If you’re not a fan of Formula 1 or its nifty Netflix documentary, Drive to SurviveBefore this month, the name Christian Horner probably meant nothing to you.
Now you definitely know who he is after he delivered a masterclass in destroying the reputation of the Red Bull Racing team.
Horner is the team principal of Red Bull, a scrappy little terrier whose cars have completely dominated the sport for the past two years. During his 19 years in charge, he led his bosses at the energy drink giant to six constructors’ championships and seven drivers’ championships.
But he is now better known to the general public as the man accused of sending flirty and sometimes suggestive WhatsApp messages to a female colleague; It’s an event that could forever overshadow his extraordinary achievements in F1.
The fact that Horner’s wife was former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell only served to add extra excitement to the story.
More than a month after reports of Horner’s alleged controlling behavior first emerged, Red Bull are no closer to putting out the dustbin. Rather, their actions only served to keep the fire going.
Red Bull decided on Thursday to suspend the woman who accused Horner of abusing his power. It comes after Horner tried to portray himself as the victim, saying the past weeks had been “exhausting” for his family.
So is this simply a case of a major corporation throwing a woman under the bus to protect a valuable alpha male asset? Is there more to it behind the scenes? So can Horner really continue his life as if nothing happened?
Horner, 50, has maintained his innocence from the beginning of all charges against him. However, he never denied that the WhatsApp messages between him and the female employee, which were leaked to the media on February 29 and have now spread widely on the internet, were real.
The WhatsApps he shares with his colleague are flirty, to say the least. Some are overtly sexual in nature. It would not be wrong to say that any woman who reads such messages sent by her husband to another woman may consider this as a matter of divorce.
What we don’t know is whether the messages were edited in any way, or whether there were other messages not included in the leak that might shed a different light on the episode. Team Horner certainly tried to suggest this.
Anyone trying to make sense of the dark revelations that have emerged in recent weeks may have asked themselves whether this was a case of office flirtation gone bad when a willing female participant decided to take a rich man to the cleaners. it ended.
If she hadn’t explicitly told him from the beginning to stop sending her provocative messages, he could have claimed that he was afraid of the consequences of doing so. There is arguably an imbalance of power between the two: Horner is one of the most powerful men not only in Red Bull Racing but also in F1. The woman in question is nobody compared to him.
It is important to note that Horner was subject to an independent investigation by an outside lawyer at Red Bull’s insistence, which cleared him of wrongdoing on 28 February. However, Red Bull did not even name the lawyer involved, leading to claims from the rival side. The teams said the process was as transparent as a pile of Asphalt.
Mercedes team principal and Horner’s arch-rival Toto Wolff is among those demanding transparency in the process, saying senior F1 figures are “role models” in the global sport. Horner’s supporters may, of course, argue that Wolff, unable to do anything to Horner on the track, will seize any opportunity that arises to destabilize Red Bull by other means.
If the woman in question is dismissed or leaves her job, she may well consider the option of taking Red Bull to the employment tribunal, but even if she wins, Red Bull will not be obliged to take any action against Horner.
But Horner doesn’t get out of it at all. There are other players and other plot threads in this story, many of which will have a significant impact on the ending of the story.
Horner insisted the Red Bull team was united and it is true that the psychodrama did nothing to prevent another difficult performance at last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, where the Red Bull cars finished first and second.
Any suggestion that Red Bull is a happy camp is laughable. Jos Verstappen, father and mentor of Red Bull’s No. 1 driver and three-time world champion Max Verstappen, wants Horner to leave the team.
“As long as he remains in that position, there is tension here,” he said in a statement on March 2. “The team is in danger of falling apart. It can’t continue like this. It will explode.
“He plays the victim when he is the one causing the problems.”
Speculation about Verstappen’s future remains intense, helped by the fact that his father was seen speaking to Wolff.
It was also reported that Verstappen, who has a contract until 2028, has a termination clause in his contract that allows him to leave the team if his 80-year-old advisor Helmut Marko, with whom Red Bull is close, leaves the Milton Keynes-based team. set. More importantly, Marko, who works directly for Red Bull rather than Red Bull Racing, is seen as Horner’s rival, not his ally.
There are also partners of Red Bull Racing. Engine supplier Honda called for “full clarity” on the situation, and Ford, which will be Red Bull’s engine partner from 2026, said: “Ford’s values are non-negotiable. It is imperative that our racing partners share the same values and demonstrate a real commitment to those values.”
Red Bull Racing is of course a subsidiary of the much bigger beast, Red Bull GmbH. It’s a company built entirely on marketing and brand awareness, which is why it pours so many millions into sponsoring and financing high-octane sports like F1.
Red Bull is not an indispensable part of a home, so the strength of its brand is very important. If the Formula 1 team’s parent company fears, or sees any evidence, that the Horner saga will damage the brand, its position is likely to become precarious.
Friday is International Women’s Day and Red Bull’s ‘B’ team on the F1 grid, RB, lined up for qualifying in Saudi Arabia and had a sticker on their car that read: “Happy International Women’s Day to all the incredible women in production.” set! You make a difference.” The name of each female employee was then listed below. Horner’s own team did not follow suit. Red Bull’s own research shows that 31 per cent of its consumers are women, accounting for sales of £2.6bn.
But Mark Borkowski, one of Britain’s most experienced PR consultants, thinks we may all be looking through the wrong end of the telescope.
“F1 is a global sport and the average F1 fan in Spain, Italy or Saudi Arabia doesn’t care about that,” he said. “Red Bull has always been a maverick and a very masculine sport.”
Horner remains supportive of Halliwell, the most important woman in his life, who walked hand in hand with him in Bahrain. For now, he also appears to have the backing of Red Bull’s majority shareholder, Chalerm Yoovidhya; Yoovidhya’s Thai father, Chaleo, co-founded Red Bull with Austrian marketing genius Dietrich Mateschitz.
Yoovidhya and his wife Daranee joined Horner and Halliwell at the Bahrain Grand Prix to watch Verstappen win the opening race of the season.
Horner is close to Yoovidhya (former driver Ralf Schumacher said Yoovidhya considered Horner “a sort of stepson”) and also enjoyed Mateschitz’s unwavering support until his death in 2022. Mateschitz’s son and heir Mark has reportedly asked Red Bull GmbH, which owns a 49 percent stake, for Horner to be sacked, but Yoovidhya retains the final veto.
Horner said it was time to put the debate aside ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Ironically, the total dominance of his team (which won all but one of last season’s races) means there is little excitement at the track to distract from Red Bull’s HR problems.
Borkowski believes there are still potential dangers ahead, especially if the woman making the complaint decides to go public with an interview. “If it turns out there is more to this story,” he said, “people will start running for cover and there will have to be a sacrificial lamb, and it will be Horner.”
The fate of the Formula 1 championship may seem like a foregone conclusion, but as things stand Horner’s continued presence on the pit wall is not.