made by then, otherwise the focus on the sporting events would suffer. In any case, the Horner case is anything but “business as usual”.
